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THE MADNESS OF CHRISTIANITY OCTBER 20, 1963 MARK #3: 7—--35

In many ways the Gogpel according to Mark is the edsiest to read among the
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four sccounts.| It is almost always recommended as the place to begin when ones sets

out to read the bible, |i is brief and to the point: it proceedd at an exhausting
—= —— i ence

rate, never giving the readers an® opportunity to lose interest.|Reaeing through

Mark, a project of less than an hour, can be an exctting jexperience. But for many

of the same reasons that Mark is the easiest Gospel to read, it is also the most

difficult to interpret \Fron a scholarly syandpoint, Mark) presents innumerable

problems.}, None of the GospeJs is a biographical account of the life of Jesus in

—=

the techinacal sesnse of theword bi graphy: and fark is the least biographical! of

é
the four.\Unlike Matthew and Luke, whos& accounts contain) descriptive passages of

eng

great tenghth, Mark is almost totally unconcerned with depatt.\untike the fourth

gospel, which begins with a deep theologival affirmation, MArk has little time for

theology and phi Losophy.\ 1 is as if Mark was working against a time limit: and
ii t ten mtpevireenncenteeenaees

having been assigned the task of writing a document that would convinge peole that

oF
Jesus was the Son of God, he sat down and dashed everything he knew and had heard

in one sitting. |The other three gospel writerds go to great pains to arrange their

*

material @n logical and chronological owdenv sequence. \sut i\ark lumps two and three

themes together in one paragraph, and records Jesus as saying and doing things — that
— eee
in Matthew involve many different and separate occassions,

The third chapter of Mark, from which our New testam@nt lesson was read this

morning, is a prime example of the interpretadive difficulties encountered in the

Gospel.J At the beginning of the chapter Jesus heals a man jon the Sabbath: engages
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in a pointed dialogue witht the Pharisees about the Sabbath law: and prompts

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immediate opposttion to his ministry. Without comment we gre ushered to a new scene,
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thés one by the sea, and the crowd following him is so great he is forced to seek

refuge in a boat. [in this epitsode we are told, almost as an after xix thought, that

whenever he encountered unclean spirits they recognized him and fell down and worshipped
SSS

him.

As abruptly as it was introduced, the scene changes again and Jesus goes up
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into the hills and appoints his twelve disciples.|Thenwe are told, he went home,
=

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But lest we put the book down, Mark is quick to inform us that the crowd converged
ieee | el ent,

on him agein.\ this time Mark adds the disturbingly blunt comment that his frineds

went in to sieze him, forgfthey said c is beside himself] This is an episode
we would like to discuss, but Mark mushes on, introducing a group of scribes sent from
oo ies

Jerusalem to investigate Jesus and his preaching. |these scribes having seen and

heard Jesus in action propptly accuse him of an alliance with Beelzebeb, the prince

a Sas

of the Evil spirits. Anotner brief debate follows and the chapter ends with Jesus®™

mother and brothers coming to take him away: and his unforgetable reptys( “whoever

—

does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.)

In a short chapter of 35 verses, there are seven completel different situations,
Ww

AXSMANXBX a distance of many miles traveled, and by conservative estimates, a span

of several months in the ministry of our Lord. | tere is however, a major theme that
en. Sn
keeps emerging in the chapter, one to which | now want to call your attention.
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It is the general subject of madness. |11 is expressed first in the Evil Spirits!
——

recognition of Jesus: secondly in his friend's fears that ("He is beside himsel f":)

thirdly in the charges made against him that he is actually an ally of the prince

of the evil Spirits: and fourthyly in the appearance of his mother and brothers, who

apparently are so disturbed by the way he is acting that they have come to take
him away.
Fo reachg any understanding of this generalf theme;-the reasons why Jesus was

thought to be beside himself; we must know what Mark and his culture thought about

the subject. \ve have to know who and what these evi| spirits were: [we have to understand
ene i]

how Mark can record these serous charges and implications about Jesus as 9f tagy

are perfectly understandable, teens aie
‘eee “TA wee

In the though world of the first century there¢ existed a whole realm of evil

Spirits.| Israel had long believed in one God and had rejected saperstition and

belief in Spirits: butt the strict monotheism of Israel had been infected with

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Greek and Pagan intluences: ang it was just normal to believe in the existence of

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a spiritual underworld , which was the residing place of the forces of evil.

The underworld, in the thought of the day, was a structured kingdom populated by many

or

evil spirits or denons.\ 11 was thought that they roamed he earth at random: and wwre

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constantly engaged in all out struggle with the powers of good ~ or God. Every so

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often, one of these evil spirits would occupy the body of a man: and thé man would

be caused to do all sorts of steange and evi| things.\ His behavior was not lite

f
societies norm, and because of the deep superstition Lovelved, these wrethched souls

—

were total and complete outcasts. | te persons in question were, in modern terminology,
fen ner

oo

mentally i11.| Today they would fall into all the different categories of mgental|

ifines that have been devised by Psychology and psychiatty.| Some of them were epileptics,

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whose siezures of epilepsie were sm a sure sign of the presence of a demon.

Along with this understanding there was the belief that a demon could be cast

out in two differnt ways. An evil spirit of higher rank in the underworld could do

——

it: |or the force of good, God that is, could cast a demon cut,| the accusations against

= ————

Jesus now become clear. He cast out demons so was charged with being an ally of the

chief demon, the Prince of evil called Beelzebub. \ the other alternative was that he

en
”

was doing it im the name of God: but he always anni. command you to come out of him"

—————

|.E. he was doing it in his own name — an act of serious bdasphemy in itseit | tis
eee a aT aaa ’

is a recurring theme in the life of Christ: the role played by the evil spirits is
ie _|

prominent throughout the New Testament: in fact we can hardly gain any understanding

SS

of the Life of Christ until we know what is indicated with every appearence of unclean

spirits of demons.

Here and throughout the N.T. the madmen seem to be the only ones who immediately
vet

recognize Jesus for who he is.| They seem instinctively to have this insi ght | Those

who ought to know, his friends and disciples: the religious authorities and the scribes

are either confused or convinced that he is a dangereus imposter. [ou the unclean

spirits fall down before him and say("You are the Son of God."JIf it happened only

here we could attribute it to Mark's peculiar demonology: but it happens time and time
eel

again. lpi aeabencelLa a pu nt pero S\vol

—,

Today, there is nothing so illdsive as the term mentally ill. Whe term insane,

Peete eee, ee —

and its correspondent, sanéty, are purely leaqal terms and mean absolutley nothing to
es,

oe

the person who is concerned witht the nature of mantal i 1ness.\Wormal ity and abnormality

are equally as meaningless, for who is to say what is normal and what is not | In fact,

there is probably a greater gap between fact and superstition, between scince and

opinion, in the firld of mantal health than in any other field. for discipline. \

For centuries mental! illnes was treated in much the same way as it was in Biblical da=ys.

Sufferrers were treated as outsasts: social astracization turned into public punishment ,

canhdisiaad setciamiigs
The mentally ill were chamned in dungeons, locked in prisons, drowned and burned at

The stake } out in the past loo years the behavioral sciences have flowered into a

breadth that is still increasing-| Today mentall iliness falls into two very general
=e TT;
categories.|The one is completely an organic difficulty: AK i.e.a brain tumor, or
— TT
deformation of the nevous systen\ The other is neon organic: a sickness of the soul ™
LT el ee

and is not caused by a specific physical si fticulty. \tnis type of mentall illness is
eee |
not corrected by surgery and calls for another type anc approach to treatment.

Technically speaking the lines hetween the two cannot be so sharply drwan but qwe have

learned that mental health, like phisical health, is relative rather than absolute.
TS

Most of us here today are haedthy, but a thorough physical examination would show

|

that soem are healthier than others: and that all of us are a little different in

Sa

regard to out sgate of neal thiness. [The same is true of mental health.: all of us,
——

relatively speaking, are not equally as healthy mentally.
ee et

Along the same line, we are not so quick to call a man mad taoday mifmbab just
ei

because he doesn't measure up to our standards of normality The cliches "Mad scientis

wu a
and absent minded professor" have logic behind them: for we know that the gifyed :
. a ieee |
the brilliant: the possessor of deep insight, very frequently will be totally unconcerned
— irene
about the standards of normality that society has established, [Atbert Einstein was one
of the most brilliant menr_of our maxmwak: and by ordinary standards he was anything

but normal. |uis appearence was always bedraggled: his manneriems were eccentric:

and he took walks in his bare feet. | There was a day: and | suppose there are places

foday where this sort of thing$ is taken for madness or insanity.

ee aiaeeeetal

.

And yet if there is a place today where new ideas: new approaches and new programs are

viewed with suspicion it is the chrurch of Jesus Christ. \Christians resist new

SE — Ts

translations of the Bible, new worship services, new customs and conventions, clinging
a

fo the old and conventional as if their life depended on ir have experienced that
tie,

chaachmen don't even like to sing a new hymn.

Sinclair Lewis once wrote about establishing a {Society for the Promotion of

oe | ine

Madness Among the Respectable Clasees." }The Church of Jesus Christ ought to be such

a society.| We ought to pursue the madness of vesus Christ: the madness that disregards
ES —

conventions and standards of normaliyy — and to every situation appl the will of

God. |The church, of all places, should not be where we ask, (vr is normal? what is

respectable" but "What is the will of God?" | +
a yeser

Jesus Christ was called mad: and so was the Apostle Paul, and the Prophets of

- my, _— ‘SSneseoniceceelll

Israel , and Francic of Assissi, and Martin Luther | these men knew thet to do the work
—— eas,

a

of God meant breaking customs and being different: in meant acting in a way many times
a

incomprehensible to society. |The Church needs this type of Madness: We as individual

Christians could do no better than to have our friends look at us and observe — -

Seemed

(“They are beside themselves. " )

O God, our heavenly father, fill us with thy Holy SBirit: Ignite in us the flame

of faith: that we may be obediant to thy will. Give us courage O LOrd, That we

might act with conviction even in the face of suspicion and adversity. Give

us that singlenss of purpose that has charagterized great men of the faith down throug
the centurtes. Help us, our ather, to give up ourselves, willingly to thyn servicd
for we pray in the name of Him who men called mad — evn Jesus Christ. Amen