Who Is This Man? (Gospel of Mark part 7) by Dr. Bill Senyard on 06/09/13

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The Eclipsing Power (Mark 1:23-28)

June 9, 2013

 

The Eclipsing Call

Mark has Jesus going immediately to work.  The Lion of Judah plunges into the fray and begins the long expected battle.  He first goes and emphatically calls his troops, and they immediately respond.  The EC goes out to people trapped in the mundane existence and sets them free—charges them with greatness.

 

The Eclipsing Message

He immediately enters the synagogue and He is given full deference.  The EM goes to people enslaved to religion’s oppression and sets them free through a new message of power and life.  Jesus didactically takes charge, there is no mention of the other teachers… they are placed in His huge overwhelming shadow….. and the people are “knocked flat”  continually, as he speaks.  They noticed the difference between Jesus, this untrained carpenter’s son and the well trained teachers of the Law— Jesus speaks with authority.

 

Eclipsing Power

“The authority in view is not merely the power to decide, but to compel decision… In the presence of Jesus men are disturbed.”(Lane 72)

 

Did you notice it as you read the story?  Men from everywhere, friend and foe are magnetically drawn to Jesus—- but when they get close—they are disturbed!  God looks great from a distance.  But as Jesus draws close, we get more of the real sense that we are indeed helpless and in trouble.  It is most clear in today’s verses.  There are way to many disturbing elements to the passage to fully unpack.  We will look at 7.

 

The first disturbing element in the passage is that we are brought face to face with the reality of unseen spirits.  We in the US would prefer to deny the very presence of demons today.  It is too messy!  It puts us in a very awkward position, for if there are unclean spirits, we are at a serious disadvantage.  These invisible terrorists aren’t concerned by our military prowess or weapons.  Drone strikes are useless against them.  They are not even  afraid of the IRS.  I don’t want to admit that we are at war with entities so powerful. Look at Paul in Eph 6:

 

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

The second disturbing element of this passage is to see a man, someone much like us—in church, totally possessed by a foreign spirit. Per one scholar,

In most of the stories of possession what is at issue is not merely sickness but a destruction and distortion of the divine likeness of man according to creation.  That centre  of personality, the volitional and active ego, is impaired by alien powers which seek to ruin the man and sometimes drive him to self-destruction (Mk 5:5).  The ego is so impaired that the spirits speak through him.” (per W. Foerster, TWNT II, see Lane f.n. 4, p. 180)

 

Picture me taking one of the youngest in our congregation, wrapping my arms around them constraining them—so that they cannot move—cannot get away—and then I put my hand around their mouth so that they cannot even speak—until they stop squirming and acquiesce to my control.  The man is completely under the control of the spirit.  This is very troubling.  I don’t want to admit that this is possible.  But it is.  We would like to think that our freedom is an inalienable right.  We have the right to be and do and say what we want!  Right?

 

But here is a man with no rights at all.  The demon speaks, not the man.  The demon runs to Jesus, not the man.  He is controlled against his will, and he certainly can’t do anything about it now.  What kind of power is out there that can de-humanize someone?  A power stronger than the will of man!  This is big stuff.

 

Don’t even think that this doesn’t happen today.  I know one woman who had been completely controlled by the spirit realm.  It started off with a fortune teller at a carnival—you pay $5 and get your fortune told.  The FT told her that she was going to have trouble with her left eye.  And guess what.  The very next day, she had a serious eye problem that needed doctor’s care.  She started checking out Newspaper horoscopes—remarkable accuracy—then grew to 1-900 psychic hotlines.  Until she was totally addicted and controlled by them.  She could not make a life decision until she contacted 2-3 counsellors.  She was emotionally and spiritually controlled by them, until she heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.  For months after that she was involved in a real spiritual battle over her freedom.  Beware this stuff.  Horoscopes, psychic hotlines, past life regressions, spirit guides, superstitions— they often begin so innocuously — a curiosity—but there is immense power there.  The end is death.

 

This passage is disturbing in that it reminds us that, humanly speaking, we are over matched in this battle—in fact we can’t even see the enemy.  It is scary.  What are the chances that this is happening in our lives?  High.  Bottom line?  We are helpless in the flesh to do anything about it.

 

The third disturbing element of this passage is Jesus Himself.

Judo Match Story—You address your opponent, bow out of respect.  The referee says to begin.  You both go to the center of the mat and grab hold of the other’s garment, your right hand on the collar and your left on the sleeve.  Then you begin to spar—hopefully shifting the weight of your opponent and using his weight against him.  You gain positional advantage and then when they are weak, you throw them on the mat.

 

This is what is happening in our passage—at least on one side of the mat.  The demon begins the conflict in the recognized manner.  In the demonic realm, so much is done covertly, under cover, that if you can expose the demon, by name and then expose their strategy, then they would be supposedly knocked off balance and all that would remain is the throw to the mat.  Its over.  Then the stronger opponent would order the weaker to admit the loss or to leave..

 

Everybody who would have heard the ‘battle’ in the synagogue would have understood the strategy.  In fact, it would look like the demon had won.  Jesus had just stood there—he didn’t get out of the gate very strong.

 

²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out,

 ²⁴ “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!”

 

The acknowledgement of the opponent-        What do you want with us

I know your name-                                          Jesus of Nazareth

I know your strategy-                                                 You have come to destroy us

I know who you really are-                             the Holy One of God

 

At this point, a Greek or Roman  audience would have thought that the unclean spirit had gained the upper hand…. all that would remain is the final blow and Jesus would be out for the count.

 

The next step would be for the unclean spirit to command Jesus (in the name of some mutually recognised higher power) to go away, to leave him alone, etc.

 

Its an invisible UFC.  Put yourself in the sandals of the witnesses here.  The conflict is unnerving for them.  Demons were very powerful.  The people were indeed helpless.

 

Here the demon is not covert anymore—this is head on conflict.  Jesus is toast—or at least he would have been if he were an ordinary spiritist—- or a magician— BUT HE IS NOT!  Mark does not sugar coat this confrontation.  It is an overwhelmingly one sided battle—but not the way expected.  There is never any question who will be victorious.  Jesus merely flicks the struggling demon away as if you or I would flick a mosquito off our arm.  Jesus simply says, “Shut Up!”  Be quiet!  Enough of this pathetic mumbo jumbo.  There is none of the expected posturing in his voice…. no games, no fighting at the expected level, he never mentions the demon’s name, or purpose…. He just says “enough!

Indiana Jones—shooting the guy brandishing the sword.

 

This is embarrassing for the spirit.  “Come out of the man!”  He needs no appeal to any higher power.  The implications is that HE IS THAT HIGHER POWER!  And as Mark continues, though the demon inaudibly shrieks, he does not speak!  He cannot!  Jesus commanded him to shut up!  Our humanity is disturbed by someone so dangerously powerful.  I think that we have sugar coated Jesus way too much.  Jesus is disturbing up close.  He is not only comfortable in realms that I cannot see, he is in charge of whole realms that I can’t even see. Who is this man?

 

Fourth troubling element of the passage- Did you notice that He does not pay any attention to the individual rights of the alien spirit?  He goes against the demons free will.  Today, certainly in this era of political correctness, someone would start a society to guard the rights of the demons.  Who gives him the rights to abuse a poor helpless demon?  To say this, or even think this is to miss that there is a war declared in the heavenly and earthly realm.  Jesus is the King going into battle.  He is taking no prisoners.  They gave up their rights when they chose to follow Satan.  All that is left is destruction.  The demon was correct!  Jesus had come to destroy him.

 

Fifth troubling element– Jesus also steps all over the space of the man as well.  All of you who are confused about free will, listen up.  Jesus does not ask for any permission to evict the demon.  Hey, we would say today… its his life!! Its his choice!!  What right do you have?  Just who are you anyway?  Jesus does not need to ask permission to perform holy operations.  Think about the ramifications of that!

 

There is so much here.  I want us to focus on the correct reaction to this battle.  There is a disturbance in the galaxy.  It wasn’t here before—but now Jesus.  The witnesses react.  Now think of it.  What would we expect.  If you were doing a movie, how would you write this scene.  I would have them surrounding the man, their friend and neighbor.  “Look Cephas, Jeremiah had a demon.  Look at him now.  Praise the Lord!  Let’s celebrate!”  That makes sense to me.  But something else goes down.  The witnesses – religious people react to Jesus with an astonishment with overtones of trembling fear– “ethabethesan”.

 

Sixth disturbing element- The demon seemed very comfortable in church.  The demon/man was likely singing scripture, Psalms, etc… and yet was unaffected.  The demon did not feel compelled to expose himself until Jesus came and the powerful word of authority was preached.  The demon mentions “us”, on the opposite side of Jesus.  Who are they?  1) the man along with the spirit, 2) multiple spirits in the synagogue, 3) the spirit along with everyone else in the synagogue.  If the latter is taken, it is the same as saying, Jesus, no one wants you here.  Go somewhere else.  Let me put it boldly, demons seem to love institutional religion.

 

But Jesus is so powerful of a presence that he did not even need to directly confront the demon possessed man.  It is implied that Jesus was merely teaching.  But his presence was powerful enough to force the demon out of hiding.

Joe O., Lady with stomach issues, Witch

 

SeventhDisturbing element (if you were a Jew) Something greater than Torah is here

Now ,everything has changed.    Think about the implications with me.  The Jewish religion, the Torah, offered this guy absolutely no hope.  There was no instruction in the Torah how to defeat the demonic realm.  If you were possessed, you were doomed.  Look at Job.  He was absolutely helpless before the invisible attackers.   If anyone could have done something humanly—Job could have.  But what religion can’t do, Jesus easily does—with a flick of his little finger.  Now even the demons are defeatable!  This was the Jewish expectation and hope of the day for their helpless friends.  All they could offer them was that (1Enoch 55:4) when the Messiah would come and install his kingdom, he would bring with it the destruction of the demonic realm.  The Messiah would eclipse the Torah!  Something greater than the Jewish religion has now come.  Everything has now changed.  There is now no power in your life that cannot be defeated by Jesus.

 

The Eclipsing Call, Message and Power

1)      Have you and I sold Jesus short?  Have we forgotten His power to change us?  To restore identity.  To set us free?  It is God’s unveiled passion for the heart of man.  There are two Kingdoms.  One kingdom is bent on destruction of identity, it possesses and controls.  The other Kingdom works on your behalf.  It offers wholeness, forgiveness for sin, freedom and adoption as sons and daughters.  The latter was bought and paid for by this man Jesus, by his perfect life and incredible death on behalf of the prisoners.

2)      Have we forgotten how helpless we truly are?  Our need is vast.

3)      Are we no longer disturbed by the presence of Jesus in us?

 

Before Communion, lets just pause to let this stuff sink into our psyches.  Jesus is far bigger and scarier than I have ever imagined.  He has more power, more gravitas, more celestial weight than any of us should be comfortable with.  <pause>  And this makes what he did on the Cross even more astonishing.