Fourth Sunday in Epiphany 1/29/12 Mark 1:22-28

Fourth Sunday in Epiphany 1/29/12 Text: Mark 1:22-28 Title: The Question That We All Must Ask. When you came into the Sanctuary you were given a half sheet with some Bible verses from Mark on it. When you look closer you will notice that the first set of verses at Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Keep that verse in mind as you look down to the next set that comes from the last chapter of Mark verses 1-8. In the first five verses Mark is telling the Resurrection story. Go down to verse 6 were we read “6 And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you." 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Verse 8 is the end of the original version of Mark’s Gospel before the Christian church added the next verses. Almost all Bibles will have the added verses in brackets because they are not in the earliest versions of Mark’s Gospel. That does not mean that God did not cause them to be written down. It only means that they are not part of the original gospel of Mark Mark in the beginning of his gospel wrote “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” He then concludes his Gospel after the angel told the women that Jesus has risen from the dead and that he is going ahead of them with “8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Saint Mark’s original ending is the perfect ending to his gospel. I say that because when you look at both the opening and closing verses of Saint Mark’s Gospel, as he originally wrote them, you see that what Mark said in the beginning; that this Gospel is only the beginning of Jesus’ story is exactly why he ends the gospel the way he does. Jesus has risen. There is fear. But Jesus is going ahead, so there is comfort. Mark even though he stopped his story at Jesus resurrection knew that Jesus’ story did not stop there. Jesus’ story continues through the centuries. His story has become our story. For just as Saint Mark wrote Jesus is going ahead of the disciples, Jesus, as he said, has gone before us preparing the way for our being in his presence, just as he had when he created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden where everything was provided for them and they could walk and talk with God. I am telling you about this so that you will be better able to understand the rest of Mark’s Gospel; all that is written about Jesus between the beginning verse and the ending verse of the Gospel of Mark. Our Gospel reading for today in just a few verses asks both a life changing question and gives a life changing answer; both from the most unlikely sources. In Mark everything happens fast. He starts out with Jesus’ baptism. Jesus immediately goes into the desert where he is tempted by Satan. Jesus immediately calls his disciples. He then, as we see today immediately went to Capernaum where he once again immediately went to the local synagogue to teach the Good News of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching them that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. He is the Son of God. Jesus is in fact the Kingdom of God. He is the Good News for Jews and Gentiles. All of this he proves by the scripture texts that were read every Sabbath in the synagogue. The Messiah, God in the flesh, has arrived. Mark tells us the people see that Jesus truly knows what the scriptures are saying about God. He teaches with authority. In other words they could tell he did not need to ask what God’s Word meant. It was obvious that he knew what he was teaching. He was not like their usual teachers who read the scriptures every Sabbath, but did not really know what God’s Word was saying, for they just, as so many do today, read into the text what they want it to say and not what God actually said. We know this because if they had truly known the scriptures they would have believed in Jesus right then and there. Behind the peoples amazement lays the question of who is Jesus. This is a question that all people, both believers and unbelievers must ask. Who is Jesus? In today’s text we get the answer from the most unlikely source; the man with an unclean spirit who cries out the answer, “I know you are the Holy One of God.” The people of God who should have known who Jesus is did not and the man with an unclean spirit who should not have even been in the synagogue knew. Wow! Why is that? The people that should have known are so bound by the law of God and the traditions of the past that they could not see that the Kingdom of God was standing right there among them. There was no faith, for they only an intellectual knowledge of God. They knew the scriptures frontwards and backwards. They knew how to worship. They knew how to live righteous lives. They had the law down pat and believed that living according to the law justified them before God. It is not any different today, for it is not unusual for me to hear from a fellow believer that truly believes in Jesus’ act of salvation that we must still do something to avoid God’s wrath. I hear it all the time. I hear it all the time, for trusting in the law is what we do. It is in a sense all we know, for the Gospel of Jesus is alien to us. Salvation given as a free gift with no strings attached? Come on now. It can’t be that simple. On our own there is no hope. We are lost, for the law can only show us what God demands of us. We are lost without Christ and his saving work. But in Christ we are not lost even though we still deserve God’s wrath, for we who truly believe have a hope that is not the hope of the world, as it trusts in relationships, power, and material things. Our hope is a sure hope, for we hope not in the things of this world, but in Jesus, God Incarnate who only has to speak and unclean spirits instantly obey. Listen to Jesus, as he speaks to the unclean spirit, “Be silent, and come out of him!" See what happens, “26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. That must have been some sight. Jesus, God Incarnate speaks and things happen. Evil spirits leave, people come back to life, water becomes wine, five loaves and two fish feed thousands, and people walk and see. Ordinary bread and wine become his body and blood. Ordinary water becomes the means in which faith is given. Jesus speaks and forgiveness is given, lives restored, and peace is made. It is said that the devil approached Martin Luther one day and tried to weaken his faith by reminding him that even the best person is sinful and weak, so he may as well give up trying to please God. He presented the reformer with a long list of sins of which he was guilty. When the devil finished reading the list he had put together, Luther said to Satan, “Think a little harder; you must have forgotten some.” The devil checked and sure enough he had left some sins off, so he adds them to his list and hands it back to Martin Luther who simply takes out his ink quill and writes across the list in red ink, “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” There was nothing the devil could say to that and he left. That my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is why Saint Mark started his gospel with the words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God for his Gospel did not end in Jesus’ birth, his passion, his victory, or his resurrection. Saint Mark’s gospel is a continuing story; a story that is told over and over again each Sunday in God’s Church where the saving work of Jesus is rightly preached, for in that message is found our freedom from the damnation of sin which gives us peace. To Christ be all glory forever and ever. Amen.