sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 10/05/2014
video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard
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In our new humanity series, we’ve been talking about child-like faith. About how that’s the kind of faith Jesus has, and that’s the kind of faith he’s inviting us to have. In a nutshell, it boils down to bringing all of our needs to Jesus, day after day, moment after moment, for him to address – much like a child would bring her needs to a loving parent – and then waiting for his response. So that our posture in relationship to the reality of our neediness and vulnerability is one of a child who looks for satisfaction and peace in its parents strength and promises and favor, except that the parent we are looking to is God. And living our lives, directing our actions, making our choices based not on our judgment of right and wrong, but based on our discernment of what he’s leading us to do, and where he’s leading us to go, because we trust him completely, and that trust expresses itself in obedience to his Holy Spirit. What the bible calls “following” Jesus.
Of course, one of our common fears when we consider such an approach to life and faith is that to have a child-like faith is that we’ll be perceived as childish in all kinds of negative ways. Silly. Weak. Immature. That somehow this is what we’ll turn into:
So if that’s one of your fears, I’d suggest two things to you. One, ask yourself why it makes you nervous to be perceived that way. Is it possible it’s related to the primary manifestation of the old humanity at work in us, the underlying fear that if we’re not strong and sophisticated in our understanding of what plays well with others that we’ll be on our own in the face of our neediness and vulnerability, rejected by others and unable to fend for ourselves?
But secondly, and more to the point today, read this description of Jesus from the second half of Mark chapter 1, starting with an awareness that what you are about to see is what happens when someone with child-like faith plunges into the real world, hitting the ground running.
21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil 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!”
25“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33The whole town gathered at the door, 34and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
40A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
43Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
The central word in this passage is “authority.” It’s the thing that gets people’s attention about Jesus. The original Greek word is exousia. It means power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases; power; strength that is possessed and/or exercised; authority.
The new humanity, revealed in and pioneered by Jesus, has exousia. It has the power of choice, the liberty of doing as it pleases. It has power, strength that it both possesses and exercises. It has authority.
This is the great paradox. The old humanity chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in order to become like God, knowing right from wrong. That choice – the last time we freely exercised our free will – expresses itself now in a tangled web of ways. We struggle to be strong and to look strong in this world. We are consumed with anxiety and judgment is our go-to drug, both of which crowd out true joy in our lives. It was advertised as a way to become free of God, to become like gods ourselves (which we imagined meant the freest kind of free). But as we know, it meant we became enslaved. Enslaved primarily to our bellies, and every appetite they represent. Powerless. No choice, really. No liberty to do as we pleased. Because our misguided pleasures ruled our lives, and lead us to death.
How often do we say that about choices we hate to have to make – I wish I had a choice, but I didn’t really have any other options…? Deep down, don’t we know that it’s our choices that have put us in that place where we feel like we have no choices anymore? And don’t we really mean that any other choice feels like it will leave us unacceptably vulnerable or subject to the judgment of others?
From Pitchfork’s review of Interpol’s self-titled 4th album: Elsewhere he's pleading for someone to just tell him what to do, because his own desires are leading him in the wrong directions…The whole thing sounds like the eighth day of an endless party where everyone's already slept together, burned themselves out on drugs that used to be fun, and developed systems of grudges and resentments that make it barely worth talking to one another. And yet the party goes on and there they sit, sighing bitterly while confetti pours down and the drinks go around.
This experience is in such contrast to the experience of the new humanity. The new humanity maintains a child-like faith in God’s promises to care for it, depending on God for every need. Which seems so powerless, doesn’t it? And yet, the new humanity discovers that in fact it has exousia. The power of choice, the liberty of doing as it pleases. The new humanity chooses first to let God show her what to do. Discovers her desires becoming like his, leading her in all the right directions. Discovers that she has power, strength that she both possesses and exercises. She has authority. Because when a desire comes from a place of humility and peace, rather than pride and fear, it is rooted in Love and has Love’s full force behind it. And the new humanity is always rooted in Love. And what it pleases is always the pleasure of Love.
Real exousia, real power, real strength comes from child-like faith. That’s what these stories are showing us.
Let’s zero in on a couple of these scenes. We’ll skip the mother-in-law for today (nothing against mothers-in-law, of course) for the sake of time, and just look at Jesus’ encounter with the demonized man and then with the leper.
First the demonized man.
23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil 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!”
25“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
The old humanity – that’s us - we’d probably feel under attack, under accusation, a little bit afraid. And so we’d try to turn it to strength, look good to the crowds around, level the playing field. We’d say something like, “Damn straight, I’ve come here to destroy you. And yup, that is who I am. Who do you think you are?” Of course if we did that, we wouldn’t really be free, would we? We’d just be playing the demon’s game, pride and fear at the center of our actions.
Do you notice how free Jesus is here?
Does Jesus – the new humanity - let the demon set the terms of the conversation? Nope. Be quiet, come out. Because Jesus is coming from a place of humility and peace. He’s rooted in Love. What pleases him is for this man to be set free. That’s what Love’s pleasure is in the world. And Jesus has exousia, the liberty to do as he pleases.
Notice a little bit later when it’s talking about Jesus driving out other demons:
He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Wouldn’t he want to let them speak, seeing as they were getting the word out about who he was? Nope. For three reasons.
One, he isn’t concerned about people knowing who he is by way of titles. If he gets famous as the Holy One of God, he knows people have all sorts of ideas about what that means, and they’ll start to come to him not for him to address their needs, but to watch him do the things they expect the Holy One of God will do. Like overthrow Rome, for example. Which won’t bring them any life at all, not real life, the life of the heavens. All Jesus is interested in is people bringing their needs to him for him to address as he desires. Because then he’ll get famous as someone who addresses the needs of people who put their trust in him. And that will actually bring life to people.
[maybe we should let that sink in when it comes to how we talk about Jesus…]
Secondly, Jesus doesn’t want people to hear the testimony of evil about him, especially not through the mouth of an enslaved person. Jesus wants people to hear the testimony of freed slaves saying, Jesus is the one who set me free. Sure, it might be exciting to hear a demon talking about Jesus – Whoa! That’s something else! – but if you hear a freed or healed person talking about him, you think, Hmm, maybe he could do that for me if I went to him and asked him.
That’s why later you see Jesus happily healing people who come to him with their needs, but not responding when he hears “everyone is looking for you!” Instead, he goes off to other towns to announce his good news about God’s kingdom. He’s on a mission to save people from the enslavement that comes from dependence on themselves and others by showing them they can depend on a God who loves them and has forgiven them. Jesus becoming a celebrity doesn’t do the trick. Jesus widely demonstrating the faithful love and liberally available power of God’s kingdom does.
And finally, Jesus hates to see a human being being used by evil, even if evil seems to be using that human being for some “good” purpose. Because it’s not life-giving for the human being who is being used, and Jesus didn’t come to get life for himself, but so that we could have life, and life overflowing. Jesus, in other words, wants to use his exousia to give us exousia.
Let’s fast forward to the man with leprosy.
40A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
Notice the man’s statement and Jesus’ response.
If you are willing… The word for willing here in Greek suggests something like: if it pleases you.
The text doesn’t say what made Jesus indignant, but I think it might be because this human being is on his knees begging. I think Jesus hates that this is what eating from tree of knowledge of good and evil has reduced human beings to. This leper has almost no exousia left. He doesn’t have the power of choice or the liberty to do as he pleases. He’s reduced to staying away from human community, to walking through the streets shouting “Leper!” to warn people away from him. What little exousia this leper had, he mustered to get close to Jesus and ask for help, on his knees begging.
So Jesus reaches out and touches him. The word there for touch is more like grasps, or clings to him. It’s not a dainty touch. It’s full on contact, unafraid. Restoring dignity. Maybe the first touch this man has had in years.
It does please me, Jesus says. Of course it pleases Love. Be clean!
If we follow Jesus on the path of child-like faith, this is what will please us as well. Touching the untouchable, unafraid. Freeing the enslaved. Healing the sick. Using our exousia to bring others into an experience of the exousia of the new humanity that comes from child-like faith.
The passage ends with this interesting interchange where Jesus warns the man to not go talk to others but to go to the priest first. Leprosy was a big deal at this time. Just touching him was a violation of major taboos on Jesus’ part. Which is why when the man ends up not following Jesus’ instructions but instead spreading the news around, it creates a huge stir and he can’t go into cities anymore. It makes Jesus go viral, we might say today. Which, again, isn’t what Jesus wants. Jesus trending on Twitter doesn’t help us bring our needs to him to address in child-like faith. It doesn’t help us have life in him.
And here’s the twist: disregarding Jesus’ instructions doesn’t help this Leper have exousia – the power of choice and the liberty to do what pleases him – either. Because in that culture, at that time, according to the laws of Israel, this man needs not just healing, but the approval of a priest to re-enter normal society. You can look it up in Leviticus 14 for yourself if you’d like sometime, but the process sounds crazy-complicated and bizarre to our ears, and took over a week. It involves an inspection by the priest, birds dipped in other birds blood, cedar sticks, thread, bushy herbs, shaving one’s whole body (twice!), ritual washings, sacrifices, blood and oil spread on one’s ear lobes and toes, and more. Only then were you good to go.
I think about it this way. Many of us are like lepers, having gotten sick from a lifetime of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We want to enjoy the life of the Kingdom of God, but we find ourselves stuck in the leper colonies of the old humanity. Jesus is the one we’ve come to in our desperation, for help and healing. And he loves to heal us – to address our needs. But more than anything, he wants us to experience the life of the new humanity, the life in God’s kingdom, where we can enjoy exousia – the power of choice, the liberty of doing what we please, true strength and authority. And for us to do that we’ve got to go to the Priest. And for us, of course, Jesus is also the priest. And there is a lot to be done to let go of the old humanity and put on the new humanity. There is a lot to be done to learn what it means to live with child-like faith. It requires continuing to be dependent on him, patiently following his instructions, trusting that he has more to teach us than we’d ever guess.
Practical Suggestions:
1. Exercise Your Exousia. Do Something that Pleases You. Not just something that feeds an appetite you have, but something rooted in Love, something that flows from a place of humility and peace. Your favorite sport or hobby. Playing an instrument or dancing or painting or photography or poetry or some other art. Serving someone in need. Some act of generosity. In truth, all exercises of exousia are worship. And all true worship is an exercise of exousia.
2. Come to Jesus for Deliverance. Jesus wants to set you free from whatever is limiting your exousia, so you can have child-like faith. That’s what everything he is doing is all about – casting out demons, healing fevers, cleansing leprosy, forgiving sins, announcing good news, you name it. So come to him and ask for deliverance for whatever is most getting in the way of you doing what truly pleases you, in the way of your possession and exercise of strength, in the way of your power, your authority over your own self as child of God.
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