St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

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Obeying Jesus

Mark 1:21-28

January 29, 2006        (Click this link to see the bulletin)

1. How do you read the Bible? (Assuming, of course, that you do read the Bible!) Do you read it from beginning to end? Or one book at a time? Or do you follow a devotional booklet and read three or five verses at a time? If you have a devotional book, and have read parts from the Gospel of Mark, you may miss his sense of urgency! Here we are, only in the middle of the first chapter, and already Jesus has been baptized, John the Baptizer has been arrested, Jesus has called his first four disciples, and he has begun his ministry in Capernaum. Whew! That’s a lot of action in a mere 28 verses! Matthew and Luke take five whole chapters to reach this point! Mark is different! He’s not a LeoTolstoy writing, War and Peace with its boring beginning and thousand-plus pages. Not at all! Jesus has places to go and people to see and a mission to fulfill, so Mark jumps right in like it’s the opening scene of an adventure movie!

2. Last week we found Jesus in an unnamed, non-specific location "by the Sea of Galilee." He was likely on the northern edge, because today we find him in the synagogue at Capernaum. That probably doesn’t mean much to you, so before we go any farther, let’s get oriented. For the next few minutes, east is south and west is north. Got it? When you came into this room a little while ago, you had to pass by a spiral staircase. Imagine that that staircase is Jerusalem, in the southern part of Palestine. The aisle right here could be the Jordan River; this space between the front pews and the organ comprise the Sea of Galilee; and the choir loft is Capernaum. Does that help? Jesus had been closer to Jerusalem when John Baptized him, and after he struggled those 40 days in the wilderness, he made his way north, toward Capernaum. Some archeologists believe Capernaum was home to maybe 10,000 people, although others say only 1,500. They have uncovered ruins of what was surely the synagogue and many of the homes, and fits the 1,500-citizen-theory. One of the homes probably belonged to Peter and his family, including his brother Andrew and his mother-in-law, whom we’ll meet next week. Other homes would have belonged to James and John, and to Matthew. Matthew writes that Jesus "left [his childhood home of] Nazareth, and went and lived in Capernaum" (Matthew 4:13). The National Geographic Channel is showing a fascinating documentary called The Science of the Bible, with well-researched and well-done re-enactments of many events recorded in the Bible. I hope you can watch it! It has been taped; let me know if you want to see the tape. Maybe we need to have a class . . .

3. ‘Nuf about Capernaum! What about the synagogue? What happened there that day? Nobody knows if Jesus taught at the invitation of a rabbi, or whether he just walked in and announced "I have something to say," and proceeded to say it. However it happened, he astounded everyone – he put them in a panic! Mark doesn’t give us any clue about what he said, but we know from other gospels that he often said things like, "You have heard it said ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgement,’ but I say unto you that if you are [simply] angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment." (Matthew 5:21ff) That’s a pretty radical departure from the usual sacred traditional teachings! You see, interpretation of scripture had been passed down from one generation to another, from one rabbi to the next. Some teachers were better than others, of course, just like today, and the better teachers were quoted more often, just like today. But Jesus quoted no teacher or tradition – his knowledge came straight from God, and that’s what upset everyone who taught and believed the traditional doctrine, what they had always believed.

4. "And in their synagogue was man with an unclean spirit . . ." Mark didn’t say much about the man, so it’s important to notice first what he did NOT say. He did not write that the man was dirty. The descriptive word unclean refers to his spirit, the inside of him, the part that didn’t show until he opened his mouth. This is not the man we will encounter in the 5^th chapter, the tormented man who lived in the caves. He probably was dirty. Mark’s description of him is pretty vivid. Don’t get him confused with the man who got so upset in the Capernaum synagogue. He was probably impeccably clean on the outside, and well-dressed. After all, it was the Sabbath, and everyone had gone "to Sunday School" as we would call it. Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus said, but after a while that man had heard enough! "What business do you have here with us, Jesus? You Nazarene! Have you come to destroy us?" (Remember in those days to call someone a Nazarene was a real insult. Nazarenes were not highly regarded. If someone came in here and tried to turn our sacred beliefs upside down, we might say, ‘You Communist!’ Calling Jesus a "Nazarene" had the same kind of impact.)

5. Now, we cannot determine exactly what happened next, limited as we are to seeing words written on a page. We cannot hear the tone of that man’s voice, we cannot look at the expression on his face. All we know for sure is that Mark writes, "I know who you are, the Holy One of God!" It could have been sarcasm, as in "You think you know so much! I’ve seen your type – you’re a ‘Mr. Goody Twoshoes!’" His words could have been dripping with sarcasm. Or it could have been a flash of recognition. "Who do you think you are?" Inhale! Gasp! "I know who you are! You’re God’s Holy One! You’re the one we’ve been waiting for!" Given the context, tho, I think it was the former. I think this man was ugly on the inside. But Jesus didn’t flinch. He told him, in no uncertain terms, to be quiet, to shut up. And it happened! The ugly, mean, conflicting unclean spirit made that man twitch all over. When Jesus gave the command, it left.

6. And that, my friends, is good news for us! We, too, have some of that man inside us. We, too, struggle with "unclean spirits." We say things, and do things, that are totally opposed to God’s will. But Jesus is on our side! He will not let the mean and ugly things we say get in the way of God’s will being done! Mark wants his readers to know that Jesus is determined to get rid of the things that are opposed to the best interests of all human beings.

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