Sabbath Day Surprise

 

Jesu Juva

St. Mark 1:21-28                                                 

January 28, 2024

Epiphany 4B                         

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        And then there were four.  Eventually, there would be twelve, of course.  But Jesus was just getting started.  His entourage was not yet fully formed.  He had just called His first four disciples to be fishers of men—two sets of brothers:  Simon and Andrew, James and John.  Jesus had called His four new friends along the Sea of Galilee.  This gang of five now navigated their way inland, to a little hamlet called Capernaum.

        As this crew crept into Capernaum, St. Mark tells us that it was the Sabbath Day.  And you know what that means.  Team Jesus headed straight for the synagogue.  You can see the ruins of this very synagogue on the cover of today’s bulletin.  It was an impressive structure for a small town in the First Century, but probably no bigger than this room.  Simon Peter was a resident of Capernaum.  Did he and his family regularly attend the synagogue?  Was he a familiar face between those four walls?  We don’t know. 

        But standing next to Simon Peter was the Savior of the world, a visiting rabbi from somewhere up north.  Nazareth was it?  Visiting rabbis didn’t just drop in every day, so they invited Him to teach.  That’s what the Sabbath day was for after all.  Every pious Jew knew the third commandment:  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  At its heart the Sabbath was a day designed for rest.  But, “resting” on the Sabbath didn’t mean sleeping late and going out for brunch.  They rested from work in order to worship.  And, of course, the heart of the third commandment still applies today: Don’t despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  Hearing and learning God’s Word in worship is not work, but rest.  It’s rest from all the hassles and struggles of this world to be refreshed and renewed by the Savior.

        The Capernaum crowd was wowed by Jesus’ teaching, for He taught them with authority.  To hear Jesus preach was to hear God speaking.  Jesus’ words were God’s words.  And His hearers were delighted at the doctrine Jesus was dishing out.  Some Christians today don’t care much for doctrine.  They have no interest to dig deeply into the Scriptures.  “It’s boring,” they complain.  Or, “Doctrine divides,” you hear them say.  The truth is that doctrine unites; error divides.  The truth unites us and sets us free.  Division in the church doesn’t happen because doctrine is being taught and confessed.  Division in the church happens when doctrine is ignored or questioned or denied outright.  The Jews of Capernaum were getting a delightful dose of doctrine directly from Jesus Himself that day.

        But it was just at this point that a Sabbath day surprise was sprung.  Just as Jesus was catechizing His hearers, a demon threatened to derail the entire gathering.  Surprises sometimes happen when the faithful gather for worship:  People pass out.  Cell phones go off.  I once played the organ for a service where a bat started circling just overhead in the sanctuary.  That poor pastor could have done a headstand or cartwheels across the chancel, but it didn’t matter.  Nobody was paying attention to him.

        But the Sabbath day surprise was no match for the Messiah.  A man with an unclean spirit started shouting right there in the synagogue: 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.  That sort of bellicose behavior might lead some of us to suspect some sort of mental illness—especially if you’ve got advanced medical training from “Web MD.”

        But it would be a mistake to assume that the disruptive man in the synagogue was suffering from mental illness. It was something far worse.  It wasn’t a mental problem, but a spiritual affliction.  For as surely as there are angels, there are also evil angels, demons, unclean spirits.  They’re not looking to scare you, but to strip you of your most valuable possession—your faith in Jesus.  Writing them off as a silly superstition would be unwise.  It’s far better simply to take the Word of God at face value.  Believe what it says.  The man had an “unclean spirit.”

        Jesus would encounter many such spirits during His earthly ministry; but I’ve always been intrigued at how this very first public encounter with the forces of evil happened in the synagogue—happened in church—in worship.  I wonder why.  Why then and there?  Because the doctrine of Jesus Christ was being taught, preached and proclaimed—and the devil can’t stand that.  Nothing hinders the work of devils and demons more than for people to be hearing and learning the Word of God—for you to know what you believe about Jesus Christ and why.  It’s often assumed that the devil does his best work in strip clubs and crack houses.  But just the opposite is true:  the devil works to do his worst in the sacred space between pulpit and pews.  He saves his most sinister assaults for where the truth is preached, where sin is condemned and grace is proclaimed, where Christ is present with His people giving forgiveness, faith and life.  Right there—right here!—is where the devil tries hardest.

        Consider this:  From how many so-called Christian pulpits this morning will sin be condoned, encouraged, and celebrated?  How many so-called preachers will disparage and denigrate the very doctrines Jesus has given us?  How many sermons could aptly be summarized with that diabolic question:  Did God really say?  Sermons like those can prove poisonous to the faith of many. That’s why you should always demand that your preachers preach nothing but sound doctrine—the pure, unadulterated, unvarnished truth of God’s holy Word.

        But notice how in the devil’s mouth even the truth becomes a weapon.  The unclean spirit said to Jesus, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  That was an accurate statement, right?  That’s a phrase lifted right from the pages of the Old Testament.  But in reality it was a devilish distraction.  Jesus was indeed the Holy One of God.  But the Holy One of God had a destiny to suffer and die on the cross for the sins of the world.  That unclean spirit spoke up, not to praise Jesus, but to short-circuit His trip to Calvary—to prematurely proclaim the secret of Jesus’ identity and why He had come.  The devil was desperate to keep the Christ from the cross.

        But see here how no one—how nothing—would be allowed to keep Jesus from His cross.  Nothing would deter Him.  Nothing would distract Him.  No surprise, no demon—not the applause of the crowd or the blood-thirsty cries of the angry mob would be able to keep Jesus from the cross.  That cross is why He came.  He came not to delight you and not to dismay you; He came to save you—to save you from your sins by becoming sin for you—by bearing your sin and dying your death.  Redeemed by Christ the crucified you are now safe with the Savior.

        If you hear a demonic voice declaring otherwise—accusing you and misleading you—twisting the truth to trip you up—remember how Jesus dispatched the devil and his minions.  Remember how—with a word—Jesus silenced the unclean spirit in the synagogue.  And that word, by the way, translated into modern English is . . . “SHUT UP!”  It’s almost never appropriate to say “shut up.”  It’s disrespectful.  It’s impolite.  But the devil deserves neither our respect nor our politeness . . . so feel free to talk to him the way Jesus did, and tell him to simply shut up.  Be silent.  When that unclean spirit disrupted the synagogue service, Jesus didn’t look to the ushers for guidance.  He wasn’t flustered, flabbergasted or surprised.  Jesus just spoke His Word.  And that was enough.  That did the trick.

        His Word comes backed by His cross.  On several occasions Jesus predicted both His crucifixion and His resurrection.  He told His disciples that He would lay down His life only to take it up again.  And that’s exactly what He did.  He shed His blood to earn your forgiveness. The devil could not distract the Christ from His cross; and nothing can distract the Christ from saving you.  If Jesus is for you, who can be against you?

        So the next time you are troubled by the devil’s lies or by your own sinful nature, you just tell them all to “shut up” in the name of Jesus and go away.  Jesus Christ is Lord, the Holy One of God, and He declares that you are forgiven and holy and justified.  That’s a word you can count on.  That’s a doctrine you can delight in. That’s a word by which you can depart in peace. 

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.