Mark 1 21-28 2006
Epiphany 4
Mark 1:21-28
January 29, 2006
“Authority Figures”
Introduction: The Shaman and the Jesus Movie in Thailand – Authority over Demons.
There are good authorities and bad authorities in our lives. These are people that have power over us. An example of a good authority is a traffic policeman. They stand in the middle of the road and direct traffic. When they say go we go. When they say stop we stop. And they do this so that there won’t be chaos and so that we will be safe.
A bad authority is a person that uses their power over us lead us to do things that are bad for us, or to abuse or lives. Sometimes these people take authority over us when it is not their right to do so. For instance, take a robber coming into your home at night, pointing a gun at you and your family; though he has no right of authority, he takes you and your family captive with the intent of harming you. By virtue of his gun he has authority, bad authority.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus comes to the town of Capernaum. It is the home of James and John and Peter, the disciples of Jesus. On the Sabbath Jesus is invited to teach in their synagogue. We are not told the words or title of the sermon text that Jesus uses. That doesn’t matter. What Mark, the writer of the gospel wants us to know is that Jesus is different. He tells us that the people were dumbfounded about the teaching of Jesus. He didn’t teach like the other teachers who were always quoting other people and saying this person says this and this person says that. Jesus spoke for himself. Right away the people recognized the difference. Jesus spoke with authority. His authority came from God.
Real authority has power. In the crowd there was a man that suffered from demon possession. The spirit cried out, “Jesus of Nazareth, have You come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God. To this, Jesus loudly speaks, “Be quiet! And come out of him!”
It was about time that somebody told Satan to shut up. That somebody had to be God, Jesus Christ.
It all comes back to that issue of authority. When God created man, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, man was given authority over all of creation; he had the power and that power was exhibited as man named all the animals. Man had authority over every living thing. The only authority over man was God. Because of God’s authority man was to listen to Him and Him alone. Then Satan came to Eve and Adam and he spoke to them. Instead of listening to God they listened to Satan. When they did they handed their authority to him. Though he had no right of authority, through their sin they gave him power over them. Just like the robber in the middle of the night, Satan held them at the gun point of guilt and made them his slaves, bound and held captive. That is the human condition even today. That is…until the power and authority of Jesus comes into a person’s life.
That is why Jesus came. He came to shut the fiery serpents accusing mouth once and for all. He came to free the prisoners. As Isaiah said about Jesus, and as Jesus said about Himself, Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”
Satan holds this world captive to sin death and his power. Without the power of Jesus Christ and His authority all people are possessed by the devil. It is not to say that all are filled with demons. While Demon possession is very real where Satan enters into a person and corrupts the very image of God in man and instead of God’s spirit filling a person Satan does. But all people without Jesus and His saving power are possessed, that is, in the possession of the Devil and are under his dominion.
Jesus Christ crushes Satan’s power and authority. He does it by virtue of who He is, God incarnate, the Word made flesh. Jesus Christ crushes the Devil ultimately through His death on the cross where He took our sin and the resulting condemnation upon himself. It was on the cross that Satan accusing finger was pointed away from us and pointed at our Savior. Through Christ’s death Satan’s accusing finger was bent back towards himself. Just like the first prophecy about Christ foretold in the third chapter of Genesis when the Lord cursed the Satan that posses the snake, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
At the cross the old serpent Satan struck Christ’s heal with the blow of death. But through Christ’s death and resurrection Satan and his power and his authority was crushed forever.
Freedom from Satan’s power is given to us through holy baptism. Martin Luther, in the rite of Baptism that he wrote, included an exorcism. It was the casting out and denounciation of Satan’s power over this new child born into the kingdom of God. Luther’s Baptismal Rite:
The Order of Baptism1
The officiant shall blow three times under
the child’s eyes and shall say:
Depart thou unclean spirit and give room to the Holy Spirit.
Then he shall sign him with a cross on
his forehead and breast and shall say:
Receive the sign of the holy cross on both thy forehead and thy breast.
[1]
Let us pray.
O Almighty eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look upon this N., thy servant whom thou hast called to instruction in the faith, drive away from him all the blindness of his heart, break all the snares of the devil with which he is bound, open to him, Lord, the door of thy grace: So that marked with the sign of thy wisdom he may be free of the stench of all evil lusts and serve thee joyfully according to the sweet savor of thy commandments in thy church and grow daily and be made meet to come to the grace of thy baptism to receive the balm of life; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[2]
Then the priest shall lay his hand on the head of the child and pray
the Our Father together with the sponsors kneeling.
Then he shall take spittle with his finger, touch
the right ear therewith and say:
Ephphatha, that is, Be thou opened [Mark 7:34].
Then the nose and the left ear [and say]:
But thou, devil, flee; for God’s judgment cometh speedily.
Then the child shall be led into the church, and
the priest shall say:
The Lord preserve thy coming in and thy going out now and for evermore.
Then the priest shall have the child renounce
the devil through his sponsors and say:
N., dost thou renounce the devil? Response: Yes. And all his works? Response: Yes. And all his ways? Response: Yes.
[3]
New Baptism – “I adjure thee, thou unclean spirit, by the name of the Father ✠ and of the Son ✠ and of the Holy Ghost ✠ that thou come out of and depart from this servant of Jesus Christ, N. Amen.”[4]
It is interesting that Martin Luther, in his early baptismal rite includes the part saying, Ephphatha, that is, Be thou opened [Mark 7:34]. In other words, let your ears be opened. For it is in the hearing the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, that we come to faith. When Jesus preached to the people in Capernaum they were amazed at what He said and that He taught with authority. His Word was the very word of life. Anything a part from this truth is the word of the Devil. In Capernaum, when the Lord speaks the people are compelled to listen, but not necessarily to believe. But when Satan tries to speak, Jesus shuts his mouth.
Because we have been born again through water and the Spirit of God, we no longer have to listen to the lies of the Devil. How does this work in our lives? Certaimly we are all plagued by evil through out our lives. We are plagued in our thoughts, words and deeds, what we do and what we have left undone… as our confession of sin states. Through Jesus Christ we no longer have to listen to Satan. Instead we listen to our Lord and His Word. We have a choice to make. As a young man I remember a time when friends influenced me a great deal, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. One friend was always trying to get me in trouble. When I listened to him I did things that I ought not have done. Example… Then I also had friends who made good choices and as I listened to them I also made good choices. Through Christ’s power we have the choice to listen to Satan and follow him into sin. Or we can follow our Savior in faith. Who will be your master? Who will you listen to?
The Apostle Paul tells us that we no longer have to be slaves to sin, 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace…16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Conclusion: On this fourth Sunday of Epiphany, Jesus is revealed to be the Son of God that comes with authority and power. He comes to free us from the power of evil and the Devil. He is the one that comes to save us from our sin. Listen to Him, believe in Him and follow Him, by God’s eternal grace and mercy. Amen
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1 Literally, “Baptismal booklet put into German.”
[1]Luther, M. 1999, c1965. Vol. 53: Luther's works, vol. 53 : Liturgy and Hymns (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[2]Luther, M. 1999, c1965. Vol. 53: Luther's works, vol. 53 : Liturgy and Hymns (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[3]Luther, M. 1999, c1965. Vol. 53: Luther's works, vol. 53 : Liturgy and Hymns (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[4]Luther, M. 1999, c1965. Vol. 53: Luther's works, vol. 53 : Liturgy and Hymns (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Fortress Press: Philadelphia