Mark 1:21-28
Winston
Churchill referred to it as the “black dog.” Apparently it was something that
hounded him, haunted him. Author and illustrator, Matthew Johnstone, created a
book and an animated short film about the black dog, because he too was hounded
by that creature. In the short film, Johnstone illustrates how he tried to
ignore the dog, but it wouldn’t go away. He tried to suppress it, silence it,
but the dog continued to pursue him. Johnstone pretended the dog didn’t exist,
especially when he was around other people. He put on a happy face, and
silenced the canine as best he could. But nothing seemed to work. As Johnstone
grew older, the dog grew bigger. He turned to drinking and smoking, but the dog
refused to be silenced. It refused to heel. No amount of ignoring it,
pretending the dog didn’t exist or numbing its ferocity through other means
made the dog disappear. It was persistent. At one point in the animation, the
man and the dog become one creature; the man brought down to his knees by the
dog that not only followed him, but seemed to have possessed his entire being.
The black dog is depression. With no disrespect intended to either dogs or the
beautiful color black, this was an apt and poignant analogy for what depression
feels like and for what it can become to the person who is struggling against
it.
According
to the World Health Organization, depression affects over 300 million people
worldwide. “It is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major
contributor to the overall global burden of disease.” And according to the
Anxiety and Depression Association of America, in 2015 around 16.1 million
adults, aged 18 years or over, had experienced at least one major depressive
episode in the past year. That represents 6.7 percent of all American adults.
Perhaps you have not experienced depression yourself, but there is a good
chance that someone you know, someone you love, has.
Depression
can feel like a dog that won’t leave you alone. To be depressed feels as though
you have been taken hold of by something you cannot understand, and definitely
something you cannot control. In other words, to be depressed feels as though
you are possessed.
I
realize this is a provocative statement. To say someone is possessed has many
connotations. In our culture, saying someone is possessed brings up images of
Linda Blair in The Exorcist, or even the current hit, Stranger Things.
Certainly, the descriptions we have in scripture of someone who is possessed
seems a far cry from how we understand someone who is depressed; the possessed
man who lived among the tombs comes to mind. The man had no control of his
words, his actions, even his own strength. The people would bind him in
manacles and he would still break free. That doesn’t sound like our modern
depiction of depression, does it?
It
also seems highly insensitive of me to make the connection between depression
and possession. Demon possession was blamed for what we now know is mental
illness. How many suffering people were made to suffer more because it was
thought they were possessed by demons?
But
if you have ever struggled with depression as I have; if you have ever seen the
world through its particular lens or bought into the great lie that it tells
you, then maybe possession isn’t such a far cry after all. Depression feels as
though it owns you, body, mind and soul.
It
is impossible to know if the man with the unclean spirit who confronted Jesus
in the synagogue was depressed or not. But we do know that even this spirit
that possessed this poor man recognized Jesus for who he truly was.
This
is the first thing, Jesus’ first act of public ministry. All four gospels
record a different action by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. In
Matthew’s gospel, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. In John, Jesus
changed water into wine at a wedding in Cana . In Luke,
he preached in the synagogue and was rejected by the people. And in Mark’s
gospel, Jesus exorcised a demon. Biblical scholars make a point of noting these
differences, because the first thing each gospel writer chose to highlight
gives a clue to the agenda of the writer and of Jesus. The first thing Jesus
did in Mark’s gospel was exorcise a demon.
How
did Jesus exorcise that demon? He uttered no prayers, offered no laying on of
hands, nor practiced any rites or rituals. No, Jesus rebuked the demon. He
ordered it to leave the man. The unclean spirit confronted Jesus by calling out
to him,
“What
have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Jesus
confronted the demon right back. He was not cowed or afraid of this spirit, nor
did he blink when the demonic recognized the divine. Jesus demanded that the
spirit leave the man, and the spirit obeyed. Jesus was on an urgent mission to
preach to people that the kingdom of God
“What
have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Yes.
Anything that possessed people, any spirit or object or blinder that kept
people from recognizing God, from full life and abundant life in God, had to be
swept away. Jesus did not just exorcise that demon, he confronted it. He
rebuked it. His ministry was clear and imperative.
I
wonder who else in that gathering around Jesus needed to be released of what
possessed him or her. I wonder what other unclean spirits needed to be rebuked.
Surely there were others there who were possessed by something that kept them
from fully knowing God, from having a full and abundant life in God.
What
keeps us from having that abundant life? It seems to me that you don’t have to
have experienced depression or another form of mental illness to understand
possession. Maybe you are possessed by fear. Maybe you are possessed by
hopelessness or anger. Maybe despair grips you and owns you or maybe it is
something else. But whatever it may be, know this, the first thing Jesus did in
Mark’s gospel was exorcise that demon. He rebuked that demon, confronted it and
cast it out, so that the man could have abundant life in God. Isn’t that what
God wants for each of us? Isn’t that what God longs for? Isn’t that a
fundamental tenet of why Jesus came, so that what blocks us from relationship
with God, what blocks us from abundant life in God could be rebuked, removed
and cast out?
The
first thing Jesus did was confront and cast out a demon. The first thing Jesus
wants for us is to be able to live the abundant life God promises. That is our
hope.
That is our hope.
Maybe what
possesses us cannot be cast out as cleanly as the unclean spirit was, but that
does not mean that Jesus isn’t working on it and on us. The first thing Jesus
does is confront what stands between us and God. And he calls us again and
again to be free from possession, and live an abundant life in God.
Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment