Labelled

 

The work in the gospel of Mark is just getting started. Here we find Jesus with the first four disciples He called – Simon later called Peter, Andrew, James and John. When studying this scripture this week, I am reminded of the advertisements for writers who need to find synonyms so that they don’t use the same word over and over within a writing. But the problem with that is Mark DID use the same words! The translators have smoothed things over to be more pleasing to our ears, and since I am going to point out corrections anyway – here is my own edited version of the NIV translation. 

 

Mark 1:21-28

²¹ They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbaths having entered into the synagogue, Jesus was teaching. ²² They were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one having authority, not like the scribes. ²³ And immediately there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know You—You are the Holy One of God!”

²⁵ Jesus rebuked him saying, “Silence!” Come out of him!”²⁶ And having thrown him into convulsions and shrieking out in a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him.

²⁷ And all were amazed so that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He commands unclean spirits and they obey Him.” ²⁸ And immediately news about Him went out everywhere into all the surrounding region of Galilee.

 

Labelled

 

Saturday, March 24, 1984 five students reported to their high school for a day of detention. They were as different as different could be. Claire was a beautiful snob in the latest preppy style; Brian was a typical genus, straight A student; Andrew was your typical athlete – a take-no-prisoners wrestler; John was the rebel up to no good just because he could; Allison – well she was shy and just a little bizarre. They gather in the library and are given a 1,000 word essay to write on the topic – ‘Who do you think you are.’ 

 

They are told to remain silent and left alone. Of course, they immediately begin to bicker, pushing each others’ buttons and riding with the assumptions they had about one another. Yet, slowly as the day progressed, they broke past the labels and learned more about each other from actions and interaction. They learn that there is more that holds them together, more that they hold in common, than their differences. In the end, they turn in only one essay that calls out the principal and claims they are beyond, more than the labels and stereotypes – each owning a little bit of the other.

 

The Breakfast Club is a comedy, but it does an excellent job of gently dealing with how we get to know each other. Drop the labels and pre-conceived notions. How do humans put themselves out there in a genuine and vulnerable way, an honest way, that will create relationship and care for one another. 

 

This was the challenge that the gospel writers faced. Jesus was human, but he didn’t fit the ‘label’ of messiah almighty and powerful in the way that people expected. How could they introduce us to Jesus? How could they urge us into this treasured relationship?

 

No surprise that Mark jumps right to the point, IMMEDIATELY. As the earliest gospel written, he is tackling the task first – Jesus may not be returning in their lifetime, so what must be recorded to invite future generations into relationship, to show them who Jesus is?

 

First impressions – While the gospels differ, each has something rich and valuable to share. Like meeting a new friend – starting with the label ‘messiah’ is good but misses pieces of who Jesus was and is. As we meet new friends, each of us probably sees something slightly different, values different aspects, but loves no less for the differences. How do these authors introduce us to their friend and savior?

 

Matthew, likely written by a Jewish Christian who is thought by many to have been one of the 12 apostles, begins with Jesus the teacher in the sermon on the mount, teaching from on high like Moses. A rabbi of wisdom who honors Jewish tradition takes central place. Luke, who was likely a travelling physician and companion of Paul, starts with Jesus caring for the poor, healing and setting captives free. Jesus is a Lord for all humankind coming to ordinary people and caring for them especially with those on the margins. John – in this gospel we see a go big or go home intro, live life abundantly throw a days-long party with lots and lots of wine – a life of abundant seemingly limitless grace. John tells us of the miracle of water to wine not so much about the quality of the vintage but to highlight how vital it is to preserve the important relationship at the wedding gathering. John starts with a God who works beyond our doubts embracing the mystery and proclaiming the holy.

 

That brings us to the first but shortest - the gospel of Mark – anonymously written yet with an incredible sense of urgency to pack as much in the little time we have with our messiah Mark begins. Mark introduces us to a Jesus teaching but not only with words - through his actions. When is it worth a fight? Anything that gets in the way of relationship between us and God, that sits within us in the place of God – idolatries – demons. Any risk to relationship is worth fighting against. Mark rushes in startling us in a setting of tradition and immediately throwing it aside for what is more important – like yelling in church if it conquers an idol, defeats our demons.

 

The ones we place there and the ones that creep in when we are lulled into unsuspecting comfort - anything that takes God’s place in our hearts and souls or prevents us from being in full relationship with God. That is the amazing epiphany of Christ – God came into the world to solidify, exemplify and be that relationship through Jesus. I agree with Mark. For isn’t this teaching, healing and abundant grace all rolled into one. Mark may be shocking, but he moves with force and immediacy to the heart of the matter – God in our hearts. The Holy Spirit filling us up and transforming our lives to defeat the demons and idolatries of our world.

 

Who is this man we are meeting in Mark? With a sense of immediacy and ‘sureness’ Jesus has a magnetism and authority about him. We hear nothing about a reputation or resume, but those in the synagogue were amazed at his new way of teaching. Mark sets this foundation, but he doesn’t stay there. As Matt Skinner of Luther Seminary says, “… Mark depicts Jesus as the one uniquely authorized, commissioned, or empowered to declare and institute the reign of God. Through Jesus, then, we glimpse characteristics of this reign.” Skinner describes this as a Jesus whose reign is intrusive, breaks old boundaries and liberates people from corrupt powers. 

 

We see a Jesus of words, a rabbi but not one separated from the people. His authority is in their midst doing what needs to be done right away without question or pomp. Three important things about this exorcism. 

1.   Jesus doesn’t’ waste words on the show but yanks the unclean out of the man with two stern commands – “Silence” and “Come Out” – he acts.

2.   He doesn’t back down from the fight if it gets in the way of relationship with God – he acts

3.   He doesn’t stop to question the man’s worthiness but values the one lone person everyone else would want to escort out to preserve the way things are ‘supposed to be’ – he acts

 

Exorcism is not something we are comfortable talking about in modern times and surely not Presbyterian church. The things to focus on for us, if this presents an obstacle to hearing the word, is Jesus acts – he acts upon three things. The unclean spirit challenges Jesus almost on a claim to be on the same footing. Think of this as all the things in our lives that we place on the same footing or importance of God – that we fill ourselves with instead of the Holy. What are our idols? What is Jesus calling on us to silence in our lives – is it little things that devalue other in our lives, is it things that diminish us? Or is it complacent acceptance of or even contribution to systems that do the devaluing and diminishing?

 

What is Jesus calling on us to listen to in our lives? Presbyterian Outlook Editor Roger Gench describes the demons that have us in their grip today as a, “triple pandemic threat of health, race and political polarization,” he asks, “how could we imagine that these dangers are not present in our own assemblies and worship, even when we gather virtually? These demons have been screaming, raising a ruckus for quite some time. Are we listening?” 

 

There are no easy answers but Jesus acts to cast out the unclean. God doesn’t back away from the fight but joins us as we try to muddle our way through this together – hobbling back together what divides us, mending past hurts, and healing us in mind and body. When even what we think of as the simple things are thrown out of context and used to separate and break us apart from one another, God calls us to remember whose we are. God hears our shrieking spirits and silences them while holding us closer. The Holy, the divine filled Jesus, and the unclean seeks to stand on the same playing field, but Mark reminds us the authority we hold dear and turns our eyes back to that authority – away from the unclean spirits around us that seek to dominate our lives and re-label us.

 

I’m exhausted you might say – how can I do anything to stand up against things like a triple pandemic, how can I begin to heal the hurts of the world – past and present? Who am I in this bigger picture? Begin with the label.

 

The third thing – Jesus acted on the one lone human. Jesus doesn’t ask about your labels but acts to reconnect to you as a beloved child of God. Look again at the labels you are wearing. Do they make God visible to the world, or do they blind the children of the world from one another or even hide you from yourself?

 

The word for unclean is acathartois – or ‘not’ cathartois from which we get our word cathartic. Cathartic is a healing – that is the act that Jesus takes on our behalf. We go about our day looking for things that feed or sooth our souls. In doing so, trying to heal ourselves, we have picked up the protective labels, and comforting labels – so many descriptors. 

 

And then, rather than comfort, they began to divide us, separate – move us to positions of holding unclean spirits within. A brokenness inside us that separates us from the Holy – unclean - anything that causes us to step back from one another. Who are you, whose are you? What spirit do we not want to give up, what label is our armor, what club or safety net do we so desperately cling to that it leaves no room for the Holy Spirit?

 

Epiphany is still around us, and Jesus is still breaking into the world filling us with the Holy Spirit, empowering us to work toward that reign of God to connect all people together, to God. Jesus broke into the world to remind us of relationship and wasn’t puffed up to put on a magnificent show, not the messiah we expected at all. But he started with the one person – isn’t that it? Look to the example of the Breakfast Club quirky teens. Accept yourself, God does. Then, connect and go beyond the labels that hold us apart. Start the healing with one person and in Mark fashion, don’t delay. Let your actions speak. Introduce the world anew to Christ in action. Heal one relationship, share one smile, mend one broken fence. That is what Mark is telling us about who Jesus was and is and who we are called to be. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength; and Love your neighbor as yourself. One person at a time following Jesus we act to build the kingdom of God today. Amen.