A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, January 29, 2012.
Making Room
Mark 1:21-28
(Other Readings Appointed: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13)
In 1971, a novel by the author William Peter Blatty was published titled The Exorcist. Although a work of fiction, and also which was in 1973 turned into a feature film, the events portrayed were stated to be “based on real events.” And those who know the “legend and lore” of our own Mount Rainier community, also know that these real events are reported to have begun not too far from us, and as some have said, involved the first Pastor of our congregation. Both accounts, real and fictional, dealt with the demonic possession of a young person who was finally released from that possession through the prayers and rituals of exorcism conducted by Roman Catholic Priests.
Nowadays, mention the word “exorcism”, and many will let their minds drift to the images that they may have seen in The Exorcist or in many of the other recent films which have made exorcism a main part of their plot. Because of these films, exorcism has been seen more as “the stuff of horror movies” than something real. Even if one still believes in the existence of evil, and maybe even of “evil beings”, the idea of demonic possession is still something that seems to be more easily doubtable, mainly because there are just many more “logical explanations” to these “strange occurrences”, especially thanks to the explanations given to us by science.
So, when we hear in today’s Gospel of an exorcism performed by our Blessed Lord, the same sort of questioning comes up. Sure, we believe in evil, but could people really be possessed by Satan? Could these people just be sort of “mental”? Maybe they didn’t need Jesus; they needed a psychiatrist.
Well, in response to this, we have to start with remembering something very important. The Scriptures were written for our learning, and so we should rightly be able to take and learn from the Scriptures that which will be useful for us in our own day and time. But, what we cannot do is apply what we know through our own “modern knowledge” and apply it to the time of the Scriptures. There were no “psychiatric couches” in first century Galilee. If people said, “You have a demon”, they believed it. So, a healer was needed; someone who could get the demon to leave through the power of God’s Word and prayer—what we call exorcism. And until such time that the possessed person could be “cured”, they lived outside of their communities basically as “spiritual lepers”, cut off from family and other human contact.
Imagine then the surprise of the people of Capernaum when all of a sudden a man possessed by an unclean spirit begins to speak with Jesus as He was teaching in the synagogue. Shock, horror, and fear probably struck them all as the demon cried at Jesus through the mouth of this possessed man: “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.” And before this demon could say another word, Jesus rebuked it: “Be silent and come out of him!” And so it was. And all who saw it could only marvel at what they had seen: “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Now, fast forward to our moment here and now. We hear this account and we, with all that we know about science and medicine, we listen to these words and we pretty much are only left with the thought, “Well, that’s nice that Jesus did that, but it probably wasn’t something real.” And this brings us to what I believe is a problem that we have in our day—the unbelief we have in evil. Sure, we know that there is evil in the world and that there are people that we have no problem with labeling as being evil, but evil is seen more and more as just some “impersonal force”, something that just moves some people to do “really bad things”.
Yet, what the Scriptures wish to lead us to see is that not only is evil something which exists and is real, there is also someone who is behind it all—this someone which Scripture names as Satan, the devil, the evil one, the father of lies, and the list goes on. And this evil one is not some cartoonish character on whom we simply place the blame on for the wrong things we do by saying, “The devil made me do it”. No, this evil one is a powerful being who in his own rebellion against God desires that all humanity should also join him in rebelling against their Creator.
And when Satan leads people away from God, leading them to lives of disobedience against God’s commandments, he thinks himself to be the “true” prince of this world. The devil thinks that the world is his for the taking, believing that God’s creatures will follow him and receive from him all of the pleasures of the flesh that he says “his world” has to offer. And to those who heed Satan’s word and believe that what he says is true, they follow him and their own sinful flesh gladly and willingly. Satan rejoices in this and succeeds greatly until something happens: the Son of God shows up.
You see, Satan has one problem. The father of lies can reign supreme over anyone or anything that will believe his lies as the truth. But when the One who is the Truth arrives, Satan must retreat because his lies are seen for what they are: lies. This is why that demon trembled in that Capernaum synagogue that day. The demon recognized who Jesus was and knew that not only that he had to leave the presence of the Holy One of God, but that also his own destruction was near. No longer could this demon have a “home” within this person who was created not to be the devil’s own, but to be God’s own.
When God comes on to the scene of a person whose life is bound and captive to Satan’s lies, He comes really to repossess the life of the possessed. This can be seen in the exorcism that is a part of our Rite of Holy Baptism. Yes, you heard right, even Lutherans “do exorcisms”. Maybe you remember these words which were once spoken over you or over others you have seen whose lives were claimed for God: “Depart, O unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit. Receive the sign of the Holy Cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ, the Crucified.” With these words, and more importantly with the Word of God in the water of Holy Baptism, God powerfully claims the life of those whom He calls to be His own, telling Satan quite literally, “Get the hell out of here”, and a life is cleansed and renewed to live for God both now and forever.
In all of this, as God claims people soul by precious soul, God is in the world making room for His kingdom. With every dearly loved child of His creating made to be the cleansed child of His redeeming, Satan’s hold on not only the people of the world, but also on the world itself, is broken. Satan and his lies are seen for what they are, and God is once more seen for what He is: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Satan is dethroned from his own self-created grandeur, and God is enthroned as the Lord of all. And as people worship, honor, adore, and serve the One who alone is the true King of the world, even Satan himself must acknowledge the One to whom even he must submit and who he knows will ultimately be his undoing and destruction.
What we see our Lord Jesus doing in the Gospel as He shows His power over the forces of evil is given to us so that we might see that evil is indeed real and exists personally. And we learn that because of Jesus and His victory over these powers through His death and resurrection the world can be set free from Satan’s bondage and be given the new and abundant life that God wishes and grants to all those who trust and turn to Him in faith. Even now, God is on the move, driving the evil one and his forces further and further out of this world as He continues to win His children back soul by soul. As the freeing message of the Good News of Jesus is proclaimed, as the cleansing waters of Baptism are poured onto reclaimed souls, as the words of forgiveness and absolution are spoken to wounded souls, as the Body and Blood of Christ feeds faithful souls, and as the body of Christ—the Church—moves out into the world, God is making room, forcing the powers of the evil one to retreat until that day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever”. As we wait for that day, we work with our God, making room for His kingdom, throwing our prayers and our witness against the darkness, shattering it by shining the bright light of Christ into the world, claiming everyone and everything for the One in and through whom we “live, move, and have our being”—our Creating, Redeeming, and Sanctifying God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!
