What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

 

 

“Be silent and come out of him…And then the man convulses and cries out loudly and the unclean spirit leaves him.” Do we really know what an unclean spirit is?  While Mark  (Mark 1: 21-28) hasn’t told us a thing about what Jesus was saying and teaching, he graphically depicts Jesus’ power over things that people often label as “unclean.” Mark is making an important point: God’s Spirit in Jesus engages and fights against negative forces that are inherent with our human condition. The battle of good versus evil, right versus wrong, life versus death happens to all people. Christ came to shatter the subversive powers that “reduce” people to lower standards than God originally intended. Christ has come to free us from the demons like prejudice and pride, greed and guile. Christ is with us, whether alone or in community.  If we devote ourselves to anything less than a divinely directed destiny, we have missed the goal of faith.

What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? We are not always sure. I don’t know every single day what God wants from me.  Some days I am just like that man with the unclean spirit. Isn’t there a part of all us that sometimes feels unclean? We don’t always understand why things are happening, events and emotions control us in ways we do not want. We are searching for some power that can set us free to live in the right way.

Mark’s Gospel helps us understand that Jesus stands ready to help us caste aside that which binds and constricts us, the demons that defeat our best and highest purposes. Christ stands ready with the power of grace, which breaks the power of evil over us. In him is the gift of true life. Jesus has much to do with us. (Adapted from, http://bloomingcactus.typepad.com/ 1/ 17/06)