January 29^th, 2012

Mark 1: 21-28

The Problem of Evil

Pastor Terry Defoe, Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Our sermon text this morning is found in Mark's gospel, chapter 1. I'm reading verses 21 to 24:

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 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!”

New International Version (NIV)

This is our text. Please be seated.

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you – from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I pray that God would richly bless our consideration of this challenging part of His Holy Word today! Our text from the 1^st chapter of Mark is simple and straightforward. The story’s easy to recount. Jesus and his disciples had gone to worship at a Jewish synagogue in a town called Capernaum. Now Capernaum was Peter's hometown. And while Jesus was working in the northern part of Israel – in an area called Galilee – he made Capernaum a sort of home-base for his ministry.

In our text this morning, Jesus took his new disciples to worship with him in the Jewish synagogue – and all of this happened on a Sabbath day. Jesus was the guest teacher that day. There was a custom in the Jewish synagogue of inviting a visiting teacher to explain the Scriptures for the people. Jesus was evidently considered a respected teacher – at least by the people in this particular synagogue. And His teaching brought quite a response. Mark tells us that the people who heard Jesus were "amazed." The word literally means "struck." In other words, Jesus' words struck home powerfully with these people. His words had the unmistakable ring of truth. To His listeners, His words were very different from what they were used to hearing – words from the scribes and religious leaders.

As Jesus taught and explained the Word of God, the people’s attention was drawn away by a disturbance. A man described as being "possessed by an impure spirit" (Mk 1:23, N.I.V.) began shouting at Jesus. The people turned to see what Jesus would do. You know, a couple of times in my ministry, I’ve had worship services disturbed by outsiders. Once, when I was pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Castlegar B.C., a man from the neighborhood around the church walked right into the sanctuary, and, as the service was going on, and without permission, he walked up and down the aisle, asking people if they owned a certain vehicle. He was upset because that vehicle was parked in what he considered to be his "personal spot" out on the street. Another time, when I was at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vancouver, and while I was in the midst of preaching a sermon, some young people walked in off the street and shouted a couple of comments to the congregation from the back of the church, before running off.

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In our text this morning, Jesus commanded the man to be quiet. The man uttered a loud shriek, and then fell silent. The people were amazed, "struck," for a second time. Not only was Jesus' teaching unique and powerful. But He obviously also had power over evil. News about His teaching ministry – and about his power over evil – travelled quickly throughout Galilee. So that’s it. A straightforward account of what happened that day. But what does it all mean? What we’re facing here is what theologians call the "PROBLEM OF EVIL.” And it's a problem that just won't go away. Let me give you a modern-day example. In the last few weeks, I’ve been reading a book on Steve Jobs, the long-time CEO of Apple Corporation, who died in October last year. His biography, written by Walter Isaacson, has been on sale recently. Included in the chapter on Job’s childhood, is the following. Isaacson (1) says:

“Even though they were not fervent in their faith, Job’s parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to the Lutheran church most Sundays. That came to an end when he was thirteen.

In July 1968, Life Magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra, [Africa]. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor.

“If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?”

The pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”

Jobs then pulled out the Life [magazine] cover and asked, “Well, does God know about this, and what’s going to happen to these children?”

“Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.”

Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church. He did, however, spend years studying and trying to practice the tenets of Zen Buddhism. Reflecting years later on his spiritual feelings, he said that religion was at its best when it emphasized spiritual experiences rather than received dogma.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.”

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What this indicates to me is that Steve Jobs, like a lot of people in our world, lost his faith over the problem of evil. As a thirteen-year-old, Jobs wanted to know why, if God knows about evil, He doesn’t do anything about it. Well, God certainly knows about evil. And he had most definitely done something about it. Take a look at the cross where Jesus died, and the empty tomb where he won the victory over sin, evil, and death. That’s what God did about it! God cared so much about this very problem that He sent His own Son to pay the price for human sin and evil. Here’s the bottom line: God didn’t ignore these things. He faced them directly. And he defeated them. In the period of time between the cross and the end of the age, Satan has been given a certain amount of freedom as he tries to convince people to follow him rather than God. But that time will come to an end.

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I’ll give you a personal example of the problem many people have with evil. When I was a student pastor – a “vicar” is the term we use in our church – in Duchess and Iddesleigh Alberta, back in 1980 and ’81, I visited a World War II veteran, a very bitter and angry individual. As I talked with him, it was obvious he didn’t embrace the Christian faith. He said to me, “Young man, I was a German soldier in the Second World War. And during the war I saw the most horrible things. And your God did nothing to intervene! I can’t believe in a God of love!” I told this gentleman that what he saw in the war was an example of the power of human sin to bring chaos and death into the world. I told him that God dealt with this problem by sending His Son into the world to die on the cross for human sin and to be raised from the dead to make possible a place for all believers in heaven. In other words, this army veteran was blaming God for humanity’s problem. And he was ignoring what God had done, at great cost, to deal with this problem once and for all. This man, like Steve Jobs, was blaming God for what man had done.

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You know, back in the 1800's, there was great optimism about the future of the human race. Many thought that the human race was progressing ever onward and upward. Many thought that evil was being overcome through enlightenment and education. The potential of the human race for good was thought to be limitless. Such optimistic thinking, however, took a beating during the First World War, with its horrors and its inhumanity to man. But some diehard optimists held to their views despite that war. Then came the Second World War. Two world wars in such a short time shattered that naïve brand of optimism.

The Second World War ended in 1945. And what has the world seen since then? The Korean War. Viet Nam. Cambodia. Rwanda. Iraq. Afghanistan. Syria. In our day, we've seen violence and terrorism on an unprecedented scale. Technologically and scientifically, the human race has gone farther than anyone could have imagined. But socially, humanity has often regressed to barbarism.

There are many explanations for why that evil exists and why it continues. There are those who say that evil is caused by a social structure that pits one class of people against another. There are those who say that evil is caused by an uneven sharing of the world’s resources. Some even say that evil is caused by religion. Atheist Christopher Hitchens has written a book with the provocative title, “God is Not Great!” All these explanations place the source of evil outside of ourselves. And they all argue that when you change the social conditions that cause evil, you cut it off at its source and it slowly disappears. As far as Biblical Christians are concerned, the unbelieving world’s explanations of evil are incorrect. Despite great advances in technology and in scientific knowledge, serious social problems remain.

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Biblical Christianity has a very different explanation. It says, first of all, that the source of evil is not out there in the world somewhere – it’s inside each one of us. The Scriptures say that one major source of evil is our fall into sin.

“There is no one righteous,” the Apostle Paul says, “no, not even one.” (Romans 3:10, N.I.V.)

… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23, N.I.V.)

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6, N.I.V.)

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The Holy Scriptures also say that there’s a spiritual being who seeks to take advantage of our sinful nature. He wants to control us and eventually destroy us. He wants to keep us from knowing God and from enjoying the salvation that Jesus Christ died on the cross to bring. That spiritual being is called Satan.

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As Christian people, we live on the margins between two very different worlds. We live between the modern, scientific world and the world of the Holy Scriptures. Many Christians believe in the reality of Satan and of the evil realm. The Bible recognizes the existence of an evil realm opposed to God. And the Bible is careful to point out that this evil realm is not in any way atheistic. The evil forces are aware of God and of his power. But they’re not prepared to obey him.

In our text this morning, an evil spirit spoke through the lips of a man it had possessed. And it’s important to notice that the evil spirit recognized Jesus. The spirit even called Jesus by name. The spirit feared that Jesus had come to destroy it. And when Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave, His command was instantly obeyed. The Scriptures describe Satan as “the Evil One.” He’s "the prince of this world" – that is, the world of unbelievers, the world in opposition to God and to his will.

Satan is the accuser of the righteous. He confronts believers with their sins and imperfections. He seeks to convince them that they are hopelessly mired in sin and that there’s no remedy for their problem.

He’s also the tempter. He tempts God's people to abandon their faith in God. He baits the trap with whatever’s most appealing to a particular individual, hoping to entice them to renounce their faith in to God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. Satan will do whatever he can to separate believers from God, from His Word, and from the Sacraments, and from others in the church.

In our text this morning, we see that Satan is the possessor. He has the ability to control others and remove their freedom. There are times when the Scriptures describe people as being possessed by the devil or by demonic powers. And when this happens, as we see in our text this morning, control of their lives is completely turned over to a power far greater than their own.

Satan is also the blasphemer. He ridicules Christ and all that Christ stands for. He may do this in subtle ways; or he may do it explicitly. But the effect is always the same. The cause of Christ is subjected to ridicule. The Book of Revelation (Revelation 12:9) describes Satan "the one who leads the world astray." He is the one who makes war with the church and with Christian believers. He does whatever he can to discredit the church and the cause of Christ. Jesus Himself (John 8:44) called Satan “a liar and the father of lies."

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The bottom line is this: Christ has the power to set us free, to liberate us, from WHATEVER hold us in bondage. It doesn’t matter whether that bondage is physical, or spiritual, Christ is the key to freedom. It doesn’t matter whether that bondage is explicitly Satanic; or whether it’s a physical bondage like alcoholism, or promiscuous sexuality or greed, Christ is the one who said, and still says (John 8:32),

"You will know the truth, and that truth will set you free."

I conclude my message this morning with the lyrics to a song that I listened to often in my early twenties – it was a song that got me thinking about spiritual things. The title of the song is “Lord of this World.” (2) This is what it says:

You're searching for your mind – don't know where to start

Can't find the key to fit the lock on your heart

You think you know but you're never quite sure

Your soul is ill, but you'll not find a cure

Your world was made for you by someone above

But you choose evil ways instead of love

You made me Master of the world where you exist

The soul I took from you was not even missed

Lord of this world, evil possessor

Lord of this world, he’s your confessor now

You think you’re innocent, you've nothing to fear

You don't know me, you say, but isn't it clear

You turn to me in all your worldly greed and pride

BUT WILL YOU TURN TO ME WHEN IT'S YOUR TURN TO DIE?

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In the Christian church, our goal is to be faithful to the Word of God, and that means the entire Word of God. This morning, we’ve seen that the Scriptures have much to say about the problem of evil. May God give us wisdom and discernment in this area. And may the Holy Spirit guide us to the very center of God’s will and keep us there. Amen.

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LET’S PRAY – DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER: Make us wise when it comes to the evil in our world. Give us eyes to see the damage it does to people – people you created – people you love – people Christ died to save and forgive. Remind us that Jesus is the Liberator of all those who dwell in darkness and in the dungeon of sin. Enable us to trust Him because He is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen.

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Acknowledgements:

1. Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2011.

2. Lord of this World by Black Sabbath. From the album titled “Master of Reality,” released in July of 1971.