Fourth Sunday After Epiphany-
The Healing of Evil
The healing of evil is more than just kicking the demon out of a possessed man. It is to change the way society works.

Mark 1:21-28(NIV):
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, "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!"

"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

The 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." News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

The key to this passage is in the word authority. It's used twice- once at the beginning- after just listening to his teaching- and then after the evil spirit is removed. Authority. People listen because he's more than a good speaker or a miracle worker. He has authority. Authority is a "power" word. Jesus speaks with power. Jesus acts with power.

And he is using that power to bring down the ways the world has worked. He is seeking to do new things- to make a new community- to remove those who think they are powerful from their human positions. It is no wonder that the poor and the lame and the sick and the women came flocking to him. It is also no wonder that the scribes and pharisees and saducees came to get him.

Not that they were necessarily evil. But in a very real sense, by being part and parcel of the evil political life of their day, they were allowing it to continue. They were not being the alternative they were called to be- a witness to the power and authority and hope and healing that simply by being there was a challenge.

Jesus didn't come with an agenda to have his people become the government or to change the laws. He came to have them change their own hearts and be built upon The Rock. That presence, even saying nothing to those in power, was dangerous. But it is the power of the Christian community when we simply live in that witness.

The “way of the Lord” isn't shuffling rungs on a ladder; it's bringing the high places down and the valleys up. It's a whole new geography, and it's only the poverty of our imaginations that keeps us from seeing it. But Jesus had enough imagination to break through that, a vision so contagious that even Paul couldn't hold out against it on the Damascus Road, and he ended up spending the rest of his life trying, against all worldly odds and every worldly power and principality, to build communities living into Jesus' vision.
--Dylan's Lectionary Blog