Sunday 4 B (2024)

This is year B of the Sunday lectionary,

when we read through most of Mark’s gospel on the ‘green’ Sundays,

and on Palm Sunday.

Each gospel has its own inspired voice, its own viewpoint,

represented by what that gospel records, and how.

Mark’s gospel is the shortest. You can read it in an evening.

It has nothing about the infancy, and, arguably,

nothing past the empty-tomb and the angel announcing the resurrection.

It is really brief about the baptism of Jesus by John

and the subsequent ‘testings’ or ‘temptations’ in the desert.

It has markedly less of Jesus’ teaching than Matthew or Luke.

Mark’s gospel is a fast-moving account of reactions to Jesus and

his preaching of the kingdom of God,

and the implications of discipleship.

Straight after the call of Peter, Andrew, James and John,

– last week’s gospel passage –

we have Jesus at the synagogue in Capernaum.

Mark sets the scene for all that follows in his gospel:

Jesus’ authority is one of Mark’s strong themes.

Jesus teaches with authority. People like it:

perhaps we should imagine them saying

‘you can tell he really understands what he is talking about;

he must be really holy’.

…but there is more to it than that….

Jesus is recognised by the unclean spirit,

which he confronts and overcomes.

Mark doesn’t does really portray this as healing miracle.

Instead, his point is that Jesus acts with authority:

he is what he teaches:

he personifies the kingdom, the reign, of God,

in opposition to, and with effective power over, the forces of evil.

In a pre-scientific world,

illnesses and misfortunes were often attributed to the direct power of evil.

Today, we explain the man’s shouting out and convulsions differently:

though, he was still ‘not right’, and suffering.

Nonetheless, looking more broadly, I know that creation is fractured,

and, on Holocaust Memorial Day (yesterday) 

and looking across the world today,

can I doubt that evil is real, and can take root in the human spirit?

Mark shows, right from the start,

that Jesus came to confront, and deliver us from, evil.

There is a moment of encounter, a moment of communion,

whenever a person feels Jesus teaching with authority,

when the words of the gospel shine with truth.

These are moments of grace:

calling for prayer and thanksgiving.

Sometimes, as part of the encounter,

a person feels Jesus calling them to repentance:

with the need for inner healing and forgiveness laid bare.

These are signs that Jesus wants to act with authority,

wants to deliver from evil.

These are particularly special moments of grace:

calling for contrition, humility

and acceptance of God’s forgiveness and reconciliation.

Lord Jesus, teach us.

Lord Jesus, heal us, liberate us.