PASTOR'S MESSAGE

 

Casting out Evil

Mark 1:21-28

     Bill, Jim and Scott were at a convention together and were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75 story sky scraper.  After a long day of meetings they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken and they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room. Bill said to Jim and Scott, “Let’s break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting.  I’ll tell jokes for 25 flights, and Jim can sing songs for 25 flights, and Scott can tell sad stories the rest of the way.”  So, Bill began to tell jokes.  At the 26th floor he stopped telling jokes and Jim began to sing.  At the 51st floor Jim stopped singing and Scott began to tell sad stories. “I will tell my saddest story first,” he said.  “I left the room key in the car!”

            Truly, that is a sad story.  But I’m sure we could all tell stories of our own like that.  The first love that broke our heart, the task we failed at, the job we got fired from, the person who rejected us.  You name it – there’s plenty of sadness in this hurting world of ours.  But the greatest sadness of all is the evil we face because of sin, the evil attacks that constantly assail us from our enemies – the devil, the world, and our own human flesh.  That’s why it’s so good to know that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ came to rescue us from those enemies, and to cast out the evil and conquer it for good!

            That’s exactly what we see happening in our Gospel lesson for this morning.  You see, St. Mark’s Gospel emphasizes Jesus’ confrontation with the evil one.  It’s a battle that began at the very start of Jesus’ ministry and ended at the cross, when Jesus said:  “It is finished,” – indicating that He had won the war with evil for good.  That’s why St. Mark’s account of Jesus’ ministry begins with the event recorded in our text – the casting out of a demon.

Now, our text takes place in the village of Capernaum on a Sabbath day, when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue.  Undoubtedly, He was preaching the Gospel of salvation, the Good News of God’s great love and power to rescue men from sin.  Well, right in the middle of Jesus’ sermon, a man possessed by an evil spirit jumped up and started shouting at Jesus, disrupting the whole service.  Our text tells us that the evil spirit cried out:  “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.” 

You’ll notice that the demon calls Jesus’ by name, and declares Him to be who He truly is – the Holy One of God.  Some scholars think this comes from the occult belief that the precise use of a person’s name gives you control over them.  However, St. Mark shows us who really had control over whom.  Jesus, the Holy Son of God obviously had almighty power over the demon, because He commanded the evil spirit to be quiet and come out of the man.  And immediately the demon departed.  He had no choice but to obey Jesus’ command, because he was defeated and his power was destroyed.  It reminds us of St. John’s promise that, “GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU (namely Jesus Christ, who lives inside of you and me), THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD (namely, Satan.)  In other words, at the very beginning of His ministry Jesus confronted evil head on and proved that He has the power to conquer it and cast it out!

            My friends, what a comfort that is for you and me, because in some ways we’re not that different from the man in our text, who was possessed by the evil spirit.  Our text tells us that the evil spirit took over the man’s body and pushed him around, took over his voice and spoke for him, took over his mind and led him where he wanted him to go.  Our text even says that the evil spirit threw him into convulsions.  The man was no longer his own.  He was possessed.  Now, of course, you and I are not possessed by an evil spirit.  However, when we give into our sinful nature, and listen to the tempting voice of Satan, then we are allowing an evil spirit to take control of our life.  The evil spirit, Satan, is constantly trying to push us around, and guide our actions and lead us where he wants us to go.   For instance, when we lose our temper and take God’s name in vain to curse another, or when we selfishly plan and plot to manipulate others for our benefit, or when we say spiteful things to each other or about each other, then we are allowing the evil spirit, Satan, to have control over us.

Interestingly enough, for the Jews the collective word for demons was mazzikin, which means: ‘one who does harm.’  And certainly Satan does want to do us harm, not only physically, but spiritually, which is why our text calls him an ‘evil spirit.’  As a matter of fact, the word in our text literally means:  ‘an unclean spirit.’  Everything about Satan is stinking and unclean, like decomposing filth.  And when we listen to his voice and give into his temptation, it appeals to our sinful nature which is unclean as well.  Ironically, none of us here would ever dream of going and playing in a sewer.  Yet, sometimes we insist on playing around with the unclean thoughts and desires that Satan sends our way.  It’s as if we fail to understand that he wants to throw our lives into convulsions and destroy us!

            Archaeologists in Palestine have made a fascinating discovery.  In digging up certain ancient burial sites, they have found hundreds of human skulls, each of them with a tiny hole drilled into the base of the skull.  At first this discovery was quite puzzling, until researchers learned that it had to do with people’s beliefs about demon possession.  It seems that in those days, men were so convinced that everyone had a devil living inside them, that they would have a doctor perform a simple surgical operation.  He would pierce a hole in the skull and remove the bone chip.  This supposedly allowed the demon to escape.  But, just to make absolutely sure, the bone chip would then be worn around the neck as an amulet to ward off evil spirits.  It was a rather excruciating method of dealing with the problem of sin and Satan in one’s life.  And the worst part was, that it really didn’t resolve the conflict, because Satan and sin still remained!

            You know, at times I think we too go through similar antics to solve the problem of sin, like beating ourselves up with guilt, or trying to assuage God by doing nice things.  Either that, or we try ignore the problem, try not to think about it, hoping that it will go away.  But the only sure-fire method of dealing with that unclean spirit, Satan, is to turn to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and trust in Him to rescue us.  For, in the words of our text, He is the only One who has the power and authority to conquer evil and cast it out.

            Rev. Kenneth Klaus, the Lutheran Hour speaker, describes it this way:  “As a pastor, I drive a very sensible and dependable Chevy.  But when a friend offered me a ride in his Corvette, I jumped at the opportunity.  That machine was beautiful to look at, and impressive to sit in.  Riding a few inches off the ground, my friend put that contraption through its paces.  In first gear, I was thrown back.  In second gear, it felt like the G-force was stretching my face like that of astronauts during a blastoff.  In third gear, we blew by a semi-truck like he was standing still.  Then, doing around a-thousand-million miles an hour (I may be exaggerating there), we came upon a parked police car.  My friend quickly slowed won.  The truck slowed down.  Everybody slowed down, which is the point.  That corvette had power.  The 18-wheeler had power.  Bu the unmoving, parked police car had authority.”

Dear friends, our Savior Jesus Christ has both power and authority – power to defeat our enemies, sin, death and hell – and authority to put them in their place, so that they cannot harass or accuse us any more.  And that’s just what He did, when He died on the cross.  You might say, that our Lord’s crucifixion was like one big exorcism.  Exorcism is a Latin term, meaning ‘to cut out,’ and it refers to the ceremony for driving out a demon.  Well, that’s exactly what Jesus accomplished by His death for us.  He drove out the demon, Satan, and rendered Him powerless.  He removed the uncleanness of our guilt and made us pure.  He cut out the tumor of our sin so that we are forgiven and free.  The cross of Christ expelled Satan from his throne of darkness and sent him crashing down to hell.

However, the best part of all is that that benefit became personally ours in our Baptism, when Jesus exorcised the devil and made us His child!  That’s why the very first question in the Baptismal formula is:  “Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways?”  Because that’s what Jesus did for us in our Baptism – He renounced the devil and cast him out of us.  In that precious washing of regeneration, Jesus removed the evil of our sin, and transformed us into His clean, holy and forgiven children.  He did that by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts to bring us to saving faith and keep us in that faith all the days of our life. 

In other words, just as Jesus silenced the demon in our text and cast him out, so He has done the same for you and me in our Baptism.  As a matter of fact, the word silence in our text, specifically means:  ‘to put a muzzle on someone.’  And that’s just what Jesus has done to Satan.  He muzzled him.  He silence Him, so that those lies Satan fees us – lies that we worthless human  beings and that God doesn’t love us – those lies don’t count, because they’ve been overcome by the saving truth of God’s Word.  The accusations He hurls against us about our sin and guilt don’t stick, because our sin and guilt have been cast out.  No longer are we ruled by an unclean spirit.  Instead, we are now possessed by the Holy Spirit, who is God’s guarantee that we have been set free from our bondage to death and hell and will live with Him in heaven.

And that’s why Jesus wants us constantly to be filled with the Spirit, by making use of the Means of Grace.  We need to regularly read and study God’s Word for the comfort and assurance of everlasting life that it brings us.  We need to daily renew our Baptism through repentance and faith, for it is the sign and seal of our salvation.  We need to regularly come to His altar to taste His life-giving body and blood, for the forgiveness of all our sins, for that is how Jesus casts out the evil within.  May God help us to do that – to daily renounce the devil and make use of God’s Word and Sacraments every opportunity we get, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen. 

                     

           

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