Mark 1:21-28 Jesus’ New & Improved Message

 ²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil^[e] spirit cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”    ²⁵ “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶ The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.  ²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” ²⁸ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

 The word ‘new’ can mean a couple of different things, can’t it? For example, a new car means just that… it is new. It is fresh off the assembly line; we even talk about a ‘new car smell’ that vehicles have. A new microwave is the same way… it simply means a new one, just out of the box to replace the old one that quick working.

 And then sometimes we mean something is ‘new’ in the sense that it is different in some quality it possesses… perhaps we say, it is “new and improved.” It might not be ‘new’ at all… it is simply changed. Those changes can be for the better or not necessarily for the better. Remember new Coke? The company changed it… made it new and improved, but nobody wanted any change. They went back to the old recipe... Coca Cola Classic. But normally, when something is ‘new’ in this sense, we mean it is better… it is the newest, latest version. That’s the ‘new’ we hear about in our text, as the people of Capernaum heard Jesus preach, and said to themselves, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” This morning we consider Jesus’ powerful message… and we see it is really his “New & Improved Message.”

So what was new about his message? What did the people sense that day? Well, we’re told he spoke with authority… not like the teachers of the law. Jesus had moved his base of operations to the city of Capernaum, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and as he started his work there, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. The synagogue was the Old Testament equivalent of church. The Sabbath was that day of rest and sacred assembly when the people would go to the synagogue to hear their rabbi, their spiritual teacher, or to hear a visiting rabbi speak on the Torah… the law. That meant the Old Testament, which was all they had to work with, and the rabbis would expound upon some verses, and give their interpretation of those verses and their meaning for their listener’s lives. They would base their interpretation on previous rabbis’ work, on their comments, adding their own.

Well, now this rabbi named Jesus speaks, and everyone is in awe. They were impressed with the authority he had while speaking. They were impressed, because he did not teach like other rabbis… other teachers of the law. This was something NEW. They based their teachings on the ideas of men, doing the best they could to interpret the scriptures and tell their listeners what they should do. They probably offered pretty good advice at times, gave good instructions for pious living. But what do those mean without the gospel? …without the good news of forgiveness in Christ? Without it they mean… nothing. We don’t see the reason to do them, only the requirement. And if the rule-book is all we have, pretty soon we start to think we’re pretty good because we keep the rules pretty well; at least better than most. That’s what had happened to the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They heard God’s law, did their best to keep it, and then prided themselves in their efforts. But Jesus’ message was different… he came declaring the good news that the kingdom of God was at hand. He came speaking not on the basis of human teachings and traditions, but with the authority of God himself. Because all God’s word pointed to him. He was the reason for all those Old Testament laws that the rabbis liked to interpret… all those laws had kept God’s people set apart, so that the world could receive its Savior through them.

Jesus came not just offering suggestions for moral living or things to do to feel like you’re pleasing God… Jesus came to reveal himself as the Messiah… and although he hadn’t done that yet, his preaching was completely different than the other teachers of the day… because he was the real thing. He came to offer the forgiveness of sins and the hope of being right with God. He came to teach that his perfect life and death are our way to have the hope of eternal life. And that was different from some rabbi’s ideas about what to do to try and please God.

Jesus is still the one who comes with a powerful message… a message different and better than all other messages. I want to tell you a story about someone my wife knew, even before we knew each other, someone she worked with years ago in Florida. This woman’s husband was not a Christian. In fact, he wasn’t such a nice guy. He was gruff… no, he was rude and not terribly nice to Suzy’s friend. Yet this woman loved him, and shared her Savior with him, even though he told her not to bother. Her efforts met with little success. Until he got sick. He was diagnosed with cancer and it was terminal. And his wife continued to share Christ with him, and before he died, he was baptized and confessed his faith and he told his wife that he had never known Jesus the way that she led him to know Jesus.

 What made it different for that husband of Suzy’s friend? What was new about what his wife shared with him? What did he find in Jesus before he died, that he had kept missing up until that point? Well, maybe all he had ever heard of Christianity was a bunch of rules and regulations… maybe all he had witnessed of what he thought to be Christians was hypocrisy and a false piety. So he didn’t want to hear anything else… he didn’t want to hear how he should live or what a wonderful thing life as a Christian can be…he didn’t have time for any of that. But then came his illness, and he realized he didn’t have time for a lot of things. Then by God’s grace his ears were opened to hear what his wife had to say…and maybe he had the same thought about her words… “Since when has my wife spoken with such authority? Since when has her faith made so much sense?” And he came to see Jesus not as the giver of rules, but as the giver of peace.

Dear friends, may we never feel that our relationship with God is just about keeping some rules and living God pleasing lives. Certainly what sort of lives we live is important. But much more important is why we try to live Christian lives. Why do we seek to honor God with our lives? The Apostle John states so simply, “We love because he first loved us.” We love him because he first loved us. We love others because he first loved us. We love him before the things of this world because he first loved us. We love him because he loved us EVEN THOUGH we haven’t always loved others, EVEN THOUGH we have been distracted by the things of the world, EVEN THOUGH we have all too often turned our backs in him. He still loved us. That is what makes the gospel different from some rules to follow. That is the heart of the powerful message of Jesus. That he did what we cannot… he kept his Father’s law for us. And he paid the price which we cannot…. His death was the payment for our sins. But he didn’t stay in the grave. He rose again to assure us our sins are forgiven.

He is the one with the power. He came with a new and powerful message, just as the people saw that day in the synagogue. They saw it in an extraordinary way. There was a man there that day who was possessed by a demon, an agent of the devil. The man said something interesting… through that evil spirit he said, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Even a demon could see Jesus was something special. And of course we know why that statement is so important. Jesus is the Holy one of God. He is the only one who could have saved us. Only the Holy one of God could have paid for the sins of the world with his death.

So why would a demon admit this? After all, he was telling the truth wasn’t he? But the devil only speaks in lies… so for him, even the truth is spoken with evil intent. I think he wanted Jesus to be discredited… associated with this demon-possessed man. He wanted the people to say, “Well, he can’t be anyone too important… look, this crazy man says he is the Messiah!” The devil sort of took a chance here, didn’t he? I think he took such chance out of desperation. He saw how the people reacted to God’s word… when they heard God’s word taught purely, it was something new and invigorating…. And the devil in desperation tried to keep them from tapping into the power Jesus has. He still does that, by convincing people that Christianity is all bunk… or by convincing people they are fine on their own. But Jesus has the power…. The power to break through the devil’s lies with the truth that he is the Messiah… he is the Holy one of God. And with faith in that, we have his power too.

What demons do you deal with? Or more simply, in what ways does the devil come after you? We all have our own weaknesses, our own areas where he comes after us. Maybe it’s a specific sin, maybe our hearts are saddened by the loss of a loved one. The devil would be happy if we never thought we’d see joy again. But remember who we have on our side… we have Jesus, the one with the power.

The people that day got to see Jesus’ power as he cast out that demon. But we get to see it as well. We get to see it each time a baby is baptized and new life brought to a human heart. We get to see and experience it around the altar as Jesus shares his body and blood with us in the sacrament. We get to see his power as lives are rebuilt through the power of Jesus. May we never start to think our faith is only about what we do, that the phrase keeping the faith is only about our lives for God. Really, keeping the faith is about one life given for the many, one life lived perfectly for all others. That’s why the truth of Jesus is a powerful message, and it gives us power to live. Suzy’s friend had shared that with her husband, and now they will share eternity. May we share it with our loved ones, and our neighbors, and everyone we meet. May we stay focused on Jesus’ new and improved, powerful message.

AMEN