“This IS God’s Business”

Mark 1:21-28

In this morning’s text from Mark Jesus exercises the very power and authority of God. First, he speaks God’s Word, and he speaks it with authority. As he teaches in the synagogue he doesn’t quote references or cite precedents, he is dependent on no earthly source. He says what he says with an authority not unlike that of prophets like Amos and Isaiah. He, the Living Word of God, speaks God’s Word in a way that his words become the Word. People are astounded.

Then he exercises God’s power and authority by driving out a demon. It’s interesting that he doesn’t use spells or incantations. He simply speaks. “Shut up and get out,” says Jesus to the demon, and the demon obeys. The will of God is upheld. The whims of Satan are dismissed. Evil is crushed. In the words of Eduard Schweiser, “In Jesus word heaven breaks in and hell is destroyed.” The people are astounded yet again.

Jesus, the Living Word of God, states a command, and it is obeyed. Jesus speaks and his word, God’s Word, becomes an accomplished act of God. This is nothing new. At creation God spoke all that is into being. In Isaiah God states that his Word never returns to him empty, that his purposes are always accomplished. According to Fred Craddock, “The appearance of our Lord [Jesus] brings into the world an authoritative word of God.” The Word had indeed become flesh.

The exorcism that Jesus spoke into being on that long ago Sabbath was an incredibly powerful act. The demon already knew who he was. He knew his name. In First Century Judea there was an engrained cultural belief that to know someone’s name was to have power over him. The demon supposedly had the upper hand. Not in this case. To quote Martin Luther’s words about how we are to view the powers of Satan, “The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. One little word will fell him.” For all the power that demon had or supposed he had, all it took was one little word from Jesus to defeat him.

The demon, of course, knew who had the upper hand from the very beginning. He knew that in any contest between the power of God and the power of Satan the power of God would prevail. The demon was afraid of Jesus. Knowing that he would lose in any kind of head on confrontation, he offered a compromise.

When he asked Jesus, “What have you to do with us?” he was really asking Jesus why he was meddling in the Devil’s affairs. Through the demon Satan was in essence asking Jesus to mind his own business. By exorcising the demon Jesus made it quite clear that all business is God’s business. There is no compromising with evil.

All business is God’s business. There is no such thing as a non-spiritual issue. Those who follow Jesus, the Living Word, and whose faith is grounded in God’s written Word are not free to make compromises with evil, whatever its form. Christ’s Church is not free to sell its soul to the highest bidder. As Carlyle Marney put it to a seminary’s graduating class several years ago, servants of Christ are not to be hand tamed by the gentry.

Over the centuries of its existence the Church has often been urged, if not ordered, to mind its own business, to stay out of the affairs of kings, emperors, dictators, and tyrants. In the history of our own nation the Church has all too often been expected to stay out of so-called non-spiritual matters like slavery and racial segregation. We preacher types are to limit our sermons to “safe” topics and otherwise stay quiet until the school board or some service club asks us to give the opening prayer at one of their meetings, after which we are expected to leave so that real business can be discussed.

Those who follow Jesus can’t do that. He didn’t. He never sold out to the special interests of his day. He never went along in order to get along. He challenged the theology and practices of the religious elite. He looked behind their self-righteous facades and pointed out the corruption he found there. He didn’t compromise with the Devil or his demons. He didn’t compromise with the evil that infected his nation’s powers-that-be. As God’s Living Word he spoke God’s authoritative Word. In a world oppressed and defiled by the crippling, alienating, distorting, and destructive works of Satan, he spoke and acted out not only God’s Word of healing, redemption, salvation, and love, but also God’s Word of righteous judgment.

The meaning of the Hebrew word that we translate as demon is that which causes harm. The demonic is anything at odds with God’s will for creation. It doesn’t have to be supernatural in order to be destructive. Nor does it have to appear in ugly or disgusting guises. It’s a rare demon that goes around spitting up pea soup, a la The Exorcist. More often than not evil comes across as attractive, seductive, and sophisticated. But no matter how prettily it’s packaged evil is still evil. The Devil likes nothing better than the modern, rational belief that the demonic doesn’t exist. But it does exist whether we believe in it or not, always working to corrupt and damage God’s good creation.

Satan has always preferred that people either believe that evil doesn’t exist or can be tricked into believing that it’s something good. How often do we excuse something we know is wrong by convincing ourselves that the ends justify the means? Jesus could have sold out to the Devil out there in the wilderness and justified it in the name of all the goodness he could have accomplished, but he didn’t. And neither should we.

How often do we excuse unethical behavior in the arenas of big business or power politics by convincing ourselves that it’s necessary for the economy or national security? How often do we turn a blind eye to something evil just because it’s popular, profitable, or glamorous? Or accept sin as an okay thing just because the government says it’s legal? Or not oppose something sinful just because the government says such opposition is illegal? How often do individual Christians and even the Body of Christ itself compromise with the Devil under the rubric of going along to get along?

How often do we forget that as disciples of Jesus Christ we have been given the power and authority to speak and act in his name? How often do we forget the power of God’s Word? How often do we forget that we neither have to surrender to or coexist with evil? How often do we let ourselves be convinced that some business or another is not the business of God or his people? Jesus never made nice with evil and neither should we.

Those Old Testament prophets never did. Hear the words of Amos and Isaiah as they confronted the evils of their day with the very Word of God. Said Amos, “They [the corrupt religious and political leaders of his day] hate the one who reproves in the gate [who speaks out in court against injustice and unrighteousness], and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you [the same ones indicted above] trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built [fine] houses of hewn stone [with your ill-gotten profits], but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I [the Lord] know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate [prevent them from receiving the justice guaranteed by God’s Law].”

Said Isaiah, “How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her – but now murderers! [and] Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan [the least powerful in society], and the widow’s cause [the cause of the weakest segment of society] does not come before them.”

Those who speak God’s Word must do so with that kind of authority. Our Lord Jesus did not hesitate to call evil what it was and stand against it, and neither should we. We are to exempt no one from the reproof of God’s Word. No one. Neither the slimiest criminal nor the slickest politician. Neither the petty thief nor the corrupt corporate leader. All who do evil or serve as its human agents are to be confronted with God’s Word of judgment. And when they tell us that what they do is none of our business, meaning it’s none of God’s business, we must be clear in telling them that any and all evil, no matter its form, is the business of God. Sometimes that will even mean telling them, in the name of Jesus, to shut up and get out. Amen.