Pentecost VI (Proper 8 B) [Mark 5:21-43] (1-Jul-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about how Jesus is called to the home of a man called Jairus, whose daughter is dying, and when they get there, they find her dead, and Jesus raises her from the dead. But also, along the way, a woman in the crowd with a bleeding problem touches Jesus’ garments, and she is healed.

So our reading starts, where we read: Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. This man simply brings his needs to Jesus, and Jesus is happy to go with him. The man is particularly desperate because he has a daughter who is dying. He doesn’t want to see his child die, and he believes that Jesus is his only hope—or even his last hope—in preventing that from happening.

Then we read about something that happens as Jesus is walking along to his house. We read: And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years. Here we see another person who is very desperate. What a devastating thing it must have been for her to have this problem for so long! She must have despaired of life itself sometimes. And yet, like Jairus, she comes to Jesus as her last hope.

It also says about her that she had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.

This little verse gives us a tremendous insight into this woman’s life and her struggles. There are many people in our society like this, and maybe you feel like this. Maybe you’ve suffered much under many physicians, and spent all that you had, and you haven’t got any better but you’ve just become worse. Anyway, in our country, where we have so many good things, and where we are able to benefit from all kinds of advances in technology, many people often wonder why they find it so difficult to stay healthy and fit. After all, those who hold to the theory of evolution have said that the human race is getting better and better, and it’s all about the survival of the fittest. But then, people ask, “why I am sick all the time?” There are many Christians who often only pray for themselves or for other people when they are sick, as if it’s the most important in their life.

Physical health is a good thing, and it’s a good gift from God, but it’s not the most important thing. Health can so easily turn into an idol, and we fear losing our health more than we fear God himself. Even many Christians can start to direct all their spiritual attention to their physical health, and become obsessed with it.

But before we go on, I’d like to say something about doctors, and the vocation of being a doctor or a medical professional. There are some Christians who don’t like doctors, and think that instead they should pray to God for healing. Now sometimes, we have no choice—some people who live way out bush in the middle of “Woop-Woop” can’t get to a doctor, and so they have to make do with their home remedies. But even if we go to a doctor, we should always also pray for our healing too. A good doctor is a wonderful gift from God.

In 2 Chronicles, we read: In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. Now this passage is not saying that doctors are bad, but is accusing King Asa of never praying to God, even when he was very sick. On the other hand, we read in the bible, that Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts was a doctor. At the end of Colossians, Paul writes: Luke the beloved physician greets you. We can see from the examples of these writings how God used this doctor Luke for a wonderful purpose in his kingdom.

Now it’s a wonderful thing to have a good doctor. And we might go to the doctor, and get a prescription for some medicine. Now, doctors only ever do their best, from what they know from their studies and research. The actual task of healing belongs to God. Whether the medicine works, whether the particular medicine works in our particular situation, and exactly how long it takes for us to become well again—all those things are not controlled by the doctor, but by God. So we shouldn’t neglect praying for our health when we go to the doctor, but be ready and willing to become well or to stay unwell according to God’s will and according to his timing. It’s in him that we live and move and have our being. A doctor provides a treatment, but then we look to God to make that treatment effective in his time and according to his will.

Now the fifth commandment states: You shall not murder. The bible teaches very clearly that human life right from its very beginning in conception to the very last breath is exactly that—human life. And it is sinful to take away human life, whether it is at the very beginning, by aborting a child, or at the very end, by euthanasia. It is God who is the giver and the taker of life, not us. Job says: The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We need to pray for more Christian doctors in this country, because the medical profession has changed tremendously in recent years, because doctors are being asked more and more to take life, rather than to help preserve it. One of the greatest evils that has been unleashed on this country and throughout the world has been the murder of millions of unborn children, and one of the greatest evils that is underway in this country at the moment and throughout the world is the push to bring in euthanasia. A mother’s womb and a hospital bed are supposed to be safe places—and they need to stay that way.

Sometimes there are certain things for which modern medicine simply doesn’t have the answer. We also have naturopaths in our country too, and often they have a particular knowledge of herbs, or massage, or other things, that might be helpful. If we make use of people like this, we should also look to God for our healing through them.

But let’s come back to the woman in our reading for a moment. We read about her: She had heard reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well”. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

It’s quite an amazing thing that happens here. The woman is hidden in the crowd, and she simply touches Jesus’ clothes, and she is healed.

But then we read: And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now we might ask, “Why did Jesus single this woman out, and even maybe embarrass her a bit in front of everyone?” After all, we might think that her problem was quite personal and she might have liked to keep it to herself. But if Jesus hadn’t singled her out from the crowd, no-one would ever have known what had happened to this woman, including us.

The same goes for us as Christians: we often come on Sundays to meet Jesus as part of a crowd, sometimes a small crowd or a large crowd. And yet, he blesses us individually—he singles us all out from the crowd. He doesn’t simply say: I forgive you all your sins, to the crowd, but he addresses these words to you personally, with his stamp and his seal on the envelope. Your personal salvation is Jesus’ personal interest. None of us were baptised as a crowd with the pastor holding a great big fire hose! No—all of us were baptised individually, and Jesus gently and lovingly singles us out from the crowd to apply his message of salvation and forgiveness and eternal life to you personally, just like this woman here.

But also, we learn from this, that it wasn’t simply the mere touching of Jesus’ clothes that healed her. Jesus says: Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. He says: Your faith has made you well. We read not only that the women touched Jesus’ clothes, but she also said in her heart: If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. She knew, and believed, what wonderful divine power belonged to this man, Jesus, and so when she touched his clothes in faith, the power of Jesus to heal her went out from him.

The same goes for us in a spiritual way—when we trust God’s word and believe the Gospel, and trust in the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life, Jesus’ power goes out to us, and he fills us with the Holy Spirit. Now, when it comes to physical health, Jesus will heal us according to his will and according to how it benefits his kingdom. Don’t forget also, that eventually we will also all die, and it is a wonderful thing to be with Jesus in Paradise. Many times in our lives, we will recover from illnesses and all kinds of things. But in the next life, our bodies will be transformed and purified and cleansed of every single scrap of disease and illness and disability, because all of these things are present in the world because of sin. And so when we receive the forgiveness of sins in this life in the church, it points us forward to that time when we will also be given complete and physical healing of every single problem we endure in this life. Sometimes, even the things we have endured in this life will be transformed in such a way that they will be signs of our victory in faith. For example, after his resurrection, Jesus still had his wounds, but they were no longer a sign of his shame and humiliation, but a badge of honour and victory over death. St Paul says: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Now, just one more thing I’d like to say about the verse, where it says that Jesus perceived in him that power had gone out from him. Here we see how our physical healing, whether in this life or the next, comes as a result of Jesus’ power going out from him. Sometimes, Jesus lets us stay a little longer than we might like in our sickness and trouble, and we start to wonder why he doesn’t fix us up.

In 1 Samuel, we read about how Saul went to inquire of the Lord, but he didn’t answer him. So instead, he went and consulted a medium (or a witch) instead. When he didn’t receive an answer from God, he then went and made use of the wrong spiritual powers, and made use of the occult. You see, in our country, we have doctors and naturopaths, but then there is also a third category, which we might call “supernatural” healers. And these people are not always easy to spot. But as our society becomes less Christian, there has been a rise of strange healing practices which rely on spiritual forces, and sometimes stray into the occult. But we need to be aware of this, because there are many, many practitioners of occult medicine that are around.

But listen to what it says about Jesus: He perceived that power had gone out from him. It’s one thing to go a doctor or health practitioner and get a prescription, or some herbal remedies, or whatever, but we have to also be careful that we use the means that God allows to us and not make use of the wrong power. So in giving a little warning, I’ll mention a few things that you should watch out for and avoid.

Firstly, be careful of when people say that the “mind” can heal the “body”. Let God heal your body, but don’t elevate your mind in the place of God. There is a whole church dedicated to mind healing which is called “Christian Science”, which are neither Christian nor scientific. Medicine should work whether you believe in it or not. If a practitioner says the reason the treatment didn’t work is because you didn’t believe in it, then it probably means that they are relying on your mind-power more than the treatment. Also, beware of things that claim to be “holistic healing”, if it claims to deal with your soul or spirit in some strange way, or involves some strange prayer which has nothing to do with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Second, be careful of healing practices that talks about manipulating energy or forces or magnetism, and things like that. There are many alternative medical practices that speak in scientific terms which are completely unscientific and are really talking about some mystical, psychic, occult power. An example of something like this is a practice known as Reiki.

And especially, avoid like the plague anything that claims to be obviously occult, like a medium. I once heard of a woman who went to a psychic medium and was healed of some condition, only then to be diagnosed with another serious disease.  And she was angry with God, and began to blaspheme.  Fortunately, a Christian person heard her blaspheming and spoke to her and she renounced her use of the medium. I’m saying these things because I don’t want you to suffer much under many physicians, and spend all that you have, and instead of getting better you just get worse.

Now, when we were baptised, we took a vow: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. And sometimes, during our lives, God then shows us something that we have done—maybe in trying to make ourselves well—which was not from him, and made use of some other spiritual power or an occult power, and sometimes when we didn’t realise it. Don’t despair! The door of forgiveness stands wide open for us. If only we would touch the hem of Jesus’ garments we would be made well. For us, when we hear Jesus’ words of forgiveness and receive the Lord’s Supper, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”, we touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. And Jesus says: Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

At the end of our reading today, we read about where Jesus raises up Jairus’ daughter from the dead. When they arrive at the house, someone comes out and says: Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?

But what they don’t realise is that Jesus doesn’t just have power over disease, but also over death. There will come a time when this little girl will die again in the future, but in the next life, when her body is raised from the grave and she is transformed and transfigured just like Jesus himself, Jesus will make her even more beautiful than she has ever been in this life.

And so Jesus says: The child is not dead but sleeping. And it says: And they laughed at him. Our world likes to mock the Christian faith, and say that when a person dies, they die, and that’s it. But Jesus knows better than we do. When we die, it is only a sleep. Our soul goes to be with Jesus, just as he said to the thief on the cross: Today you will be with me in Paradise. But at the end of the world, he will also raise our bodies, just like Paul says: Behold! I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. We also read that Jesus will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

And so, he says to the girl: Little girl, I say to you, arise. Here Jesus gives a wonderful example of just how easy it is for him to raise someone from the dead, and gives a little foretaste of what will happen at the end of the world. As Luther writes in the Small Catechism: On the last day, he will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

We also learn here that even our faith is a gift. The woman with the bleeding had heard about Jesus’ reputation, and a living faith was created in her. The same with the girl’s father. But when Jesus spoke the word to the girl and raised her up, she made absolutely no contribution to this resurrection whatsoever. She was dead, but when Jesus’ spoke his word to her, she arose. In the same way, when Jesus speaks his words of salvation, of eternal life, of the forgiveness of sins, of the resurrection of the body, it is his powerful word that does the thing, it is his power that goes out from him. We simply receive in faith the gift that he gives, and Jesus’ words create that faith.

And so, let’s place our weak bodies into Jesus’ forgiving and transforming hands, and ask him to use us however and wherever he sends us, and finally, to give us the gift of eternal life, where our bodies will be transformed and purified from all disease and death to be like his.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for healing this woman in our reading, and for raising this girl. Forgive us, heal us and use us as you will. Amen.

Epiphany IV B [Mark 1:21-28] (28-Jan-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and form our Lord Jesus Christ.

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Last week, we read about a specific message and a particular word that Jesus was preaching, where he said: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Today we read: They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath [Jesus] entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

In our reading today, we don’t read about what Jesus was saying. The text simply says that he was teaching. But we do read the kind of effect that it had on people, and why it had this effect. We read: They were astonished at his teaching. But why were they astonished? We read: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Jesus was teaching not with simply human authority, like the scribes that the people were so used to. It is one thing to be a scribe, and to check and double-check words and grammar—this is a good thing. But it is another thing to teach. When Jesus teaches, he is not simply teaching empty words, or rhetoric. He is not saying a beautiful or a clever or a funny way of putting things. He is not showing off his ability to communicate, or his skills in giving a speech. This is all human authority. But Jesus’ teaching has authority, because he is not only a human being, but he is also true God at the same time, in one person. And so Jesus’ teaching is crystal clear, it is completely and totally true, and there are no half-truths. Sometimes people say things in a clever way so as to say two opposite things at the same time, and they end up saying nothing. In actual fact, they just want to say something to keep people happy, and to be politically correct, or to be diplomatic. But this is not how Jesus speaks: every word that he teaches is God’s word. Proverbs 30 says: Every word of God proves true. Jesus prays to his Father: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. He also says that the Scripture cannot be broken. St Paul also writes to Titus that God never lies. And because of this, we read in Hebrews that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And so when Jesus teaches, the people are astonished, they recognise the divine authority of Jesus, they recognise that there is something different about what he says that no one else has said to them before. They recognise that no-one has called them to repentance in the sharp, clear way that he has, and no-one has comforted them with the divine comfort of heaven in the way that he has.

But then, in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, something very strange happens. We read: Immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

First of all here, we are told that there was a man with an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit is another name for a demon, or sometimes it is called an evil spirit. Now what is an unclean spirit? One of things we often forget when we read the bible is that creation includes things that we can’t see. In the Nicene Creed, we confess: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, or seen and unseen. The visible creation is what we see around us, and the creation of these things is describes right at the beginning of the bible, in Genesis chapter 1. Visible things include light, water, the sky, the earth, land, the sea, plants, trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the solar systems and galaxies, birds, fish, animals, reptiles, insects, and also, of course, humans. But then there are also certain things that God creates that are invisible: this includes heaven and hell, and also angels. Angels are spiritual beings, spirits that are created by God, that don’t have bodies, don’t have flesh and blood. However, like human beings, angels also were created with a free will. God commanded human beings to love him and serve him, and he created the angels to do the same. Loving and serving God means that we do it willingly—God does not have us like puppets on a string, making us love him by force. That wouldn’t be love.

And so, we also believe that the devil decided to use his free will not for God and in service of God, but in hatred towards God, and in rebellion against him, and for evil. Then Satan tempted the first people into sin, and the human race became sinful too, because they listened to the voice of the devil instead of God, and also chose evil over good. But also, we read that the devil was not the only angel who fell into sin, but there was a large number, who form a kind of army with the devil as the leader.

In our reading today, we read that an unclean spirit had entered into a man. Now, in our culture, something has happened in the last two or three hundred years, which is called the Scientific Enlightenment. From this time onwards people have made all kinds of advances in science, which has been a very good thing. However, at the same time, people started to reject things in the bible that weren’t able to be proven by science, or weren’t measurable by science. People started to deny that there’s anything that exists that you can’t see. We can see this today, where many people don’t believe in the existence of heaven or hell, angels or demons, the devil, or even God himself. They look at the world with a set of rules that just completely does away with anything that they can’t measure or prove with science.

Many people in the church too have often read passages such as the one in our reading today in a scientific—or we might say a “rationalistic”—way. This isn’t to say that we don’t use our brains when we read the bible. Of course, we do.  But we shouldn’t use our brain and our reason to try and make the bible say something that it doesn’t say. Especially we shouldn’t try and make the bible say the opposite of what it doesn’t say! This is exactly what the devil did when he tempted Eve: God had said that if they ate the fruit, that they would surely die. What does the devil do? He interprets God’s word in such a way as to make it say the exact opposite of what God actually said. The devil says: You will not surely die.

And so, it is common for people to read a passage like this in our reading today and to say that this man didn’t have an unclean spirit, but that he had a mental illness. However, this is not what the text says. Mental illness does exist, and sometimes there are certain mental illnesses that have symptoms which look similar to demon possessions. But they are not the same thing. Later in chapter 1 of Mark, we read that Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. There are two things here: Jesus was healing people who were sick, and he was casting out demons. They were not always the same thing. So there are two mistakes that people make: sometimes they think that there is no such thing as demon possession, and that everything is mental illness. Sometimes people think that there is no such thing as mental illness and everything is demon possession. Both of these things are wrong. Sometimes a person can go to a doctor or a psychiatrist and be treated for their mental illness—no problem. However, there are also situations where medical treatment can’t help—the reason is that the person is not really mentally ill, but are spiritually troubled.

But let’s pretend that the man in our reading does have a mental illness. Let’s listen then to what the man says. He says: 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. What kind of mental illness is able to recognise Jesus, and to speak hidden things about him that other people wouldn’t otherwise know? Also look at what Jesus does in return. We read: But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

When we’re dealing with mental illness, we’re dealing with a person who is sick, and who needs treatment. And when anyone is sick, whether they have a physically debilitating illness or are mentally ill, we should pray for them, and they should go and seek treatment. And we pray that Jesus would bring healing to the person, either in a natural way through treatment or through medicine as God provides through a doctor, or in a supernatural way through a special miracle of God. We know that in this life, God may or may not give a miraculous healing. But we do know that for those who believe in Jesus, that he will heal us completely and totally in the next life and completely transform and glorify our bodies so that we will completely free of all of our sickness and troubles.

Sometimes people—especially some charismatics or Pentecostals—make the mistake of believing that when people become Christians, they become sinless. So every time they see and recognise sin at work in them, they think it must be an evil spirit. Now, it is true that because our heart is sinful, the devil has a close ally inside of us. But some people make the mistake of always wanting exorcism, when in actual fact, they need absolution, and forgiveness. They need to hear the words that Jesus has died and paid for each and every single sin and their whole sinful heart and their whole sinful condition, and even in the church today we can hear the words of forgiveness from God himself spoken to us. When we hear the words: I forgive you all your sins, the devil has no more power to make accusations. Jesus has pulled his teeth out, and the devil can’t bite us anymore! As St Paul says in Romans: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When we’re talking about demon possession, we’re talking about two beings: one is a human being, a man or a woman like you and me, and the other is an invisible being, a demon or unclean spirit, who has entered in and joined itself to the person. This unclean spirit can take control of the person, like in our reading, where it uses the person to speak its own words. In our reading the unclean spirit uses the person and says: What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us? The unclean spirit even gives the person a special insight into hidden things that the person otherwise wouldn’t know. In our reading the unclean spirit says: I know who you are—the Holy One of God. Notice here that the demon tells something that is true, but the means of know that truth is not right. The words are true, but the authority is not right.

And so we might ask the question: how did this man end up like this? Well the text doesn’t actually tell us. However, Jesus does say to his disciples: I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me. We know that outside of Jesus and his kingdom, life is a dangerous mess, and people are open and susceptible to all kinds of spiritual danger. However, in our reading, when Jesus is present there in the synagogue, and begins to teach, the unclean spirit is exposed.

Now, we read in the Scripture where God the Father’s voice comes down from heaven and says: This is my beloved Son: listen to him. This happens at the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ face and clothes began to shine with bright, white light. In the Old Testament, Moses had already spoken about the coming Messiah, and said: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. All throughout the New Testament, we read various passages that confirms this prophet to be Jesus, and even God the Father says: listen to him. Moses had said centuries before: It is to him you shall listen. But on the other hand, in the same passage, Moses says some other things. He says: There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

So, do you hear that the nations listened to fortune-tellers and diviners, and lists a whole lot of occult practices that people did. All through the history of Israel and the kinds, we see that the Jewish people often mixed in the practices of the nations with God’s law. And so, what this passage teaches us is that fortune-tellers and diviners are not speaking with the voice of Jesus. Jesus does not use fortune-tellers and diviners to speak, but they use a different spiritual power. Moses says: Don’t listen to fortune-tellers and diviners. But God the Father says about Jesus: Listen to him.

In our culture, many people recognise that there’s more to life than what we can see. But then the mistake that people often make is that they think that everything spiritual is good. That’s not true. The truth is that the greatest good is spiritual good, but the greatest evil is spiritual evil. You can’t make use of a fortune-teller, or a psychic, or a clairvoyant, or a medium, and think that this is the Holy Spirit—it’s not. God has specifically said in his word that listening to Jesus Christ and listening to fortune-tellers and diviners are mutually exclusive things. And so when people open themselves up to these kinds of false ideas and false practices, and particularly occult practices, they also open themselves up to unclean spirits.

In the bible, an unclean spirit is also called an evil spirit or a demon. The bible speaks very negatively about them. But outside of the church, people use positive-sounding ways of speaking about them. People might say: I have an angel who speaks to me. Or: I have a spirit guide. Or: I try to hear what the universe is trying to say to me. Or: I communicate with my higher self. Even sometimes people can be mistaken and deceived for thinking that they are talking directly with God or the Holy Spirit, even when they reject and go against what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Scriptures. All these things are examples of people trying to make contact with the unclean spiritual realm.

Now, the amazing thing about our reading today is that Jesus deals with this man very simply. We read: Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” The word “be silent” means to “get muzzled”. Jesus speaks to the unclean spirit like a noisy dog. And we read: The unclean spirit, convulsing him and was crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. Even in Luke it says that the man was done no harm. Jesus, being true God and true man in one person, knows exactly how to separate an unclean spirit from the person standing in front of him. And with his powerful and authoritative word, he simply casts the unclean spirit out.

And we read: And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” And at one his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

What is important here is Jesus’ words, and his authority. There is no spiritual wrestling match that goes on. Jesus is not addressing the unclean spirits as equals. He has complete and absolute authority over them.

In the church, Jesus has spoken his same authoritative word of power to you when you were baptised. And when we are baptised, we make a clear statement against the devil and say: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. We confess the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and we renounce the devil. This is who we are as Christians, and our whole life is a lesson in renouncing the devil and confessing Jesus Christ. In ancient times, when a person was baptised, they would rebuke the unclean spirit, and this excellent practice has been reintroduced into our churches in recent years to emphasise the power of Christ’s work against Satan in baptism. It’s no accident that as less people in our society are baptised, spiritual and demonic trouble have increased for people. In baptism, our Lord Jesus with his powerful word forgives us our sin, rescues us from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe this. Baptism is a wonderful defence and shield against all the attacks of the evil one, because we can continually look to Jesus and his promise to defend us from all evil. And when we are bothered and attacked by the evil one, we can simply say: Be silent! Get out of here! You don’t belong here!

Jesus is the one who has power over all spirits, and all the authority belong to him. We have access to his great authority because we have his authoritative word, which is a word of power. We are weak, but the word we speak is the word of Jesus. St Paul says: My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So every time we speak the word of God in its truth and purity, and preach it, and sing it, and read it, the devil is cleared out. The devil knows his time is short when the word is in play, because these words are the words of the living God and the living Jesus who has risen from the dead. We cannot do anything in our power and authority—Jesus is the only exorcist. We pray to him, and ask him to work together with us, and to use us where he sends us. As the people say in our reading today: He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for your word of authority and power. Protect us from all the power of the evil one. Amen.