Mark 1:21-35 You Are the Holy One of God

 

Last week Mark introduced us to Jesus as the Son of God. Now Mark begins to reveal what being the Son of God means and looks like. Jesus is walking through Galilee, in the area where he grew up, preaching, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Jesus has also begun calling people to follow him to learn from him and join him in his work of spreading the good news “that the kingdom of God is near and it’s time to get serious about God and repent and believe.” Jesus has just called the brothers Andrew and Peter who are fishermen, “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Further down the seashore, Jesus calls the brothers John and James to also follow him. They pack up their nets and follow Jesus; Jesus’ call has power in it.

Mark wants us to sit up and pay attention. Jesus isn’t doing things the normal way. Most rabbis began teaching and students would then choose which rabbi they would become disciples of. Jesus instead seeks out his disciples, identifying and challenging them to leave their lives and follow him. Jesus chooses us first before we choose him. Now Jesus and his new disciples arrive in Capernaum, a small village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to the local synagogue and begins to teach. As we get to know Jesus more, we see him reveal God in the daily things and events around us, but it’s early in his teaching ministry and the people are amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who has authority, not as the teachers of the law. Have you ever had teachers where you wondered if they really knew what they were talking about, or if they were just parroting something they’d been taught, but really don’t understand that well themselves? The knowledge may be right, but it doesn’t come across with passion or impact. Jesus’ teaching has impact!

Jesus teaches with power and impact because he’s the source of knowledge and truth, he knows exactly what he’s teaching and talking about, it’s part of who he is as the Son of God. The people notice. Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of God, about his kingdom. He’s calling the people to repentance and it’s powerful because he knows their hearts and how to touch them. The Holy Spirit is at work here, touching the peoples’ hearts through Jesus’ teaching and the people are responding to Jesus.

Now Mark comes to the place in his story where he wants us to sit up and pay attention. “Just then a man in their synagogue,” but the word Marks uses is more like, “Immediately, at once.” This man’s reacting strongly to what Jesus is teaching, it’s hitting him hard and we find out why, “he was possessed by an impure spirit and he cries out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’” Wait a minute, a demon possessed man is sitting in the synagogue, what’s he doing there? It’s interesting that he first identifies Jesus by his home town of Nazareth.

Jesus sternly tells the demon, “Be quiet!” Satan is the Prince of Lies, twisting everything to make us doubt God and Jesus, doubt ourselves, and even our salvation. It began already with Adam and Eve when Satan planted seeds of doubt in their minds about who God is. Satan made God out to be controlling, insecure, selfish, and not wanting them to be like him, and not completely truthful. You see the same pattern happening already with the demon emphasizing that Jesus is from Nazareth, a place everyone looked down on and mocked at that time. The first thing the demon does is to try to make Jesus look smaller, try to give us a false image of who Jesus is, to make him look like a country bumpkin so the people won’t listen to Jesus. The demon tries to make the people fear Jesus, asking, “Have you come to destroy us?” The demon’s trying to get the people to question Jesus’ motives. The demon knows Jesus has come to save his people, not destroy them. By using a question rather than an accusation, the demon is trying to plant a mind worm in the peoples’ heads to turn them away from Jesus or ignore Jesus.

Then the demon confesses who Jesus is, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” It may be a demon, but it recognizes who Jesus is, that he is holy, set apart for God’s work and plan, that Jesus is pure and untouched by sin, that Jesus has come to make things clean again, to bring humanity back into a right relationship with God after Satan worked to break that relationship. This is also a confession that Jesus is of God, that God and Jesus are one, as Jesus makes clear in the Gospel of John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”

Jesus faces the demon head on, commanding it, “Come out of him!” The demon has no choice but to obey Jesus and after shaking the man violently, it comes out of him with a shriek. The pure overpowers the unclean, Jesus, the Holy One of God cleanses the unclean man of the demon. Normally, when the clean touches the unclean, the clean becomes unclean and needs to be cleansed again. Jesus, the clean sinless one, doesn’t become unclean, but makes the unclean clean again. This is a sign of what Jesus accomplishes for us on the cross when he becomes sin for us so that we can come before our Father cleansed and made new again. On the cross, Jesus confronts Satan and wins.

This story of Jesus confronting the demon and cleansing the man from the demon is important because Satan still uses the same tactics today, working to give people a false image of who God, of who Jesus is. There are many people today who dismiss God because they see God as insecure, controlling, angry and hate-filled. Often, people see God this way because that’s how they’ve experienced the church, or read about the church. They believe the church isn’t relevant anymore. Often, we fail to recognize God’s love for his precious and dearly loved children.

In Jesus we see a compassionate God, who cares about justice and taking care of the most vulnerable, who frees us from slavery to sin, addictions, and false ways of thinking. In Jesus we see a God who is self-giving, sacrificial, who brings healing and hope, who cleanses our souls from the sins and stains of the past, while challenging us to follow him, to focus on living a holy life, and experience the kingdom of heaven.

Thomas Long and Jan Richardson remind us that in Jesus we see the power and authority of God in casting out the demon and we get a glimpse of the way the world is supposed to be, and insight into how the world really is. Mark tells us that the “people were so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” Jesus shows himself to be more than we expect. While others feared demons, Jesus commands them with authority. Jesus transforms the unclean, the broken, all those not permitted into the presence of God and restores the image of God in them, restoring and renewing them. David Lose reminds us that Jesus comes to us in our own brokenness and experienced our brokenness on the cross so we can experience healing and restoration through his resurrection.

This week, I kept thinking about the fact that this demon possessed man is in the synagogue and no one seems to notice until Jesus begins preaching. There are many people in our churches, in our community who are wrestling with their own demons, with things that seem way too strong to defeat. It may be a way of thinking that pulls us down constantly, it may be an addiction, it may be emotions that fill us and hurt us over and over again such as anger, bitterness, jealousy, or more. There are those struggling with depression and a lack of self worth. Sometimes it may be evil spirits. A former pastor of mine, Pastor Gerrit, served in Red Mesa and elders there taught him about casting out evil spirits from members. Satan adjusts himself to snare us in his chains. But Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope… The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Jesus has the power to free us from our demons, from the addictions and powers that hold onto us. Jesus has come to cleanse us and make us holy through his holiness. He comes because he loves us deeply and each one of you are precious to him, even if you believe you are unlovable, too broken to be accepted. Through the power of prayer in Jesus’ name, through Christian counseling and therapy, through the encouragement of Scripture, by knowing that there are many of us who fight these battles, by walking together in supportive mentoring and disciplining relationships, we can find hope and healing because Jesus is the Holy One of God with the power to free us and cleanse us from the powers that hold us in chains.