The Gospel of Mark is chock full of miracles. Every time we turn the page, we see another one. You can sense a clear sense of focus here in Mark. He is intent on showing us the deeds of Jesus, often without commentary or explanation. He does offer up some of Jesus’ teachings, but far less than the other gospels. But that leaves us with a question? What do we do with all of the miracles? How do we make sense of all the healings? What about the casting out of demons? How do we make sense of that? On Sunday, we’ll look at Mark 1:29-,34 and it’s only healing and the casting out of demons, lots of both. What do we do with that?
There is a danger that we’ll dismiss these miracles as fantasies of fanatics, as dreams of dreamers, as not really miraculous after all. We’ll call it sensationalized news and dismiss the healing. There is a danger that we’ll simply dismiss these. Even if we accept them as true, we’ll fail to see how this healing and exorcising work of Jesus is something that he is still doing.
There’s another danger: we’ll spiritualize it. We’ll read about the fever Peter’s mother-in-law had and equate it to the fever that sin gives us. We’ll make it about our sinning and about Jesus’ healing us from our sin. Or, we’ll dismiss it another way by saying that this isn’t the biggest thing Jesus came to be and to do (which, of course, it isn’t!). But did he not also heal the sick? Did he not also cast out demons?
We are accustomed to talking about sin in two ways. We regularly talk about the sin that we commit. We slandered them. We hit that person. We did this or that against God or against other people. We also teach about the sin that is inherent in us; we call it original sin. It’s the sin with which we’re born. And Jesus came; he lived and died to deal with that sin at the cross. He came to save us both from the sin we inherit and the sin we commit.
But that’s not the only sin he came to deal with.
There is a third sort of sin that we experience. It’s the sin and the curse of sin that affects us. We get sick because of sin’s curse in our bodies. Some people are even possessed and controlled by demons (Yes, it still happens! We have a whole sermon series planned to look at it. Just wait until June, God, willing!). We are abused and profiled; our churches suffer from hate and persecution. We are sinned against. We groan because of the curse of sin in our lives. Jesus came to deal with this sin too.
Mark doesn’t teach us about these things. He just shows us the deeds of Jesus. But Matthew does explain them. Matthew comments on the same section of healing (Matthew 8:14-17). There Matthew takes us into Isaiah, where the prophet said this about Jesus:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
These miracles of Jesus are part of his redemptive and restorative work. He is warring against the curse of sin in our bodies. He is overwhelming the power of Satan over our bodies (that’s what demon possession is!). He is warring against the sickness and the disease that still strikes us. And, then and there in Mark, he was just getting started. He was just getting going in his work of turning back the curse of sin to set us free from all the sin - the sin we commit, the sin we were born with, and the sin that we experience as a plague against us. He has, he is, and he will set all things right again.
See you Sunday! Pastor Nate