Authority to Heal – sermon on February 1, 2015

Mark 1: 21-28 They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “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.”

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Authority to Heal – sermon on February 1, 2015                 by Rev. Doreen Oughton      

Scripture today tells us that people were astounded because Jesus was teaching as one with authority, and not the way the scribes preached. This is not a criticism of the way the scribes taught – in fact, it’s what would have been expected in the synagogue. The scribes ascribed authority to the scripture, and they would have taught from the law of Moses and the prophets. For Jesus to teach as one with authority meant he would veer from that. It might have sounded as he did in his sermon on the mount – “you have heard it said… but I say to you.” “You have heard it said ‘you shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you than anyone who looks at another with lust has already committed adultery in the heart.” Or “You have heard it said to love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, you should love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The translation of this morning’s passage says that the people were astounded, and the root of the word for astounded means “to strike.” The astonishment might have an edge of bewilderment or scandal. After all, Jesus is, in a way, claiming authority greater than that of Moses and the prophets – provocative! They are not sure what to make of it. And then, suddenly, there is a man with an unclean spirit squawking out. Had he been there all along, and just got riled up by the teachings, or did he burst in as the others looked with astonishment? Now this spirit doesn’t come right out and challenge Jesus’ authority, but asks, “what have you to do with us?” Perhaps a way of challenging authority – i.e. that stuff won’t go over here, take your fancy ideas elsewhere. But at the same time, the unclean spirit acknowledges that Jesus is indeed the holy one of God. The spirit asks, “have you come to destroy us?” I wonder, was it talking only about unclean spirits, or about the people there in the synagogue? Jesus does not destroy the spirit, but does call it out of the man and banishes it.

Now I suppose that technically this is a story about exorcism, but I also see it as a story of healing. The man was in the grip of a force that was destructive. We might think of addictions or depression, other mental illness or even physical illnesses – conditions that would cripple us physically, mentally or emotionally. In many healing stories, Jesus asks the afflicted person, “what do you want me to do for you?” He rarely heals without being asked or approached – the blind calling out to him for mercy, the hemorrhaging woman touching his garment. Jesus doesn’t force healing on people. Jesus recognizes that sometimes what is considered an “affliction” is a choice, perhaps a price someone is willing to pay for some other benefit – attention, sympathy, lack of accountability. Perhaps someone is practicing acceptance, choosing to adapt to or overcome some hardship rather than have it taken away, wanting to stretch and grow. Perhaps some are trying to expand the overall perception of what is healthy, but different, rather than labeling it a handicap – like the way deafness might be understood as cultural in addition to physiological, and people forgo cochlea implants or other interventions to make them more “normal.” Jesus claims authority, but not so he can enforce certain standards of physical or mental functioning.

But here, Jesus does, without the man’s consent, heal him from this affliction. It’s difficult to unpack this story in this time and place because we generally don’t have a cultural acceptance of demon possession. Our ideas for interventions or treatment do not include exorcisms. For the people of those times, this was a tremendous display of authority – to command a demon out of someone. I don’t know what that looked like to the people, what was experienced by the man possessed. But it set Jesus apart. If we accept this account on its own terms, instead of imposing 21st century Western understandings on it, we can see that Jesus did not impose healing on the man even here, did not use his authority to enforce his own standard over how someone should behave, but instead exercised his authority over the demon, thereby freeing the man.

I think this is an important distinction, because I believe divine authority is different from human authority. As theologian NT Wright says, “God’s model of authority is not like that of the managing director over the business, not like that of the governing body over the college, not like that of the police or the law courts who have authority over society. There is a more subtle thing going on. God is not simply organizing the world in a certain way such as we would recognize from any of those human models. God is organizing it – if that’s the right word at all – through Jesus and in the power of the Spirit. God’s authority is inherent in God’s being as the loving, wise, creator and redeemer. God’s authority is sovereign exercise of those powers; love and creation and redemption. And so divine authority, the authority of Christ, cannot be about controlling people, or keeping them in little boxes. Rather, divine authority is designed, to liberate human beings, to judge and condemn evil and sin in the world in order to set people free to be fully human. That’s what Jesus was and is in the business of doing. That is what his authority is for. It is an authority with this shape and character, this purpose and goal.”

That matters to me as a Christian, to know that if I give myself over to the authority of Christ, that it is not about conforming to certain proscribed behaviors so that I can get into heaven, or to force my beliefs on others to “save their souls,” or about supporting any institution. It is giving myself over to an authority in which the purpose and goal is for me to be free and as fully human as possible. But the paradox is that the goal is not just my personal freedom, but the freedom and full humanity of all people. And that requires that I conform to certain standards of behavior and attitudes that Jesus says will save us – all of us. Attitudes and behaviors of self-giving love, of going beyond the letter of the law straight to its heart, bringing more love a light into the world. And I pray that that kind of authority always wins. May it be so.