The Power of Jesus' Word
Mark 1:21-28
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Shiloh Lutheran Church
About 20 years ago, when I was working in the continuing education department of a mission organization, I had a disagreement with my boss (anyone who's known me for any length of time probably won't be surprised at that). I had been telling pastors on the field that they should be spending 15-20 hours weekly in sermon-related work, and he said to me, "they have no business spending that much time on preaching. They should be out with their people!" I suggested that they wouldn't have much to offer on Sunday morning if they weren't spending time studying and meditating on God's Word, but his solution was for them to buy sermons in the mail. If they bought their sermons and did some revisions during the week, they'd be able to spend time with their people rather than hiding away in their studies.
Contemporary America is obsessed with the need for activity. Our response to every problem is that we need to do something. I was once talking with a friend about a book I'd read, and when he criticized the author's suggestions, I responded, "but we need to do something." The problem, of course, is that doing something isn't the same as doing the right thing, and my friend's observations about that particular book were right. Simply doing something, while it might make us feel better, won't necessarily accomplish anything. It may even make things worse, and the only benefit is that it soothes our conscience. We may not be doing anything useful, but at least we're doing something.
What is the benefit of preaching God's Word? Is it worth the investment of our time? Couldn't we accomplish more by getting involved in politics or working for social change? I was struck once, at a ministerium meeting, to observe that none of the pastors in the group believed in preaching the Word. They were excited to be getting their parishioners to volunteer in soup kitchens or involved in political causes, because these were things that really mattered and made a difference in the world. They believed in doing something; preaching doesn't really accomplish anything; what's needed is more action.
It's true that we have a tendency to speak without acting, that our words are often empty. We speak without knowing what we're talking about, or we don't have either the power or the will to act on our words. But Jesus' speech is different than ours. He doesn't make empty claims; He doesn't make promises that He's unable to fulfil. Jesus speaks with authority as the Incarnate Son of God, the One who said, after His resurrection, that He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. When He speaks He is not just conveying information. He is not speaking empty words. His Word is powerful and active.
Notice, in this passage, that Jesus' main focus is on His teaching. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath and teaches. Why does He teach? Because the people need to know the truth. They are in bondage to error, to falsehood, and they need to be set free. And the thing that will set them free is the truth: "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:31-32). Because they are in bondage to error, there are things they need to know, things they need to understand, so Jesus focuses on teaching them.
In my charismatic days, my friends and I used to listen to sermons by a man named R.W. Shambach. He was a very dynamic and entertaining speaker, and he often criticized modern churches because miracles weren't taking place in most services. His tent campaigns were called "Shambach's Miracle Revivals," and miraculous gifts, especially healing, were at the very center of his ministry. I've hardly thought about him in the past 35 years, but as I was studying this passage last week I remembered him and discovered, on the Internet, that he had just died two days before. He was an interesting character, but in at least one area he was out of step with Jesus: for Jesus, miracles were not the main thing. He didn't make a big deal out of them and He didn't criticize the Pharisees and Sadducees for not working miracles. He confronted them with their self-righteousness and hypocrisy, but not because they weren't faith healers or exorcists. He concentrated on teaching; His teaching was the central thing. He worked miracles throughout His ministry, but they were always done in support of His teaching.
The second thing to notice is that the immediate result of Jesus' teaching is conflict with evil forces: "Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out...." (V. 23). When Jesus teaches, He's not just passing on information. His teaching is a threat to the evil forces in this world. These forces keep people in bondage through error, so His teaching calls them into question and threatens their very existence. The spirit cries out, "What do you want with us?.... Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are!" This last thing, "I know who you are," may be intended as a threat, since knowing a person's name in the ancient world implied having power over that person. It may be, but in any case it didn't work. Jesus commanded the spirit to come out of the man, and the spirit obeyed. Jesus' teaching was a threat, and not only a threat; it was the beginning of the end for the spiritual forces that were keeping people in bondage through lies and false teaching.
Two years ago I took a course in Lutheran confessions and was startled to learn that nearly everyone I met seemed to deny the existence of evil spirits. The prevailing attitude was, "well, of course people in the ancient world believed in evil spirits, but we know better now. We know that these things are just symbolic. Demons are really things like addictions or compulsions or oppressive social structures." I have to confess that I didn't know this and still don't seem to have caught on. When Jesus refers to Satan as the "father of lies," He's talking about a real personality who is in rebellion against God and is seeking to undermine His kingdom. When Paul says "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11), he speaks of the devil in a personal way, just as he has been speaking of God. Just because we think differently than people did in the ancient world doesn't mean we know better. What's happening in this event is a personal revolt against the Word Jesus is speaking. His teaching threatens the ability of these spirits to keep people in bondage to their lies.
The result of all this is that the people are amazed at Jesus' authority and news about Him spreads throughout the region. Casting out the demon demonstrates His authority over unclean spirits, but even before that the people could see a difference. Verse 22 says "The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law." In graduate school I made friends with a student from Germany who told me he came to America to study because he was fed up with German scholarship. German scholarship has very high standards, but that wasn't his complaint. He said his German professors wanted papers to be a list of citations showing what other scholars had said on the subject and that there was very little room to speak with his own voice. I don't know whether or not his perception was accurate, but what he was describing was similar to what the teachers of the law did. They would read a passage and then cite the opinions of various rabbis who'd written on the subject. In that context, Jesus' approach was startling. He spoke the truth with authority, not an authority borrowed from the weight of scholarly opinion but the authority of the Incarnate Son of God.
Jesus' teaching is powerful and active; His words are never empty words, because they have the power of the Triune God standing behind them. The author of Hebrews says "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (4:12). And God, speaking through Isaiah, says "For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11). When God speaks, He is acting. Jesus' teaching threatens evil forces, because they recognize that the One speaking is also the One who spoke the universe into existence.
The great Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to discourage people from taking notes during his sermons. He was a great expositor, and his sermons were full of teaching, so it was understandable that people wanted to take notes and retain as much as possible. But his concern was that note-taking, focusing too much on collecting information, would distract them and get in the way of listening to God's voice in His Word. There is more going on than passing information when the Word is read and preached in the context of corporate worship.
Lloyd-Jones quoted this statement by Jonathan Edwards on the benefit of preaching: "The main benefit obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered. And though an after-remembrance of what was heard in a sermon is oftentimes very profitable; yet, for the most part, that remembrance is from an impression the words made on the heart at the time; and the memory profits, as it renews and increases that impression" (Works, vol. 1, p. 394). He's saying that the benefit is not so much increased knowledge but an encounter with God through His Word.
How do we encounter God in His Word? We hear these things over and over, year after year, but they seem to have no impact. What is the problem? The problem is that our hearts are dull. We're too much like the religious leaders who were there when Jesus was presented in the Temple but were clueless about what was happening. The greatest event in the history of the Temple was taking place at that moment: the One to Whom all the sacrifices pointed was there. The Lamb of God, the One who takes away the sin of the world, was being presented in the Temple, but none of the religious leaders saw what was happening. They all missed it, all except Simeon and Anna, these people who had cultivated attentiveness to God over a lifetime. Neither of them were leaders; neither had any influence outside the small circle of their friends and associates. But they perceived something that all the leaders of Israel were missing at that moment.
How do we become more like Simeon and Anna and less like the religious leaders? I have two suggestions in closing. 1) Practice attentiveness in worship. I love the Liturgy, but the repetitiveness in the Liturgy can affect us in two different ways. We can become dull and simply rattle off the words, or we can offer them attentively to the Lord, offering them as the cry of our hearts. It's not that we do this all at once with perfection. Our hearts are fickle and we are easily distracted. But here's the thing. What do we do when we get distracted? Do we just give ourselves to the distraction and say, "oh well, it's no use; I just can't concentrate on these things." We can respond to the distractions either by giving in to them and giving up. Or we can pull ourselves back to the task at hand, which is to offer these words of the Liturgy to God in worship. Not just once, but over and over again. (By the way, this problem of distractions and just going through the motions is not unique to liturgical churches.) The point is not to avoid distractions but to respond to them, no matter how often they happen, by turning our hearts back to the Lord. And when distractions come a few seconds later, which they often will, we pull ourselves back again. Over time we will develop a habit of attentiveness to God in His Word, but it won't happen all at once; we need to cultivate the habit by turning our hearts to Him over and over again.
2) Meditate on God's Word throughout the week, not only on Sunday. Be attentive to His Word in worship, but then follow up on this by practicing attentiveness to Him at other times. If something in the service strikes you, spend some time with it on Sunday afternoon or evening. You don't need to reread the whole passage. Just spend time with one or two verses. Read them over and over; read them out loud, which gets more of your senses involved. Give the Word time and space to impact you, to sink into your heart. Often the problem is that we're so busy and distracted that we don't really hear what God is saying. God doesn't usually shout to get our attention, so if we don't make an effort we're likely to miss what He is saying. So take time to quiet your heart and make space for God's Word. Spend time sitting in His presence listening. You don't need to hear anything, and if you come to the time expecting great revelations you'll probably be disappointed. The point is simply to be in God's presence with His Word. Read attentively, give yourself time to absorb what you're reading, and then respond in prayer. Ask God to apply it to your life, or ask Him to give you wisdom to know how to respond, or simply read the words back to Him and ask Him to do what He thinks best. But make space in your life to wait expectantly on God by listening and responding to His Word.
Romano Guardini was an Italian-German priest who had an immense influence on Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. My graduate school advisor studied theology in Munich and often heard Guardini preach. This past week I picked up one of his books and read this: the "words [of Scripture] express more than mere truth or good counsel. They are a force that stirs up the listener, a room which he may enter, a direction that guides him" (Romano Guardini, The Rosary of Our Lady, p.26). The words of Jesus, the words of Scripture, are not empty words. They are a force that stirs us up, a room that we can enter, a direction that guides us. They have the power to change the whole direction of our lives not only for the present, but into eternity. That's why it's worth making time to meditate on Scripture. That's why the preaching of the Word is worth a large investment of time. I remember hearing, shortly before he died, that Pope John Paul II spent about 6 hours a day in prayer. How could he do that, given all his other responsibilities? How could he afford to lay aside all the other things he needed to do and spend so much time in prayer? Shouldn't he have been spending time with his people? Spending time in God's presence, in His Word and in prayer, enabled him to speak and work in a way that continues to impact us today. May God enable us to follow his example rather than being molded by the frantic activism of our society.
