21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “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!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Click through to find the true power in this miracle!
Two things stand out in this reading: the people regard Jesus' teaching as having unprecedented authority and Jesus employs that authority in shocking fashion, casting out an unclean spirit from a man.
The mistake people make when looking at this text is focusing all of the weight and importance on the relationship between Jesus and the unclean spirit. Casting out the spirit was certainly the most unusual event in the story but that doesn't make it the beginning and end of the tale! The ultimate source of and reason for Jesus' authority cannot be found in his relationship with that spirit. The casting out was a symptom, a sign, of the authority, not the authority itself nor its reason.
The point of casting out the spirit was so the possessed man could be clean, redeemed. The reason that mattered to Jesus, besides taking care of a rather rude interruption in his sermon, was Jesus' love and compassion for the man. Love and compassion imbued his explanation of God's Word with authority. Love and compassion also allowed the proper and powerful use to make a man's life clean again. That, not some dog and pony show with spirits, is the heart of this gospel. The take-away point is not just that the spirit obeyed Jesus, but why, in whose name, and for what purpose.
If this is just a lesson about one person's command over unclean spirits it affects few, if any, of use except on the basic level of, "Well...he was Jesus. Cool!" Few of us will have the opportunity to come up against a heckling supernatural spirit inside one of our neighbors. Even if we did, most of us wouldn't feel comfortable trying to remove it. Therefore, having acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God and can do miracles that we can't, we nod and move on to more illustrative stories.
But if this story tells us that love is the authority by which God's Word is correctly spoken and the purpose of that loving authority is to open our eyes to compassion for our neighbor and make a difference in their world, well...that affects us all. It's occasion for deep thought, in fact.
In the first place this tells us that God's Word must be spoken in, with, and through love in order for the message to be true and authoritative. When we speak God's Word from a source of, and for the purpose of, love and compassion we speak with all the authority of Christ himself. We have the capacity to work miracles which, while they may be less obvious than the one described here, are every bit as powerful. Anyone who's been to Theology on Tap, tell me that miracles aren't worked there on a monthly basis. It happens. And that's just a small example. If, on the other hand, we try to speak God's Word apart from the Spirit of love we become like the scribes in the gospel. We may be learned. We may be respected. We may even be long-winded! But we will never have the right of it without love.
This gospel also points out that love must have a direction in order to be real and powerful. Love isn't just a sentiment. Messiah wasn't just a nice concept. Jesus' authority was for the purpose of cleansing. It's not enough to say, "I love people" without working towards the best for them. Sometimes folks think adding the word "love" to some form of condemnation makes the judgment OK. "I love these people, I just think they're horrible." Say what now? There may be love in that sentence somewhere but it's not reaching any object. Our love becomes authoritative only when it's put into action, following the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The sad part about the story is that this was actually a surprise to the faithful people back then, that they didn't experience this kind of powerful, loving, redeeming authority until Jesus showed it to them. Then again, we have the story of Jesus right in front of us and we still don't get it. How many sermons have you heard preached for purposes other than love? How much authority have you seen taken for the self instead of used for the healing of others? How many forces in the world encourage you to derive your authority and power in ways other than God's Loving Word? Those forces end up powerless, gone in half a breath in the face of true love. Only God's authority endures.
If you want to work on something powerful this week, ask how you, your family, and your church can better speak and live out God's love. Get off the treadmill of subservience to lesser things and imbue every facet of your life with his authority. Like the people of Capernaum you might be surprised what happens, and the folks around you might be too!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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