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Jesus’ authority with His life reminds us of what is supreme. Loving the Lord, loving your neighbor as yourself, treating people like you want to be treated, equitably, fairly, justly and righteously. Imagine a world where our actions, behaviors and character were filled with the spirit of egalitarianism; the belief that all people are equal and deserve rights, opportunity and liberty. We all seem to be possessed by something -
be it a drive, desire, dream, hope, interest, or motivation.
What purpose does your life fulfill? What end does it achieve? To what goal does it strive? Toward what aim does it drive? We are all driven, guided, inspired, and motivated by something or someone.
The chief desire of the life of Jesus was to make us aware of the kingdom of God, a kingship where the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, would rule in the hearts, lives and activity of humanity. Humanity’s action, behavior and character would come under the lordship of Jesus and His authority through His teachings and examples of how He treated persons regardless of their status in life, the challenging circumstances which they were facing, the lack of resources they possessed. Jesus is the expressed image of what God is like, compassionate and considerate, comforting and consoling, and yes, challenging and confrontational. Jesus reminds us that we creatures made in God’s image and fashioned in God’s likeness; we have the capacity to be filled with the Spirit of God that will determine and dictate the decisions we make to act responsibly in a God-like manner in all of life’s changing scenes. We have the capacity to be like Jesus as the Spirit of the Lord controls our lives, thoughts and deeds.
The scene in the passage has Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath. A less than desirable spirit was present among those who gathered. “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure 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!”
Notice the confrontation is occasioned as the undesirable, impure spirit questions what Jesus wants with them. Notice its more than one. It’s a few of them evidently. I find it fascinating that they were in the person who was in the synagogue hearing the teaching of Jesus. Imagine those who come to worship bringing with them all that they are, all that possesses them. Their purpose, the reason for being there, their search for meaning in life and direction for development, seeking fulfillment in themselves, longing to be appreciated, applauded, and admired. We live our lives grappling with the purpose for which our lives fulfill, the end for which our lives achieve, the goal towards that which we strive, and the aim to which we drive.
We are all driven, guided, inspired, and motivated by something or someone. What
kind of spirit drives you to aim to fulfill what you desire? What spirit rules your heart?
A giving generous spirit or a selfish stingy spirit; an equitable, just and righteous spirit or an inequitable, unjust, and unrighteous spirit; a spirit rife with of anger, greed, covetousness and disfavor, or full of recompense, reconciliation and redemption? Which spirit is reflected in your choice of what you admire, emulate, and treasure?
Maybe we all have a little of an impure spirit that comes to church with us. There is a movie with a saying, "When asked if one trusts. The response is I trust everyone. I just don’t trust the devil in them." Maybe there is more truth to that than we want to admit. There is a little of a devil in each of us. Or as James Truslow Adams wrote, "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us."
The story is told that a grandfather tells his grandson that there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. The bad wolf is filled with feelings of anger, resentment, pride, greed, and self-pity, whereas the good wolf is filled with kindness, empathy humility
and compassion. The grandson asks which one will win. The grandfather says,
"the one you feed."
In the synagogue the impure spirits recognize the presence of the Lord. You see in worship that impure spirits are confronted by the teachings of Jesus. People get convicted, convinced and converted and the impure spirits depart. The spirits survive as you feed and nourish and nurture them.
The Lord gets the attention of those who hear His teaching with authority, and then the impurity is exposed, the undesirable is seen; the less than desirable spirits that cause people act as they do are revealed.
It’s me it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer,
not my brother, not my sister,
but it’s me on Lord standing in the need of prayer.
We are here because we all need the Lord to help us get beyond what creates in us
a variety of disturbing spirits that rob life of its joy and possibility.
Consider what it means that we have some impure spirits that are
confronted by the teachings of Jesus.
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