Cleansing the Synagogue

 

For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?  So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  --1 Corinthians 2:11

Hollywood has just about ruined the Bible for a lot of people.  In so many movies, the actor cast to play Jesus was white skinned, blond haired, and blue eyed.  People of color, especially those associated with BLM, are rejecting the message of Christ because of the way that He has been depicted on the Silver Screen.  One BLM activist tweeted, "Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down.  They are a form of white supremacy.  Always have been."

In the same way, Hollywood images of evil spirits have colored the way we look at certain passages of Scripture.  Whenever we read of Jesus meeting and healing one tormented or possessed by an evil spirit, we immediately think of scenes from The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby.  On the contrary, I believe that the people Jesus met on the street and delivered from the clutches of sin were normal, ordinary folks that one would ordinarily see on the street.  Although described as people who "had an unclean spirit", I don't think they they stood out in a crowd, foaming at the mouth and spewing curses while their heads swiveled 360 degrees on their shoulders.  I believe that everyone is at their core a spiritual being, and when we are engrossed in sinful addictions it could be said that our spirits are unclean.

We see one such person in our passage today.  He appears to be a leader of the synagogue in Capernaum, a place where Jesus taught early in His ministry.

A Dramatic Message

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching.  And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as One who had authority, not as the scribes.  --Mark 1:21-22

This is one of the first recorded activities of Jesus.  Matthew describes the start of Jesus' ministry as going throughout Galilee, "teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people" (Matthew 4:23).  Luke 4:14-15 gives a similar account, followed by what might have been His central message in the synagogues that He visited.  

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up.  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." --Luke 4:16-21

We know that the village of Nazareth was only about 20 miles from the town of Capernaum, so it is safe to assume a similar message to the synagogue there.  Mark described Him as one who had authority, "not as the scribes."  Those who normally taught in the synagogue were well versed in Scripture, because they copied it word for word in the scrolls from which they taught, but their message was flat and uninspired.  They did not know of whom they spoke.  When Jesus spoke, He had the authority of the I AM behind him. 

A Dramatic Challenge

The passage that Jesus quoted from, Isaiah 61:1-2, was largely recognized as a Messianic scripture.  That is, the One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord had fallen, who was anointed to preach good news to the poor, to preach freedom to those enslaved (in sin), and to heal the blind was believed to be the Messiah.  When Jesus claimed to be the One of whom Isaiah spoke, it was a bold revelation.

A man stood up to challenge that assertion.  He was described as a man with an unclean spirit.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.  And he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are--the Holy One of God." --Mark 1:24

In reading the context of this passage, this man appeared to be well known in the synagogue.  He was apparently one who had standing to stand up and speak.  I am not a scholar in Jewish tradition, but I don't think any random bum off the street could come in and speak.  So why would the members of the synagogue allow someone to speak in their gathering whom they knew had an evil spirit?  In other words, why would they invite someone into their congregation who had red, scaly skin and horns and a spiked tail, and carried a pitchfork?  They clearly didn't; this was a man who was not unlike themselves.  He was part of the "in crowd" in this religious gathering, but in retrospect (by the time Mark penned this Gospel), they knew what was in his spirit. 

His question to Jesus was a valid question.  Maybe he was a scribe, or a Pharisee, well versed in Scripture.  His question may have been a legitimate one from someone well versed in traditions and liturgy.  "What about me?" he asked.  "Are you saying that I and others like me are obsolete now, useless in the kingdom of God?"  The following statement may have been a declaration of a person teetering on the edge of conversion, one who knows his own heart and wants to change, but won't follow just anyone.  "I hear what you are saying--that you are the Messiah.  How do we know you aren't just a self-proclaimed saint, one who comes to bring judgment on us?"

He said this in such a way as to prove Jesus' point.  "I know who You are--the Holy One of God."  It reminds me of the passage in John 15 when the Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus. 

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? for this man performs many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."  But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all.  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."  He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.  So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.  --John 11:47-53

Just as Caiaphas had spoken truth without realizing it, I believe the leader of the synagogue in Mark 1 spoke truth, only realizing afterward what he had said. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, "Out of the abundance of a man's heart his mouth speaks."

A Dramatic Response

Jesus looked past the man's words and spoke to his spirit.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him!"  And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.  And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this?  A new teaching with authority!  He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him."  And at once His fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.  --Mark 1: 25-28

The man's response to Jesus was a very dramatic conversion.  I have seen others with a similar reaction to Jesus' message of hope and forgiveness--they crumple to their knees and sob uncontrollably, their shoulders convulsing as they cry out from their very soul.  The words used in the phrase, "crying out with a loud voice" is the same phrase used in the passage describing the time when Herod killed all the babies under two years old in Bethlehem.  "A voice was heard in Ramah,  weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2: 18).  This man's conversion used the same imagery--a man weeping from the depths of his soul for his sin, and repenting from them.

Again, I can't see this scene play out like some Hollywood version of an exorcism, because of the people's reaction to it.  Their first response was to Jesus and His message, a new teaching or doctrine delivered with authority, as though from God.  The deliverance from the unclean spirit was like an afterthought. 

We all are born with an unclean spirit.  Sin's currents run deep and strong within our innermost being.  When Jesus sets us free from the bondage of sin, He gives us a new heart.  Ezekiel 36:26 says, "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."  This heart transplant is God's gift of repentance.  Those who still have a heart of stone feel no remorse for sin, for their hearts are hardened.  The redeemed of the Lord know that sin pricks us to the very heart, and makes us sorrowful.  Thanks be to God for renewing our hearts, and giving us a clean spirit.

In Jewish tradition, there are many rites of purity.  A person may become unclean, ineligible to participate in Temple worship, because of his or her association with unclean things--dung, blood, vermin, wild animals and death, to name a few.  Jesus came to be our sacrifice, once and for all, to make us clean in the eyes of God.  God is holy, and cannot abide sin; man is sinful and cannot approach God.  Jesus bridges the gap, coming to us so that we may go to God and worship him.  

If your place of worship has leaders with an unclean spirit, pray that God would cleanse their hearts like He cleansed this leader of the synagogue.  Jesus still sends out a message of repentance and hope and healing, of setting captives free and restoring sight to the blind, bringing liberty to the oppressed, and proclaiming the Lord's favor.