‘Devil us from evil’: kingdom, restoration, communion
Mark 1:21-28
“Just then 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.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’”
It is in the very opening chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark.
It is the first act of the public ministry of Jesus in Mark's Gospel.
It is a scene which must be understood by the author of Mark’s Gospel to reveal something fundamental about the meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ; something of the meaning and purpose of Christian faith.
And that can be rather embarrassing for us.
We are, after all, talking about an evil, 'unclean' spirit. And this spirit’s claim that it is not alone: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”. And Jesus casting out this evil spirit.
What is more, rather than being an isolated incident, accounts like this are scattered throughout the gospels: individuals are delivered from dark forces through the ministry of Jesus. You cannot read the gospels without coming across these encounters.
As C.S. Lewis said, "One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe" [1].
Are modern, enlightened people of the 21st century really meant to believe this?
Can we really believe this in 2024?
Perhaps a good way of beginning to respond to this question is by turning around its assumptions.
What if, instead of being an antiquated superstition - banished by modern, enlightened thought - this episode in Mark’s Gospel has an ongoing, deep, profound realism?
If we look over the long sweep of human history - the horrors humans have inflicted upon other humans, century after century; the merciless wars; the hatreds which have taken deep root in whole cultures and societies, leading to hellish consequences - are we really to believe that a purely secular account, that has no conception of dark spiritual forces, comes anywhere close to adequately explaining this?
Think of the conflict in the Middle East today. Do we really believe that the hatreds, violence, malice, and prejudices which we see in this conflict, and in responses to it, are to be simply explained by a debate about sovereignty and national identity?
Do we really believe that we can reflect on all of this and not recognise that dark powers and evil forces corrupt and disorder humanity and human relationships?
Away from the news headlines, we can also ask ourselves questions which are much closer to home.
In our own lives, do we not recognise times and behaviours, words and attitudes which require a more realistic, convincing explanation than straightforwardly secular accounts provide?
Think of how greed or pride, malice or jealousy, anger or selfishness can be destructive in our lives: to offer an explanation of this without acknowledging dark spiritual forces is, to say the very least, inadequate; it fails to offer a realistic, meaningful account of how and why we act in such hurtful and destructive ways in our own lives.
And so we return to that sabbath day in the synagogue in Capernaum: “Just then 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.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’”
What it was in this man’s life that was shadowed by evil, dark forces, we do not know.
What we do know is that in the face of Jesus of Nazareth - the One who is the bearer of God’s Kingdom - this man recoiled: whatever darkness was in him recognised that, in Jesus of Nazareth, the dark powers would be overcome, defeated, banished.
And this brings us close to understanding why the author of Mark’s Gospel placed this encounter at the very opening of Jesus’ public ministry: it is a moment of revelation, a moment when we glimpse God’s purposes in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The phrase Mark and the other gospels use in these encounters is “unclean spirit”: it can also be translated ‘impure spirit’. What these terms capture is a sense of how dark, evil forces corrupt and pollute our humanity.
We are created in the image of God, to be bearers of God’s goodness, light, truth, and love, living in communion with God and communion with one another.
This image is obscured, polluted, and disordered by darkness and evil; in the greed or pride, malice or jealousy, anger or selfishness which wounds us and those around us; turning us away from loving communion with God and with one another.
This is the background to the opening of Mark’s Gospel and to the first words we hear in it from Jesus Christ: “the kingdom of God has come near”.
The purpose of the kingdom of God is revealed in Jesus, in his life and teaching and miracles, in his death and resurrection: that purpose is humanity’s restoration and renewal - the restoration and renewal in us of the image of God, of communion with God, of communion with one another.
This is what we see on the sabbath day in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Whatever the darkness which shadowed that man, from it he was liberated on that day. In and through Jesus of Nazareth, he was healed in heart and soul, he was restored, he was renewed - in the image of God, in communion with God, in communion with his neighbours.
In the most famous of Christian prayers, the Lord’s Prayer - to be prayed day by day, prayed every time we gather for this Sacrament and for public worship - we pray that the healing and liberation experienced, through Jesus Christ, by that man in the Capernaum synagogue would also be a daily reality for us.
Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say “deliver us from evil”: from the dark forces which pollute and obscure the image of God in us; which pollute and obscure our loving communion with God and with one another.
It is a prayer with a deep and profound realism about our lives and this world: about the destructive forces which can take root in our hearts and minds and souls; about how this wounds us and those around us.
But it is infinitely more than just that.
When we pray “deliver us from evil”, we are joyfully recognising God’s purposes in Jesus Christ, for us, for the world: that we are healed, restored, renewed in Him, in the image of God; healed, restored, and renewed, through Christ, in communion with God and with one another.
May we, day by day, seek in this petition of the Lord’s Prayer - 'deliver us from evil' - to know the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ, revealed on that sabbath day in the synagogue in Capernaum, delivering us from the powers of darkness, restoring us in the image of God’s glory, and leading us in the light and obedience of Christ [2].
--------
[1] Lewis in Mere Christianity, Book II.2 'The Invasion'. Lewis states in the previous sentence, "I freely admit that real Christianity (as distinct from Christianity-and-water) goes much nearer to Dualism than people think". We might also think of David Bentley Hart in You Are Gods (2022), in which he notes the "dualistic theological register" in the New Testament, "the provisional or qualified dualism implict in this vision of things" (p.77). Likewise, the Introduction to his translation of the New Testament: "The New Testament emerges from a cosmos ruled by malign celestial principalities (conquered by Christ but powerful to the end)" (p.xxvii).
[2] The closing words are taken from the prayer accompanying 'The Decision' in BCP 2004 Holy Baptism Two, p.362: 'May almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness, restore in you the image of his glory, and lead you in the light and obedience of Christ. Amen'.
The illustration is an 11th century fresco of this scene in the synagogue at Capernaum.
Comments
Post a Comment