Who's In Charge Here?
Posted on May 12, 2015 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
In the Gospel of Mark, which will be our main Gospel that we read this year, this writer claims the good news of Jesus Christ begins with Jesus’ baptism. We read about that just a couple of weeks ago, then immediately after he was baptized, we are told that the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness for 40 days where he was tempted by Satan and angles waited on him. Following this, as we heard last week, Jesus was ready to start his ministry and he immediately began “proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:14-15). Now obviously he had a big mission and so as he began proclaiming the good news, he also began calling followers as we also heard last week. And so, with Simon, Andrew, James and John on board, Jesus headed to synagogue there in Capernaum to build momentum for his ministry and so begin this process of the repentance of a people. Repentance is literally a process of change and what better way to create change than to make people uncomfortable. Think about it, we would never change anything if we were always comfortable. Change occurs when we don’t like something. I don’t change light bulbs for the heck of it. I change them when they go out or they get dim and I cant see. The ELCA would have never allowed women to be ordained had women not stood up and said this is unfair and not what God intended and made many people challenge there understanding of scripture. Civil rights in this country would not have changed had not people like Martin Luther King Jr. and others not had the courage to state truths about how certain people were being treated, which made a lot of people uncomfortable. We don’t change unless things get uncomfortable, unless the heat gets turned up.
So, as we see today, on the Sabbath, Jesus enters the synagogue and immediately turns up the heat. He begins by teaching and everyone is amazed because he teaches as though he has authority. How can he do that? He is a nobody. What notable Rabbi had he studied under? Where are his credentials? We still ask questions like this of leaders. We like credentials. But as the people of the synagogue are asking these questions, there is one being there who knows who Jesus is. There is one there who knows the authority Jesus brings and that one is an unclean spirit, and that spirit says, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God" (1:24).
We are not told by Mark what Jesus taught about, but whatever he said, it was clear to the demon that God was about to do something that the demon didn’t like. The heat was about to get turned up. If we were to literally translate what the unclean spirit said, we would see that he was literally saying, Why are you picking this fight?” or “Couldn’t you have just left things as they were between us?” Apparently, just the mere presence of Jesus in this synagogue had upset the order. Jesus crossed an invisible boundary that no one had dared to cross before and the existing authorities got upset. They liked things the way there were. Why couldn’t Jesus just leave well enough alone? I am often asked this question today whenever I bring up the idea of change. As we talked about our new Welcome Statement, there were those who said, why do we have to do this, why can’t we leave things the way they are? We like things the way they. Or, I was asked earlier this week, “Why do we need to grow? I like our size. I like Salem just like it is.” In other words, “Can’t you just leave things just as they are?”
Now as we look at our text for today, Jesus’ answer is clear. No, we cant leave things the way they are, because the world is broken, we are broken, and God’s mission is to bring healing to us, and we do that by repenting, that is by changing and following Jesus, the One God has revealed to us as God’s Son, our messiah. And that answer is not well received and so begins in the Gospel of Mark a problem that will get Jesus killed. The problem is the question of authority. By whose authority is Jesus doing this? Or, more literally, who is in charge here? And for the religious leadership of that day, the answer should have been very clear, they were in charge, but for Jesus the answer was clear, too, no, God is in charge. The question of authority is critical question in this Gospel and it is a critical question for us today. Who is in charge of our lives as individuals and as a faith community?
What we will see and learn as we read through Mark’s gospel is that for Mark, Jesus is the only one who is uniquely authorized, commissioned, or empowered to declare and bring about the reign of God. As we follow Jesus, we will see glimpses of this reign. God’s reign is all around us and its mission is to break old boundaries that prevent people from being liberated from the powers that afflict them and keep all creation, individuals and societies, from flourishing. Jesus’ mission was about claiming publically God’s intentions for the world and, in doing so, be willing to defy and change traditions that are not life giving. He was willing to turn up the heat.
Today we are challenged to at the very least stop assuming that “the way things are” are the way things ought to be. God’s reign promises more, whether the “more” can be realized now or in a far-off future.
In his actions to free the man from the unclean spirit, on the Sabbath, no less, Jesus chose to care for the man and to free him, rather than worry about the details of the law.
Last week, many of you witnessed a similar act right here in our sanctuary during our annual meeting. In the midst of doing our business, we were challenged by a stranger to stop and make God’s reign a reality. And you did it! In the midst of doing our business, a woman was shaking, crying and feared having her heat turned off. She and her daughter and granddaughter were hungry and in need of help and you stopped doing your business and for a brief moment you participated in God’s reign last Sunday and you made it a reality.
It took great courage for Georgia Buckner to walk in this place last Sunday cry out for help and it took great courage for all of you to offer that help. By whose authority did you act last week, but the authority of Jesus, who said our mission was to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, and to offer recovery of sight to the blind, (Luke 4:18).
To this day, barriers and restrictions to God’s reign are advocated all around us, even in the church and we are called to turn up the heat and change that. Our call is to make Christ, the Living Word, the authority in our life, and, by his authority, we are called to change the world, one person, one ministry, one issue at a time.
My prayer today is that each of us, individually and communally, proclaims Christ as our authority, and Christ as the one who is in charge of our lives. Now, let me warn you, when you do that, you will be challenged, you will be put down and conflict will abound. But know this, through this conflict, change will occur and a little more of God’s reign will be experienced. Amen