"What do you want from me, Jesus?" given January 28

"What do you have to do with me, Jesus? What do you expect? What do you want from us Jesus? We know who you are-- you are the Holy One of God. What do you have to do with us-- with me, Jesus? -- What are your intentions for me? What have you got to do with me, Jesus?"

That's what Mark tells us that the demons inside the man in the synagogue in Capernaum said when they interrupted Jesus' sermon. “What have you got to do with me, Jesus?” That question has been asked a lot in this world over the past twenty centuries.

`"What do you want? Whay have you got to do with me, Jesus?"

Mark's Gospel account tells us that the man was possessed by an unclean spirit. Even by Jesus' time the Hebrew word translated as "unclean" here had come to mean a lot more than simply not kosher. And it certainly meant more that the man was physically dirty. By unclean, Mark is telling us that this poor sufferer was acting in ways that were clearly wrong-- detrimental --unnatural --unhealthy --unwholesome --immoral --inappropriate --pick your adverb.

This poor man was not conforming to the minimum expected and accepted behavior of a human being in that society. We're given no clue as to the form of his unclean behavior. But it's clear, his behavior was outside the norm-- so far outside the norm that Mark could only attribute this man's actions to a power outside his control-- to demonic possession.

We're also given no clue as to what the man was doing in the synagogue in the first place. We could speculate. Maybe some friends had encouraged him to attend, thinking that just being there might somehow or other do him some good. Maybe he'd been brought there for an exorcism. Or maybe he'd succeeded in keeping his deviant behavior under wraps for the most part. Maybe it was something only he and a very few others were aware of-- like domestic violence or patronizing prostitutes, or some sort of addiction, or child abuse.

In any case, whatever it was, anyone there in the synagogue that day, would undoubtedly have agreed with Mark that this man was possessed by evil. Was there a little guy in a red suit with horns and a tail who sat on this unfortunate man's shoulder and stuck a pitchfork into him to tempt him to stray?

Did this man’s head spin around like the little girl in The Exorcist? Was this man an alcoholic, a compulsive gambler or some sort of substance abuser? Was he suffering from a psychological disorder --clinical depression or schizophrenia or multiple personalities or bipolarity?

For Mark, and for just about everyone else in the time of Jesus, immoral or deviant behavior, mental illness, even many forms of physical illness could be directly attributed to an intelligent malevolent force operating outside humanity.

Remember the late Flip Wilson's trademark joke: “The Devil made me do it”? The problem is, if we blame “the devil” for all that is bad in our world and in our souls, we’re letting ourselves-- sinful humanity-- off the hook for all the wrong-ness and broken-ness and selfishness that resides deep within each and every single one of us. We are claming that Evil is outside our control

On the other hand, if we say that all of the evil in this world comes from inside us—does that account for such demonic manifestations of corporate evil as the Holocaust, genocide, "ethnic cleansing" , the rape of the Environment, the fire bombing of Dresden, the Crusades and other religious wars down through the centuries? Can the broken-ness of an individual human soul even begin to explain the deep evil of a Hitler, a Stalin, a Slobodan Milosovich, a Saddam Hussein, a John Wayne Gacey, a Charles Whitman, a Jeffery Daumer?

Some years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Jerry Boyle-- the prominent Milwaukee attorney who defended Jeffery Daumer. Boyle did not have a criminal law practice. He defended Daumer against the death penalty on principle and because he felt Daumer needed to kept alive-- and studied-- so that future Daumers could be prevented.

Then someone else wondered if Daumer have suffered from issues beyond his control—perhaps he'd been an abused child-- or had attachment disorder-- or some other psychological problem.

“O make no mistake.” Boyle said. “Jeffery wasn’t the way he was because he had an unhappy childhood or his parents were divorced or anything like that.

I knew his parents. It wasn’t them-- It was Jeffery himself. He was evil.”

“What have you got to do with me, Jesus?” Suffice to say that however we care to describe it, or explain it, or understand it, Evil exists as a pervasive force in our world. We can talk about Satan, talk about possession, talk about original sin, talk about Psychopathology, talk about corporate sinfulness, talk about a permissive and corrupt society, talk about "People of the Lie".

However we choose to talk about it—the reality is that evil is still all too alive and well in our world. And some people simply are evil. If we can't agree on anything else, we need to agree on that.

And there's one other thing that we ought to be able to agree upon. Notice that while Mark talks clearly about the way the congregation received Jesus' sermon that Sabbath, Mark doesn't bother to tell us what Jesus preached on!

The Gospel tells us that the listeners were astonished by the teachings of Jesus. Mark tells us that Jesus' teachings were unlike those of the priests and the rabbis. He even tells us that the crowd was dumbfounded by Jesus' exorcism of this poor man. But the content of the Lord's message is totally ignored.

Clearly, as far as Mark is concerned, it's only what Jesus taught, it's the impact that He had. Mark tells us that twice. It's the effect of the message and the effect of Jesus' personality that is really important. It's the way Jesus taught--with authority. He was an authority to his listeners.

"What have you got to do with me, Jesus? Who made you the boss of me, Jesus? Who made you an authority, Jesus? " The Latin root for our English word "authority" can also be translated as "growth- maker" or "enlarger". So an authority, can be someone who influences you, someone who makes you look and listen and feel and grow.

Jesus was like that. Jesus, and his teachings, didn’t leave his listeners untouched. He made you wrestle with what human life was about, what the world was about, what God was about. He had authority, and people were willing to listen to him because he made them grow.

And it was with that exact same authority that Jesus confronted the evil possessing that unclean man. Whatever kind of negative influence it was, Jesus had authority-- power over it, to silence and conquer and banish it. He had authority to cleanse and heal that man. He had authority to get this poor creature growing out of his broken-ness and into wholeness once more. Evil was not something out of Jesus' control—and with Jesus and his authority beside us, if need not be for us as well.

Morton Kelsey a prominent pastoral psychologist and author writes,

When the full divine drama of Christian faith is understood,

accepted, and fully lived, we find not only the most adequate

religious expression available to humankind, but also a profound

psychological understanding and method.... the full message of

Christianity has always offered the hope not merely of salvation

in a world to come but of healing and wholeness in this world.

Maybe that's why the man-- or the evil within him cried out. He was, after all, the only one in the synagogue who recognized Jesus. He must have understood that believing in Jesus means changing your life. And apparently he didn't want to do that .

Maybe that troubled man understood that he was not the only one living uncleanly and in corruption. Maybe he understood that corruption-- evil-- sin-- deceit-- is the structure around which all too much of human life in the world revolves. And so the man shouted-- like so many like him would shout later,

"If we let this change take place-- if we permit this Jesus to have His way-- if we start to realize His vision-- our whole world is going to collapse around us." He--or the evil within him--didn't want to change, you see.

“What have you got to do with me, Jesus?”

That shriek has become the eternal cry of evil down through the ages. It's the cry of greed. Never mind what I sell, who I cheat, how I deal with others. Never mind what damage I do to the environment. Mind your own business, Jesus. Just let me get back to making my profits. I have a right to my own life.

It's the cry of lust--Never mind who I deceive, what I do, who I use to satisfy myself. Keep your nose out of my life, Jesus. Keep your nose out of my bedroom. I have a right to my own life.

It's the cry of hatred. Never mind if I burn a cross, bust a block, own a slum building. Never mind if I shut out a whole community, a whole class, a whole race of my sisters and brothers. I have a right to my own opinion, Jesus. I have a right to my own life.

It's the cry of all of the sins of humankind --sloth and avarice and anger and lust and envy and despair. It's been the cry of the slave trader and the drug dealer, the war makers and the brothel keeper. It's the cry of the profiteer, the exploiter, the user, the oppressor in every age, in every land, and every tongue. It's the cry, the language of naked, unrestrained individualism, raw self-interest.

"I have a right to live my own life the way I want to" really means is "What have you got to do with me, Jesus?" And to that cry Jesus replied,

"Shut up! Be silent and come out of that man." Jesus had true authority, you see. He was able to confront the evil he saw before him. (Even evil in someone sitting in God's house.) Jesus was able, through his growth-making, life-enlarging authority, to silence that evil and exorcise it from its victim. Evil was in fact NOT out of Jesus' control.

"Be silent and come out!" This is Jesus' eternal answer to the unclean- ness, to the evil in us--and in our world. Whatever evil is--Jesus has authority over it. Wherever evil comes from--inside our secret hearts or from outside us, Jesus has authority over it. Whenever or however evil gains a foothold in our lives, Jesus gives us power to recognize and confront it. Jesus calls us to join Him in working to banish it. He has authority over it.

Whenever uncleanness takes hold within us and recognizes Jesus, it will resist change. It will cry out-- sometimes only in the silence of our hearts--

"My life is my own! I will do with it what I want. I will rage and hold grudges and hate. I will indulge myself in self-centered sexual attitudes and practices. I will beat my spouse and my children. I will jolly drink myself to death. I will smoke my lungs into pitted carbon. I will drive my gas-guzzling SUV.

I will practice my own private morality. I will get even. I will lie and cheat for convenience's sake. I will run roughshod over the lives of others. I will defame and bully and do whatever I please for profit's sake-- for my own sweet sake.

Because, I don't really want to change. I don't want to grow. I don't want to forgive. I'd rather hold a grudge. I don't want to become a giver. I'd rather take. I don't want to share. I'd rather have it all. I don't want to co- operate. I'd rather destroy. I don’t want peace. I want victory. I don’t want justice. I want revenge.

I demand control. I demand to have it all my way. Because it's my life, my family, my business, my country, my body, my church and I get to do what I want.

And what are you going to do about that, Jesus? What do you have to do with me, Jesus? Who put you in charge, Jesus? What do you have to do with me and with my own private way of living, Jesus? What’s your authority, Jesus?”

But deep in our hearts, we know that Jesus does have authority. And that’s why Jesus' answer is always the same.

"Be silent. And come out."

Let us pray,

Savior we pray, silence and banish and conquer the evil within us and around us. Cleanse our uncleanness and make us into new people --whole people --holy people --faithful people --in you. Amen.