Amazing Isn’t It?

Rev. Richard A. Bolland

(Sermon transcript 2/2/03)

Mark 1:21-28

        Dear friends in Christ, I have seen some truly amazing things in my now not-so-short lifetime! I remember seeing my very first television picture, and being absolutely astounded and amazed that somehow, someway, this picture was coming out of thin air and showing up in my very own living room, right there where I was sitting with my "mouse ears" on.

        And what’s more, I was amazed again, not too many years later. I remember being absolutely astounded that somebody put a cup, a paper cup full of water, inside a machine, turned it on, and the water boiled inside the paper cup! And I saw the amazing truth of a microwave oven, and I was astounded, and absolutely amazed.

        When I think back on what truly amazed me, I remember a day, the particular day was in July of 1969. At the time, I was driving through the countryside of western Nebraska, and was listening to radio, and listening to events unfolding that I wanted to see with my very eyes. So I pulled into a farm, and I banged on the door, people I did not know, and I begged, "Please, can I watch television with you?" And of course, they immediately invited me in (they did!) because they knew what was going on, and they knew that everyone wanted to see the first man walk on the moon. And I was amazed!

        And what’s more, I want you to know, that all of that pales in comparison to what our Gospel lesson talks about this very day. For in today’s Gospel reading we are amazed that "amazed" appears twice! Not once, but twice! And by the way, the Greek word there is quite instructive. "Amazed" is kind of weak-kneed, if you will. It means that they were knocked out, that they were dumb-struck. They couldn’t even speak, they were so absolutely astounded by what they heard and what they saw, those people gathered in that synagogue that day.

        Well, we might point out, that the single most fundamental thing about our faith is absolutely astounding as well. You see, beyond everything else in the Christian faith, it is an incarnational faith, and that is utterly astounding. That God would choose to become human flesh, and to live among us!

        Think about it for a minute! After all, why would He bother? Yes, He had created us, and yes, we had thumbed our noses at Him through our first parents and said, "We don’t care about you, we care about us before we care about you!" Which is, in fact, worshipping a false god.

        So I suppose one of the amazing things about our faith is to understand that it is astounding that God would want to save us at all! It is astounding that He would want to become human flesh. It is amazing, it is "dumb-strucking", if you will, that if we would possibly hear God come to us, and see Him come to us, and hear His words of grace directed towards sinners such as us, that He would do so, at all! Since we do not deserve it, in any way, shape, or form.

        Those who did not deserve the grace of God, those who did not deserve the incarnation of Christ, those who did not deserve the fact that Jesus permits those very people who He came to save to abuse Him, to execute Him. God says, "I will do it, all for you". And if you aren’t amazed by that, nothing I can say will touch your heart this morning.

        Dear friends, it is simply astounding that God would choose to give up His dwelling in heaven to come to us. It is absolutely amazing that the only Son of God would permit these creatures to do to Him what they did, for their own very sake. Paying for the very sins of the ones who execute Him, who unjustly try Him, and who mock Him.

        It is absolutely, unabashedly astounding, that Christ keeps the law that we can’t keep. You see, God doesn’t demand that we do the best we can. God demands that we live perfectly. After all, He said, didn’t He, Just be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect! That’s all you have to do, if you are to do anything!

        But God graciously comes, amazingly comes, knowing that we have no righteousness and gives to us, as a free gift, His own. He is born of human flesh, so that the law can be kept. Every last demand of it, every last requirement of the law Christ fulfills. And at long last, and as promised in days of old to the prophets, the One comes who finally says, not everyone in humanity is unrighteous. There is One! And amazingly, His perfect righteousness He makes a gift to us all.

        And God sees us as pure. As undefiled, as sinless as His son.

        "But what about the sins we have committed?", we might ask. It’s fine to be declared righteous, but we know we haven’t been. We know that we have an outstanding debt in the eyes of God that we cannot begin to make a down payment on, let alone pay off.

        And then, we go to the amazing grace of His cross. And there we see the One who does not deserve to suffer and die, suffer and die. So that we can live! There we see Him in the torment of eternal hell, so that we don’t have to know it, or experience it. And that, my friends, is utterly astounding!

        There is nothing about our God, that doesn’t absolutely blow us away, if we would but stop to think about it. Which is why we sing "Amazing Grace", if you will. It is grace that makes no sense to human reason. It is grace that makes no sense to anyone who thinks of a just and righteous God, but His justice is meted out to His own son. As a result, we are redeemed.

        Well, then His death is a death, if you will, of divine proportions. Yes, He was fully human, a man born under the law, a man who keeps the law. But a man can’t die for your sins. A man can’t die for His own sins, for goodness sakes! But the death of the Almighty One, the death of the Holy One of God, That One, has a life which is so incredibly valuable, that God the Father, at His death would consider the debt settled, and the outstanding indebtedness forgiven.

        Wouldn’t you have loved to have been one of the people in the synagogue that day? Back then in the first century? Wouldn’t that have been amazing and astounding, if you will? Wouldn’t that knock you out? Wouldn’t that knock you speechless? To hear what they heard? To see what they saw?

        Consider what He did! This Gospel tells us that they are amazed at His teaching, because He teaches as one who has authority and not as the teachers of the law!

        I was plowing around through some of the commentaries, and my favorite one is by a fellow named Lenski. And he said this about the teachers of the law and the scribes.

        The contrast with the teachings of the scribes was pronounced. At once erudite and foolish, at once contemptuous and mean, never passing a hair’s breath beyond the carefully watched boundary line of commentary and precedent. Full of balanced inference and orthodox hesitancy, and impossible literalism. Intricate with legal pettiness and labyrinthine system, elevating mere memory above genius, and repetitions above originality. Concerned only about priests and pharisees in the temple or synagogue, or school or Sanhedrin, and mostly occupied with things infinitely little. It was not indeed wholly devoid of moral significance. It was not impossible to find here and there among the debris a noble thought. But it was occupied a thousand-fold more by levitical minutiae about mint, and anise, and cumin, the length of fringes, and the breadth of phylacteries and the washing of cups and of platters, and the particular quarter of a second when the new moon and sabbaths began.

        To this day it is hard to conceive of the arid dreariness of the teachings of the scribes. Some of the talks in pulpits of today on anything save the teaching and word of Jesus, without a bit of meat for the soul, are a continuation of the deliverances of the old Jewish scribes.

        And in stark divine contrast are the words of Jesus. Not at all alluding to human reference. Not at all alluding to human authority, but rather, speaking as the one at whose Word light came. Speaking as one whose Word brings light itself.

        Yes, indeed, we might have been certainly amazed at the casting out of the demons from the one possessed, but we should be equally astounded at the Word that was spoken as God would speak it.

        And then, consider that pitiable man. For the text doesn’t indicate it very well in the English, but in the Greek, after Jesus finished speaking in the synagogue, then "in bursts" a demon-possessed man. We know who the demons are. There are only one set of demons available to us. They are the fallen angels. And their malevolence is never more forthrightly seen than when they are in the act of demon-possession.

        And then they speak to Him! Consider if you will, the mystery of it. These ones, who are the adversaries of everything that Jesus stands for, who oppose Christ, for some strange reason seek Him out! Even walking into the sacred space of the sanctuary of the synagogue! And there, loudly, and publicly proclaiming, I know who you are! You are the Holy one of God!

        Click in your memory banks in regard to what you know about the Scriptures. That time and again, Jesus warned His disciples, "Don’t tell anyone that I am the Messiah, at least not yet!" Sometimes it is called by theologians, "the great Messianic secret". There is nothing mysterious about it. He would reveal Himself as He chose, at the right time, to the people to whom He chose to reveal it. It was not to be broadcast all over the place at that time. (Today is a different story!)

        And so, of course, the fallen ones come to Him in this pitiable man, and shout out what He wanted to have kept secret. "Why, you are the holy one of God!" And so Jesus sternly rebukes him and tells him to be quiet. The Greek is even better, it means, "be muzzled". And then He casts the demons out of this man.

        Please notice, this is no contest. It is not as though you have equal power matched up against one another. At the merest words, at the first command of Christ, the demons must be gone. By the way, did you notice that they knew why Christ had come? It says, I know who you are. You have come to destroy us! (No kidding!) And destroy them He will.

        In another place, another man demon possessed. They say it more clearly yet, these evil ones. "Have you come to destroy us before your time?" How telling. They know the game is up. But they are shocked that suddenly now, before that final judgment, this one comes and casts them out as though it were the end.

        And therein we find the great truth of the miracles of Christ. For whether it be the turning of water into wine, or whether it be the casting out of demons, He shows us what the endtimes are like. There will be no more Satan, to torment us, or to tempt us. There will be no more pain, there will be no more shortage, there will be no more hunger, there will be no more tears. The one who has come to conquer has come early as far as the demons are concerned, and they are dismayed that their time is up before they thought.

        At a word, at a word, the authority of Christ is seen, and the demons flee in terror.

        Now, the irony is clear. Here in the synagogue, stand people who do not recognize the Holy One of God who stands before them, at least not fully. And it is only the evil ones who know.

        Can you see the jaws hitting the floor?

        And then they began to try to figure it out. Scrambling spiritually and mentally to put together what they had just seen with their eyes and heard with their ears, the people were also amazed. And they asked themselves and each other, "What is this? A new teaching with authority? He even gives orders to the evil spirits and they obey Him!"

        Wouldn’t that have been something? To have been there!

        Now, please understand. Every Sunday morning, when we gather in this sanctuary, something no less amazing happens. God speaks to us. God shows up. And He talks. And He speaks with the same authority He had in that synagogue long ago. And we see Him. Indeed, we touch Him. In fact, we taste Him, for as we gather at the altar, God shows up again. And He gives us His very body and blood. How much more do you want? How much more amazing can it be?

        And yes, through the broken and poor instrumentation of a short, pudgy pastor, you hear God speak!

        Thank God He’s consistent. What to know what it was like to be in that synagogue? Surprise, surprise, you do!

        We’ve seen a lot of amazing things in our lifetimes, have we not? Yes, but I would submit to you that no event of human history, nor writing crafted by the hand of men, nor any invention of human making, can begin to compare with what you are witnessing this very instant. For God is speaking. And isn’t that simply amazing?

        In Jesus’ Name, Amen.