Epiphany 4 Year B

People cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Mark 1:21-28

Remember the days when a televangelist would call people out on stage with crutches and with one touch and a prayer, they would cast off their crutches and begin dancing on stage, and the crowds would applaud, and the minister, usually dressed in a silver-white jacket and Gucci shoes, would smile?  I can’t help but notice that we don’t see very much of that anymore. I think most people had trouble reconciling the Las Vegas-style magic show with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we portray Jesus, the Carpenter from Nazareth, as the magician messiah who puts his fireworks show on display for all to see, we make Jesus into something that he spent most of his life and most of his ministry REJECTING!  That means, sooner or later, we will have to deal with the monster of our own creation.

Every single time somebody, while amid tragedy, asks that piercing question: WHY?  We will have to explain where the magic went, and why the fireworks didn’t come to the rescue. If there is no cure, we won’t be able to offer a healing.  The two are not always the same.

Christian humorist, Tony Campolo, once wrote a book with a poignant title: Following Jesus, Without Embarrassing God. I think the title applies especially when we talk about our theology of healing.

We know that Jesus is so full of compassion that he will never pass up an opportunity to make someone whole or to heal, and although the crowds were often amazed, Jesus’ purpose was never to put on a show.

Jesus understood that his ministry was not about spectacular tricks, but that it was about spectacularly Good News.  It’s about people knowing the incredible truth that suffering is a part of life, but that God has always reserved a place amid our suffering, and that God will always be working for our healing and our wholeness.   

Jesus knew the difference between a cure and a healing. 

The greatest miracle of all is that, in Christ, God is always present among us.  The other miracles: walking on water, changing water into wine, driving out demons and raising the dead, are signs of that one fantastic reality, the reality that God will never desert us, never abandon us as orphans and never leave us for dead.

In our Gospel this week, Jesus is confronted in the synagogue by a man with an unclean spirit. We don’t use words like unclean spirit anymore.  They had a limited vocabulary in the First Century when it came to things medical and psychological. Most Biblical scholars have pointed out that in Jesus’ day, because of medical ignorance, many cases of unclean spirits, were likely cases of epilepsy or perhaps psychotic behavior for which they had no name in the first Century.

There are other forms of evil spirits, that are, unfortunately even more common.  We have specific names for those also.  We call them anxiety, unbridled anger, hopelessness, and sometimes the worst of them all, loneliness.  

Sometimes you and I help these unwanted spirits along.  We do so every time we use our power to render someone else powerless. Every time we find ways to categorize, or pigeon-hole, or classify people to create some kind of tier of acceptance.

When we make the means the end, we make God’s gentle touch of healing a magic side show, and we miss the point completely.

In this Gospel, we are told that the people were Amazed.

The crowds wanted to know how Jesus did this.  Everybody always wants to know how a magician does his tricks.  How does he do it? they wondered. Even unclean spirits obey him.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t address their questions, and in fact, in the very next verse after our appointed Gospel this week, Mark tells us that he immediately left the synagogue. For Jesus it is always the end of wholeness and never the means of how it is achieved that really counts.

Leprosy rendered one unclean in Jesus’ day.  Again, medical ignorance played a role.  Most cases of leprosy in the first century were really cases of simple skin rashes, some of which could be cured with an ointment in a matter of weeks or even days.

I really believe that Jesus healed as many lepers by physically touching them, accepting them, respecting them and restoring their dignity, than perhaps he did by calming their skin rash. It’s the end, not the means! 

Jesus often takes those he heals away from the crowds.  It’s the end not the means!

This healing of the man with the unclean spirit is the first of the recorded healings of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. It is immediately followed by a second, recorded, physical healing of Peter’s mother-in-law.  I believe these two together show us how much God cares for the whole person, the mental and the spiritual, as well as the physical.

Again, the crowds are amazed and are pressing in on Peter’s house. After the people are amazed that Peter’s mother-in-law is up and around again, they begin to press in on him.  Celebrity worship has been around for a long time. 

But what does Jesus do?  He goes to a secluded place, and when his disciples find him, he says, Let’s go on to the next town.  We have other people who need to hear the Good News of God’s Salvation. The root word for salvation, is wholeness. We are always in the presence of a God who wishes to make us whole people in every succeeding moment of our lives.  That’s something we need to remind ourselves of as often as we can. 

There is a story told by the rabbis about a king who was seated in a garden, and one of his counselors was speaking of the wonderful works of God.

Show me a sign, said the king, and I will believe.

Here are four acorns, said the counselor, Will you, Majesty, plant them in the ground, and then stoop down for a moment and look into this clear pool of water?

The king did so.

Now, said the counselor, look up. The king looked up and saw four oak-trees where he had planted the acorns.

Wonderful! he exclaimed; this is indeed the work of God. How long were you looking into the water? asked the counselor. Only a second, said the king. No, I’m afraid that seventy years have passed as a second, said the counselor. The king looked at his garments; they were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the water; he had become an old man.

There is no miracle here, then, he said angrily. Oh, there is a great miracle here, said the counselor, it is God’s work.  Whether it takes one second or seventy years, matters not.  God, you see, works on our behalf for eternity, not only in the moment. 

I close with this quote from the book of Ecclesiastes:

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.