The Powers

Mark 1:29-39.            As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

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I have no desire to get into a political thing, but I just want to say that I am glad so many more people have access to health care now.  I am glad that we have these big health care systems in Dayton, with so many hospitals and emergency centers and acute care centers.  I am glad that there are specialty hospitals that provide the best treatment they can for particular types of illnesses.  I am glad that we live in a time when medical knowledge and diagnostic and treatment possibilities can seem downright miraculous.

I am glad that we have access to such great care and healing.  I spend a lot of time in hospitals and I see so many caring and compassionate people working in them.  I see systems trying (not always succeeding but trying) to create the most organized system to offer the best environment for wellness.  At Soin Medical Center there is soothing music playing on loudspeakers in the parking lot, so as soon as I step out of my car and begin to walk toward the entrance I am already feeling my soul restored.  At Miami Valley Hospital the first person I speak to when I walk in through the parking garage is always a calm, caring, and helpful person giving me directions to whatever place I am going.  I have spoken to many very smart and compassionate nurses all over the place.  I know some of us have our horror stories of health care gone bad, but I do believe overall we are living in a good time and place, and there is a multitude of opportunities for wellness.

So when we read the stories of miraculous healings in the scriptures, I think it’s safe to assume that some of the things Jesus was treating were the kinds of things we now treat pretty well with modern medicine.  Antibiotics might have taken care of Simon’s mother-in-law’s needs.  Remember the story of the woman who couldn’t stand up straight?  Sounds like osteoporosis.  Good nutrition would have gone a long way in preventing that, we know now.  And all the lepers Jesus healed? Leprosy was a catchall label and included all kinds of skin diseases, many of which would probably be easily treated now with certain kinds of creams and ointments. 

My point isn’t to downsize Jesus’ healing miracles, but simply to point out that these are real things we experience too.  The miracle of healing, for us, often comes in a bottle or a surgical procedure.  But when it does, I turn my eyes to heaven and say thank God for this.

At the same time he was healing diseases we are told he was also casting out demons.  And here is where I find my dilemma. We are sophisticated people; if I stand up here and preach about Jesus casting the demons out of you, you might start thinking about me differently.  We don’t believe in slimy green vaporous monsters that invade people’s lives and bodies.  We don’t believe such things are real.

But I do believe that demons are real.  Sometimes we call them mental illness; sometimes they are called depression; sometimes we know them as alcoholism.  Their name is legion, as the demon once said to Jesus, for they are many.  These demons are real and the worst part of them is that they fight as hard as they do.  In some of the stories, when Jesus approached the demons screamed for him to leave them alone.  I can tell you that is exactly what demons do; they fight for their lives, they overpower the will of their host.  It’s not easy to cast out a demon.

But, again, we live in a time and place where such things are better understood than ever before.  We have a long way to go, but we live in a time when there is growing understanding and compassion for those who are afflicted with the demons.  Demons frequently can be cast out, as so many other diseases can be cast out in this age.

We live in a time of amazing health care possibilities.  Yet, we know that there are some kinds of wellness that elude the technology of CAT scans and surgeries, pharmacology and physical therapy or psychotherapy.  There are sicknesses of the spirit that require something more.

I think that’s what Jesus was trying to teach us.  And I think that’s why he had to move on when he did.

It would have been easy for him to stay in Capernaum where the crowds were wild for him, screaming for him.  He could have stayed there and continued as the local healer, set up a shop where people could come to have their warts removed, their conjunctivitis cured, their hearing restored.  He could have had a good life there.  But that wasn’t actually what he came to do.

What he came to do, he says to Simon, is to proclaim the message: the message of hope and healing; the message of freedom from all kinds of oppression; the message of salvation beginning right now. 

He had a message of power.  He brought with him a power that stood in stark contrast to the kinds of power the people saw themselves surrounded by.  It was a power that “brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing” as Isaiah proclaims.  It is a power that is stronger than the demons that clench their fists around the throats of their hosts.  It is a power that can raise up a very sick woman and empower her to serve the Lord with gladness.  Yes, it is a power that serves; a power that serves all of us.

And he brings this power for all who are weak and discouraged, tired and desperate, sick in body or soul.  So he couldn’t very well set up a storefront miracle mart in the little town of Capernaum, because there are tired and weak and sick and discouraged people everywhere.  He had a message and a certain amount of time, and places to go in that time.

And when he went, he brought his disciples along with him.  For they, also, were tasked with taking the message out far and wide.

There are two messages in this story for us today.  The first is that Jesus brings healing for all our needs, a balm for all our woes.  He brings power that can lift up those who have been brought low, and strength to reinvigorate those who are discouraged, and peace to soothe the sin-sick soul.  This is the first message – in Christ we are all healed. 

And the second message is this: you and I are charged with spreading the first message at every opportunity we have – in ways that we already know how to do.  We do it when we visit someone, when we hold a hand, when we share a prayer.  We share the good news whenever we practice compassion – especially with those people who need our compassion the way we need air – to live.

I am glad to be living in a time and place of such great healing possibilities.  I am glad to hear the word about all the ways Jesus and his disciples brought divine healing to people everywhere.  Now, to borrow a saying from Jesus, let us go and do likewise.