In this morning’s reading from Mark’s Gospel (1:21-28) we hear once again the first account of Jesus healing an individual. This particular man who was healed just happened to be possessed by an unclean spirit. He came to the attention of Jesus, not because a loved one had brought him to be healed, but because in his own voice he cried out in protest and thus interupted Jesus and his teachings. This morning I’m not going to ask us to focus as much on the miricle of Jesus healing an individual as I want us to look more closely at the nature of the response of Jesus to this dusruption.
Many of us gathered here today have experiences in our own personal past when we have seen the interruption of either a teacher or a leader while they were in the middle of a presentation. Most “good educators” will evaluate the interruption quickly and directly answer the question being posed, and thus incorporate the question or disruption into their teaching. Questionable teachers will instantly and severly reprimand the individual who has dared to interrupt their important lesson. Now politicians, as evidenced by our recent election debates, have learned to turn such disrubtions into an opportunity to “preach their message!”
I guess you could say that I’m willing to count Jesus as one of the greatest, if not the best, teacher ever. Jesus could have ended his command to this man with his first words, “Be silent!” Did you notice that the evil spirit never truly uttered another intelligable word? However, Jesus’ true intention was not to only silence this man possessed by an evil spirit. Jesus knew that this man was possessed, and that this man needed to be set free. Jesus understood that helping this man to become free at this moment was far more important than finishing a teaching moment with the other individuals present. In truth, maybe setting this man free was the true lesson to be taught to those who where there to watch this event unfold. Maybe Jesus wants all of us to remember that we too are called to help our brothers and our sister. Maybe we need to be reminded a few times that God has sent even us here, into this world, to be witnesses to our brothers and our sisters about the love of God rather than about the coming judgment and condemnation.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul cautions all who would read this letter that, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”[1] Yes, knowledge is important and it is valuable, but even more importantly we must remember to remain in love with our Creator as well as with all of our brothers and our sisters.
Paul also wrote great words of advice to all of us who have been freed from the old set of rules, “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”[2] We have been called – we have been called to rise above our sense of personal freedom. We have been called back into servitude. We are also reminded that we have called to help our brothers and our sisters to become as free of “evil spirits” as the man that Jesus had set free.
No comments:
Post a Comment