MARK 1:21-28
Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.
Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.
Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!”
Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.
Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. “What sort of new teaching is this?” they asked excitedly. “It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!” The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.
Clouds of Cynicism Floating Across the Sky of Hope
I confess. After 26 years of pastoring there are more clouds of cynicism floating across my sky. Jesus clearly had authority over “even evil spirits” when he walked our planet. But does he have that same authority 2000 years later? Sure I believe he returned bodily from the dead and sits at the Father’s right hand; a place of ongoing authority.
But evil continues to ravage humanity, including Christians of the “Bible-believing” kind.
The bloody US Civil War found serious Christians from North and South pounding the life out of each other. Serious Christians have murdered Indians, owned African slaves, and perpetrated a system of racism into the 1960s. In my own life, Holy Spirit filled Christians, have fought and condemned each other, split churches, and drove their own children away from Christianity over issues like women in slacks and television watching.
Then I look in the mirror and see the ongoing influence of evil in my own cynicism and criticism!
Perhaps Christ morns at the Father’s right hand for all of us.
When he returned to heaven within fifty days after the resurrection, he sent his Spirit to fill 120 disciples. And the Spirit continues to indwell and fill his disciples, making us the body of Christ. Ah, what a risk, making Christians his physical presence in the world and giving us the same authority he modeled during three years so long ago.
Yes, Christ has the same authority today, except that we are his mouth and hands.
Is it possible so much evil persists in us and around us because we have not followed Jesus’ way of using this authority? Notice, Jesus cast out the evil spirit of this man. How has the body of Christ typically used this authority? Rather than delivering people from spiritual bondage, we try to force people to stop doing evil.
We try to stop all kinds of bad behaviors; some identified clearly in scripture, others that we have invented. We try to stop Christians and non-Christians alike from behaving badly. Perhaps if the Body of Christ turned its authority toward helping ourselves and others experience deepening and broadening spiritual freedom every day, and leave the behaviors up to the Spirit to shape, there would be less evil today!
Can I, as a member of Christ’s body, and can the majority of the members of his body focus our spiritual authority on delivering people from spiritual bondage? Is it possible for me and the church I am part of to let go of using authority to prescribe behaviors and use it instead to assist spiritual life and vibrancy within?
Or are the clouds of cynicism natural to those who live among Christians?
Father, may whatever authority you have given me as a member of Christ’s body be used to set people free from spiritual bondage. Grant that my church and the people we encounter experience deeper and broader spiritual freedom.
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