"Who Is This Man?"
“Who Is This Man?”
Mark 1:21-28
Rev Carolyn Waters
CCUM January 29, 2006
Mark 1:21-28
21They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and 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.” 25But 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. 27They 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.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
This is the word of God for the People of God!
Thanks be to God!
Those of you close to my age, give or take maybe 10 years!!!! May remember from your early days getting home from school and turning on the TV about 4:30 in the afternoon and there in bold black and white were “Tonto and The Lone Ranger!” Every afternoon, without fail, they would arrive at the very moment of great need to assist someone in distress or avert acts of injustice. With an amazing sense of timing, it never took more than thirty minutes to save the damsel, or prevent the bad men from taking the town people’s money. And always, always before Tonto could mount his horse The Lone Ranger would ride off into the sunset always leaving a small group of kind act beneficiaries scratching their heads and saying, “Who was that masked man?”
Everyone always knew who Superman was! The Lone Ranger, on the other hand, never identified himself except by his own deeds, and then there was the mask!
There must have been some of the same confusion about Jesus. The crowds were at the synagogue to observe the Sabbath and receiving teaching from the scribes. It was a holy day like any other holy day until one teacher began to speak with a kind of authority that was unlike that of the non-tenured professors. Some were astounded by the words of this man. Others were enlightened in a way they had not been enlightened before. But one, the one that always challenged the teaching assistants at the synagogue raised his voice and tried to distract from Jesus teachings by challenging his authority to teach, and proclaiming before Jesus was ready to have the words spoken that Jesus was the “Holy One of God.” It was as if the mad one, the one with “unclean spirits” was trying to discredit Jesus by naming his source of authority. It would have been the same thing as taking the mask off the masked man.
New Testament scholar Wm Loader says this about Mark’s passage:
"Jesus silences the demon and demands he depart. The demon does so, but not without yelling at the top of his voice. The exorcism is achieved. The demoniac has been liberated. For those of us brought up with strict scientific methods such accounts of exorcism call for more informed explanations. They feel so strange that we may want to avoid them altogether. It is then very hard to appreciate Mark who has made them so central. There are ways of slipping the awkwardness we feel. The trouble is we may end up slipping past the message of Mark. However we understand exorcisms, those reported from the ancient world or from present day cultures unlike our own, something real is happening. People are being set free. Physical contortions and hugely dramatic moments will occur in many different therapies, whether the frame of thought is demonology or modern psychotherapy. "
"The important thing is liberation, setting people free. This is an essential component of the 'good news' of God's reign. It is a demonstration of what is meant when John predicts that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit. For Mark exorcising unclean spirits is a primary function of the Holy Spirit and the key element one should recognize in what Jesus is doing."
Well, Jesus started out teaching, dealt with the interruption, and then continued his teaching.
Teaching about what? We really don’t know. Actually it’s a challenge to figure out exactly what Jesus primary theme is, other than his focus on the Kingdom of God, AND his theme of liberation……….setting people free.
He was actually quite good at being who he needed to be, depending upon the situation and what was called for. Whether it was compassion for the woman at the well or a challenge to the church officials, inviting himself to eat with the tax collectors or avoiding the trappings of popularity with the masses, Jesus was able to show up and do what was needed, then move on.
Not that much unlike the Lone Ranger! He left people scratching their heads and asking “who is this?” “What exactly is going on here?” But unlike the Lone Ranger, he was not afraid to identify himself as the “Son of the Living God.” And unlike the Lone Ranger, he still leaves me scratching my head and asking “Who exactly is this man?”
Loader makes a wonderful statement at the end of his commentary on Mark 1:21-28. He says our challenge is to create the space, the ‘synagogue’, "where our madness can come face to face with the holiness of Jesus. That also means coming to terms with our own madness."
In other words in order to consider the depth of Jesus teachings and actually receive something significant from them, our own madness must come to the surface and encounter the holiness of who Jesus is. Loader says that means we must “come to terms with our own madness!” Wait just a minute. Do I really want to go there? Isn’t it much easier to have an understanding of a Jesus who rides in on a beautiful horse and takes care of the sins of the world, then rides off into the sunset leaving me to benefit from his having been here?
What about this Jesus that might challenge me to face my “own madness?” What am I to do with this Jesus that challenges me to look at myself and my part in the brokenness of my world and the world about me?
Just in case you are having trouble identifying any brokenness in your world hear this true story as told by Diane Carman in her column last Friday in the Denver Post:
By virtue of her age and her diminutive stature, 85-year-old Ellie Lindecrantz surely qualifies as a little old lady. Nobody would dare call her that, though. She's made of tougher stuff.
Still, occasionally everybody needs help, and on Monday it was Ellie's turn.
She had arrived at Denver International Airport about 1:30 p.m. to catch a 3:09 flight to Florida. She has serious coronary artery disease and has found that spending a few months of the year at sea level works wonders. Her husband had driven their car down and planned to meet her at the airport when she arrived.
Ellie had requested a wheelchair to take her to the gate and was waiting under the arrival/departure screens when she started to feel chest pains. "I hurt a lot," she said. "I knew I needed help."
A young man stopped to look at the screens overhead. "I said I had severe chest pains and really needed some help," she said. "The man said, 'I hope you feel better,' and walked away."
Ellie had four nitroglycerin tablets in her pocket. She took one, but the pain continued.
She called to another person nearby asking for help. She just needed to get to the airport urgent-care facility, she said.
The woman kept walking.
Ellie took another nitro.
The wheelchair still hadn't arrived, she was still hurting, and she was getting scared, so Ellie took a few steps toward a woman wearing a uniform and monitoring the lines at the ticket counter. "I said that I really needed somebody to help me," Ellie said.
The woman looked at her ticket and said, "You should ask American Airlines to help you."
Ellie sat down. She took another nitro, but the pain was severe and she was beginning to panic, so she called her daughter, Greta Lindecrantz, on her cellphone.
Greta was in her car, driving to Golden, but she dialed 911 immediately. The Lakewood dispatcher picked up the call and patched it through to Denver, which transferred her to DIA dispatch.
"I told the person where my mother was, that she was having heart pain and that she needed help," Greta said. "He said, 'We haven't had any emergency calls.'
"This is an emergency call," Greta told him. "My mother needs help."
"What do you want me to do about it?" said the call-taker.
In the meantime, Ellie, alone in a crowded airport, had taken her last nitro. She still had chest pains. It had been nearly 30 minutes, and she was frightened.
Finally, the wheelchair attendant arrived.
"I told him that I needed to go to the medical part of the airport right away," Ellie said. But he didn't understand. The attendant didn't speak English.
He could tell that something was wrong, though, so he took her to another airport worker, a friend who could translate for them. As soon as he knew what she needed, the attendant sped her through the crowds to the infirmary, where she was stabilized and dispatched by ambulance to the hospital.
"It was not a good experience," Ellie said later from her bed at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital.
The worst part for her was the sense of abandonment.
The throbbing swarm of human activity was devoid of humanity. Ordinary people looked the other way as she pleaded for someone to help save her life.
They were in a hurry.
They had planes to catch.
"Everybody is very busy," Ellie said. "I realize this. But we're not people anymore. We don't have time to be people."
In a culture obsessed with time, the airport scene rises above ordinary punctiliousness. It is the pinnacle of self- important, buzzing, on-time activity.
And it's the pits of human kindness.
Ellie will be back there soon. She hoped to be released from the hospital late Thursday, and when she gets the OK from her doctor, she'll try again to fly to Florida.
But this time she'll take a friend with her all the way to Fort Myers. It's the only way she can be sure someone will be there who's not too busy to care.
“We’re not people anymore. We don’t have time to be people.”
Maybe this man Jesus, can once again teach us how to be people.
Mark 1:21-28
Rev Carolyn Waters
CCUM January 29, 2006
Mark 1:21-28
21They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and 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.” 25But 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. 27They 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.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
This is the word of God for the People of God!
Thanks be to God!
Those of you close to my age, give or take maybe 10 years!!!! May remember from your early days getting home from school and turning on the TV about 4:30 in the afternoon and there in bold black and white were “Tonto and The Lone Ranger!” Every afternoon, without fail, they would arrive at the very moment of great need to assist someone in distress or avert acts of injustice. With an amazing sense of timing, it never took more than thirty minutes to save the damsel, or prevent the bad men from taking the town people’s money. And always, always before Tonto could mount his horse The Lone Ranger would ride off into the sunset always leaving a small group of kind act beneficiaries scratching their heads and saying, “Who was that masked man?”
Everyone always knew who Superman was! The Lone Ranger, on the other hand, never identified himself except by his own deeds, and then there was the mask!
There must have been some of the same confusion about Jesus. The crowds were at the synagogue to observe the Sabbath and receiving teaching from the scribes. It was a holy day like any other holy day until one teacher began to speak with a kind of authority that was unlike that of the non-tenured professors. Some were astounded by the words of this man. Others were enlightened in a way they had not been enlightened before. But one, the one that always challenged the teaching assistants at the synagogue raised his voice and tried to distract from Jesus teachings by challenging his authority to teach, and proclaiming before Jesus was ready to have the words spoken that Jesus was the “Holy One of God.” It was as if the mad one, the one with “unclean spirits” was trying to discredit Jesus by naming his source of authority. It would have been the same thing as taking the mask off the masked man.
New Testament scholar Wm Loader says this about Mark’s passage:
"Jesus silences the demon and demands he depart. The demon does so, but not without yelling at the top of his voice. The exorcism is achieved. The demoniac has been liberated. For those of us brought up with strict scientific methods such accounts of exorcism call for more informed explanations. They feel so strange that we may want to avoid them altogether. It is then very hard to appreciate Mark who has made them so central. There are ways of slipping the awkwardness we feel. The trouble is we may end up slipping past the message of Mark. However we understand exorcisms, those reported from the ancient world or from present day cultures unlike our own, something real is happening. People are being set free. Physical contortions and hugely dramatic moments will occur in many different therapies, whether the frame of thought is demonology or modern psychotherapy. "
"The important thing is liberation, setting people free. This is an essential component of the 'good news' of God's reign. It is a demonstration of what is meant when John predicts that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit. For Mark exorcising unclean spirits is a primary function of the Holy Spirit and the key element one should recognize in what Jesus is doing."
Well, Jesus started out teaching, dealt with the interruption, and then continued his teaching.
Teaching about what? We really don’t know. Actually it’s a challenge to figure out exactly what Jesus primary theme is, other than his focus on the Kingdom of God, AND his theme of liberation……….setting people free.
He was actually quite good at being who he needed to be, depending upon the situation and what was called for. Whether it was compassion for the woman at the well or a challenge to the church officials, inviting himself to eat with the tax collectors or avoiding the trappings of popularity with the masses, Jesus was able to show up and do what was needed, then move on.
Not that much unlike the Lone Ranger! He left people scratching their heads and asking “who is this?” “What exactly is going on here?” But unlike the Lone Ranger, he was not afraid to identify himself as the “Son of the Living God.” And unlike the Lone Ranger, he still leaves me scratching my head and asking “Who exactly is this man?”
Loader makes a wonderful statement at the end of his commentary on Mark 1:21-28. He says our challenge is to create the space, the ‘synagogue’, "where our madness can come face to face with the holiness of Jesus. That also means coming to terms with our own madness."
In other words in order to consider the depth of Jesus teachings and actually receive something significant from them, our own madness must come to the surface and encounter the holiness of who Jesus is. Loader says that means we must “come to terms with our own madness!” Wait just a minute. Do I really want to go there? Isn’t it much easier to have an understanding of a Jesus who rides in on a beautiful horse and takes care of the sins of the world, then rides off into the sunset leaving me to benefit from his having been here?
What about this Jesus that might challenge me to face my “own madness?” What am I to do with this Jesus that challenges me to look at myself and my part in the brokenness of my world and the world about me?
Just in case you are having trouble identifying any brokenness in your world hear this true story as told by Diane Carman in her column last Friday in the Denver Post:
By virtue of her age and her diminutive stature, 85-year-old Ellie Lindecrantz surely qualifies as a little old lady. Nobody would dare call her that, though. She's made of tougher stuff.
Still, occasionally everybody needs help, and on Monday it was Ellie's turn.
She had arrived at Denver International Airport about 1:30 p.m. to catch a 3:09 flight to Florida. She has serious coronary artery disease and has found that spending a few months of the year at sea level works wonders. Her husband had driven their car down and planned to meet her at the airport when she arrived.
Ellie had requested a wheelchair to take her to the gate and was waiting under the arrival/departure screens when she started to feel chest pains. "I hurt a lot," she said. "I knew I needed help."
A young man stopped to look at the screens overhead. "I said I had severe chest pains and really needed some help," she said. "The man said, 'I hope you feel better,' and walked away."
Ellie had four nitroglycerin tablets in her pocket. She took one, but the pain continued.
She called to another person nearby asking for help. She just needed to get to the airport urgent-care facility, she said.
The woman kept walking.
Ellie took another nitro.
The wheelchair still hadn't arrived, she was still hurting, and she was getting scared, so Ellie took a few steps toward a woman wearing a uniform and monitoring the lines at the ticket counter. "I said that I really needed somebody to help me," Ellie said.
The woman looked at her ticket and said, "You should ask American Airlines to help you."
Ellie sat down. She took another nitro, but the pain was severe and she was beginning to panic, so she called her daughter, Greta Lindecrantz, on her cellphone.
Greta was in her car, driving to Golden, but she dialed 911 immediately. The Lakewood dispatcher picked up the call and patched it through to Denver, which transferred her to DIA dispatch.
"I told the person where my mother was, that she was having heart pain and that she needed help," Greta said. "He said, 'We haven't had any emergency calls.'
"This is an emergency call," Greta told him. "My mother needs help."
"What do you want me to do about it?" said the call-taker.
In the meantime, Ellie, alone in a crowded airport, had taken her last nitro. She still had chest pains. It had been nearly 30 minutes, and she was frightened.
Finally, the wheelchair attendant arrived.
"I told him that I needed to go to the medical part of the airport right away," Ellie said. But he didn't understand. The attendant didn't speak English.
He could tell that something was wrong, though, so he took her to another airport worker, a friend who could translate for them. As soon as he knew what she needed, the attendant sped her through the crowds to the infirmary, where she was stabilized and dispatched by ambulance to the hospital.
"It was not a good experience," Ellie said later from her bed at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital.
The worst part for her was the sense of abandonment.
The throbbing swarm of human activity was devoid of humanity. Ordinary people looked the other way as she pleaded for someone to help save her life.
They were in a hurry.
They had planes to catch.
"Everybody is very busy," Ellie said. "I realize this. But we're not people anymore. We don't have time to be people."
In a culture obsessed with time, the airport scene rises above ordinary punctiliousness. It is the pinnacle of self- important, buzzing, on-time activity.
And it's the pits of human kindness.
Ellie will be back there soon. She hoped to be released from the hospital late Thursday, and when she gets the OK from her doctor, she'll try again to fly to Florida.
But this time she'll take a friend with her all the way to Fort Myers. It's the only way she can be sure someone will be there who's not too busy to care.
“We’re not people anymore. We don’t have time to be people.”
Maybe this man Jesus, can once again teach us how to be people.
posted by Rev Waters | 9:33 AM
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