Jesus was just starting his ministry, and what better place to start than home? So, after being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus headed to Nazareth. We heard a little about that experience last week: when called upon to teach, Jesus opened up Isaiah and found the passage
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Then he preached “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Actually, he said more than that. He continued by saying “no prophet is accepted in his hometown” and explaining that he would be healing and proclaiming the good news, not to Nazareth and the Jews, but to the stranger, the Samaritan, the Gentile. This news was for the people his community didn't particularly like.
That didn’t really work out very well. They got so angry they actually tried to throw him off of a cliff! But Jesus continued on, and encountered multiple people as he went. In Capernaum, no one was saying “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They’re amazed by his words and authority.
I really like how Rev. Dr. David Lose describes this first part of the passage: “The campaign is poised to launch, the battle begins. And in these verses Luke describes how it commences. But what is the ‘it’ that begins? Nothing less than an assault on all that would keep the children of God from full and abundant living.
“And so as he is again teaching with authority, he encounters a man bound by an unclean spirit. …And just as he defeated the tempter in the wilderness, so now he casts out this lesser spirit in the city. Jesus is, in other words, doing exactly what he said – releasing, healing, freeing, and in all these ways announcing God’s favor. [This is] the launch of the campaign and battle to win back the lost children of God. It has begun.”
Jesus is confronting demons and possession, which can be hard to wrap our heads around nowadays. So what if we instead defined them as “anything that has power over a human and is not of God.” An unclean spirit might be a society-condemned addiction to gambling or a substance. Or a more accepted addiction like workaholism, vanity, consumerism, or greed. Anger or jealousy that become so all-encompassing, they essentially possess us. Fear, hatred, prejudice. Any forces that are diametrically opposed to God’s will. These forces sow discord: “Rather than bless, they curse; rather than build up, they tear down… rather than promote love, they sow hate; rather than draw us together, they seek to split us apart.”
I’d venture to say that all of us have been possessed in one way or another. Possessed by anger so that we say something we ultimately regret. Possessed by envy so we do something we wish we could take back. There are times when everyone feels “possessed by something that is so clearly not the Spirit of God blessing us to be a blessing to others.”
And yet, for some reason, we continue to turn to what possesses us because we think it gives us some control over our lives. We hold onto fear or anger or resentment, perhaps blaming others instead of accepting responsibility for our own mistakes. It can be so much easier to point the finger, or to focus on people-pleasing, or hating someone or some group to the point that we start to disregard their humanity. There are so many ways that we try to hold onto control, and end up possessed by something utterly opposed to God. But the psalm shows us how to let go of that need to be in control: when we turn to God as our refuge instead of fear or anger or hatred, we can let go of the forces that we think give us control, but end up controlling us. We can turn to God as our refuge, our trust, and deliverance.
Consider your own possession: something that holds you in its grasp, that greatly influences your behavior and yet is not of God. Is it anger in particular moments that seems to take over? Prejudice that’s hard to get past? Or perhaps the need to feel secure. Workaholism or the dogged pursuit of more and more. Everything that curses instead of blessing, tears down instead of building up, disparages instead of encouraging, sows hatred rather than love, seeks to divide rather than drawing together. Perhaps it changes day to day, or maybe it’s rooted so deep it seems it can never be rid of.
But Jesus shows up again and again and indeed releases and heals the people. He frees the man with the impure spirit. He frees Simon’s mother-in-law from her fever, which indicated that she was fatally ill. Jesus heals and frees from spirits those many people who come to him after they or their loved ones witnessed him in the synagogue.
When we turn to God as our rock and our refuge, letting go of those things that we think give us control but actually end up controlling us; when we turn to Christ in prayer just as all of those who came for healing did, then we can proclaim with the Psalmist: “I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long.” For “Jesus is still available. …[W]e can still bring all the worries or cares that beset us to Jesus in prayer.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Comments