Epiphany 4; Text: Mark 1:21-28; Title: Authority to Cross Spiritual Boundaries

The story was told in Saturday’s Globe and Mail (The West is in With a Vengeance) of a farmer in Alberta who gave his Conservative candidate Ms. Ambrose, now a Member of Parliament, a chunk of concrete he had hammered out of the Berlin wall when it came down back in 1979. He broke down in tears as he gave it to her last Saturday. It would, he said, always remind her of the meaning of democracy.

This story tells us how much Harper’s electoral victory meant for many Westerners. Finally, after many years of neglect and failure, they have someone in power who understands their concerns and who can represent their interests. Finally the political wall that many believed kept Western Canadians apart from the country they belong to and which should also belong to them came crashing down. Now the West is in!

Today God challenges us to think about breaking through another kind of barrier – not a political one, but a spiritual one. God wants to give us the power or authority to cross the kind of spiritual boundary that will enable us to enjoy an abundant and fulfilling life. For this, let us turn to our Gospel lesson. There we see Jesus crossing spiritual boundaries and extending the kingdom of God in our world. We see this first in his teaching. His teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum draws a reaction. "All were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as the scribes (22)." What was so amazing about his teaching? It was the authority with which he taught. Compared to their own Bible teachers, the scribes, his teaching was different.

The Bible teachers of Jesus' time knew the Bible very well. In fact they had memorized it! They could quote you any verse from the Bible! They certainly were authorities when it came to the Bible. So how could Jesus' teaching be more authoritative? For that we need to look at what Jesus taught. In verse 15 of Mark 1, Jesus said: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." Here Jesus is saying that all the promises that God made in the Bible were now being fulfilled. This is the difference between the teaching of Jesus and the scribes: The scribes could only tell you about the promises God made in the Bible. Jesus could tell you when these promises would be fulfilled. Jesus could say this because He Himself is the author of the Bible. He is the Word of God made flesh. And not only did He teach when the fulfillment of God's promises would take place, He Himself is the fulfillment of God's promises! Therefore Jesus taught with authority!

But Jesus didn't just make authoritative claims. He backed them up with authoritative action: When a person with an unclean spirit spoke up: "I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God! (24)," Jesus demonstrated the truth of these words by telling that unclean spirit where to go. In the next chapter of Mark, we see that Jesus also has authority to heal any sickness and to forgive sins (Mark 2:5, 10).

Now, few of us would have a problem accepting these facts about the authority Jesus exercised on earth as God's Son. But what about today? What has happened to that authority of Jesus? Did He take it with Him when He returned to heaven? Before He returned to His Father, Mark records that Jesus told His disciples:
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and is baptized shall be saved; but he who has not believed shall be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover (Mark 16:15-18).

Jesus is saying here that ordinary believers are going to have authority to cast out demons, speak new languages and heal the sick. They will also receive special protection from those things that would normally harm them, like snakes and poison.

Is this still true for today? I believe, yes! For three reasons: First, these words of Jesus apply to those who "believed" the apostolic message, and that includes us. Secondly, if the command to preach the gospel is still as current today as it was 2000 years ago, so why not the other words? Thirdly, we hear reports of these kinds of miracles actually happening. But these mostly happen in third-world countries where Christians are a poor and persecuted minority.

Why do we not see these kinds of miracles also happening among us? I think it is an important question we need to ask ourselves, especially as the authority to do such things is one of the marks of those who believe in Jesus. One of the reasons we fail to observe miracles is because of our level of affluence and materialism. These make it very difficult for us to recognize our daily need for God and our complete dependence upon Him. Our wealth and resources make it possible for us to avoid many of the stark realities of life: That we are miserable sinners who could die any moment and then to face the judgment of God.

The protections of our state, our medical systems and financial resources make it very easy to ignore God and the reality of our spiritual poverty. In the Western world, we only get spiritual when our systems that protect us fail. When the pension funds are depleted, when the levies are breached, when terrorists kidnap civilians, when our health care systems break down, only then, for a moment, do we realize our vulnerability and helplessness apart from God.

But for a person living in the third world, who has none of these resources, God is a much more present and living reality. God is someone he must count on to get him through each day. I can attest that even from the time I was a child, that whenever I was in a desperate situation where I could no longer rely on my own wisdom or power to find a way out, but could only cry to God for help, God never failed to answer my prayer. I cannot recall a single instance that I asked God for help in a desperate situation where he did not come though for me. I am not bragging here, for I am sure that if you think back, you will find that it has also been true for you. When it comes to finding help, we know we can depend on God.

But for us who live in an affluent technological age, most of our needs are looked after by doctors and pharmacists, by bankers and grocers and hundreds of others like that. It is really amazing how much we rely on other people on a daily basis. As Christians, we know that God uses other people as well as technology and medicine along with all other material things to bless us. They are all gifts of God that supply our daily need. But when these are plentiful and everything runs smoothly, it is difficult for us to "see" God being present and working miracles among us. It becomes a challenge for faith because God's hand is disguised and not as apparent as in times of scarcity. That is one of the reasons I believe our affluent age so easily produces people who are cynical about God and faith in Jesus. We become people who take God’s blessings for granted.

Instead of drawing people closer to God, wealth, technology and scientific advances have sadly become obstacles and barriers to faith. Instead of honouring God and thanking Him for these blessings, the rebellious human heart misinterprets these as evidence that God does not exist, that the church is irrelevant and that human life has no divine purpose.

Divorced from God, our Western civilization has become cynical, driven by greed and lust, devoid of true virtues and values that make life worth living. These are what you might call the "unclean spirits" of our age that hold people in bondage. These plague our people with unhealthy appetites and destructive addictions, with sexual lust, with feelings of anger and resentment, with hopelessness, despair, mental illness and the like.

I believe that God is calling us as members of our society and as a church in this community, to confront these spiritual barriers, these unclean spirits of our age, with the authority Jesus has given us. Jesus came to rescue those who are in bondage and bring them into His kingdom. Jesus has given us authority over the unclean spirits of our age. This authority we received in our baptism when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit. There Jesus gave us His name: The name which has authority over unclean spirits. God now calls us to help our neighbours to come into a living relationship with Jesus, to see their lives become fulfilled and meaningful, filled with hope and with joy.

God also grants us the tools we need to grow in our faith, which we need to confront the spiritual forces that hurt people and lead them to unbelief. These tools include His Word which divides truth from error. Through the promises we find in this Word, Christ comes to us and ministers to us. As we trust these promises, God works to overcome the obstacles to unbelief.

Laying hold of God’s promises, we begin to feel His presence and experience His healing and love. With His Word ruling in our hearts, the lives of those around us are also touched by the love of Jesus. Let us then make use of God's Word and lay claim to the promises God has given us. May we be empowered to cross over the spiritual barriers in our lives and so enter into a joyful and abundant life. Amen.