Day 8: What does it take to amaze you? (Mark 1:21-31)
Today’s Passage: Mark 1:21-31
What amazes you these days? Anything?
I feel like we live in a world that to be a person who is amazed, is to run the risk of being laughed at and looked down upon.
Certainly no one wants to be naïve, but from my perspective we are well beyond that point. Today there is this sort of pride associated with not being “taken-in”.
Yet in our march towards extreme rationalism, in our rush to abandon being amazed, we have fallen into a deep hole of skepticism and cynicism.
I am not saying we should embrace naivety, but let’s pause and consider the text in front of us.
You and I are about 20 sentences into a story. The main character of the story has been teaching and healing.
To put a point on our place in this story, the storyteller reveals the character has been approached by a demon-possessed man. The demons have called him the Holy One of God, and he has dispatched with those demons. Then, he goes onto the house of friend and heals his mother.
Is it possible, for what seems a dramatic introduction, for me and you to consider this man as warranting our attention? Are we amazed, or are we skeptical and even cynical? Perhaps we are even condescending in our tone, “Back then people did not have science, we’ve come so much further…”
People in Jesus’ day were amazed. Mark, as part of his gospel, wishes us to know that people are astounded; he uses six different Greek words to communicate it. Jesus constantly filled people with a mixture of wonder, awe and fear at what He said and did. (Donald English, The Message of Mark)
Today, even the least jaded person is quick to ask, “What really happened?”. It is part of our 21stcentury ethos. And, this is not a bad question.
We must however understand Mark is not interested in explaining the “what”. He is trying to get us to understand the “why”—the meaning of the event.
What would it mean, for a man, claiming to be “the Christ” to be in a synagogue, teaching with authority, being confronted by a demon, and then actually dispatching the demon?
It would mean the man, if he is not the person he claims to be, is still wildly special. The people of Mark’s day “got it”. They were somewhat stunned.
Yet there is more. Mark is telling us that Jesus (this Christ, this beloved Son of God) by His earthly presence, causes the battle to show itself.
The battle has been going on since before The Fall.
Jesus’ physical presence brings the forces who oppose Him into our view. The forces that oppose God are those of evil. In the coming days, we will read about this evil in every form and shape. We will read that it is a battle to the death.
In the prior post I noted that Jesus calls people in the as-is conditions of life. He has no prerequisites. He asks they follow, learning what that means along the way.
Today we read that the demons are actively trying to keep the man they possess, from Jesus.
This drama is real. Evil seeks to keep people from Jesus, from God.
We know that evil has no power over Jesus, unless of course we cease to be amazed by Him and abandon following.