Demons and Distractions
Jane’s Sermon Notes
January 29, 2012
In Mark, the earliest Gospel written, there are no stories of Jesus’ birth. Rather, the Gospel begins abruptly and quickly. Jesus is baptized and tempted in the wilderness; then he announces he has come to proclaim the good news of God, calls the first disciples, enters the synagogue to teach, and casts out an unclean spirit. All that in chapter one! That Jesus casts out the unclean spirit in the very opening of the Gospel suggests to me that this is a very important, powerful act. Part of what it means to proclaim and demonstrate the good news of God (or the coming near of the Kingdom of God) is to oppose the forces of evil which rob God’s people of all that God hopes or intends for us. This passage, situated so early in Mark’s Gospel, deserves our attention.
Demon possession?! For those of a certain age, it brings up images from the movie “The Exorcist.” The movie was hard to take, and so is the idea. It seems a first century problem – not a twenty-first century one. So, we are likely to read the text from Mark 1, about Jesus casting out the unclean spirit and the man convulsing, and interpret it out of our more enlightened perspective. Perhaps the man had epilepsy and was having a seizure; maybe a psychotic break. But demons? We doubt it.
