Mark 1:21-28 - Who Gets the Last Word? - February 7, 2021

The last word. Everyone wants it. Husbands and wives want it when we have our, what shall we call them…differences of opinion. Children want the last word when arguing over who’s faster or stronger or better at video games. Politicians definitely want the last word – and if they can’t get it on the floor of the house or senate they run out to the media to try to get it. Even Christians can be found trying to get the last word in meetings and Bible classes. Getting the last word is a sign of power and authority. Today, the question is not: who wants the last word – because everyone does. The question is: who gets the last word?

Everyone who wants the last word fits into one category: they are all sinners. What’s interesting is that there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to how sinners believe they can get the last word. On one end, you have the person who says “No one tells me what to do! I’ll decide what’s right and wrong and what is true and false.” This might be called, for lack of a better term, “libertinism.” Libertines demand to be free from all outside power and authority. Then you have those who claim an elite, highly intellectual philosophy. They believe that no one can definitively have the last word on anything. For them, one person can say that boys are girls; someone else can say that unborn babies are nothing more than a disposable tissue mass; and a third can say that gender and life itself are simply social constructs – so that nothing anyone says is absolute. These are “postmodernists”; relativists. Do you see what the irony is about both ends of the spectrum if taken to their logical conclusion? In the end, I, the sinner, get the last word, and no one can tell me otherwise!

Whichever end of the spectrum a person is on, all sinners want the last word in life. We want to have the last word on what is and isn’t sin, what is true and what is false, what is necessary to believe and do and what is not. It’s part of our human nature – inherited from Adam and Eve. The question is: does it work? Does demanding the last word get it for you? No. In fact, both libertines and postmodernists will have to one day admit that they don’t have the last word. Why not? Because of the great equalizer: death. No sinner has authority over the grave. That authority belongs to God. In Deuteronomy, God says now see that I, only I, am he, and there is not a god comparable to me. I put to death and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand (Deuteronomy 32:39). Death puts to sleep any idea we may have that the last word will ever be ours.

In Greek mythology, there’s a story about a demi-goddess named Echo. She had a talent for gossip and the King of the gods, Zeus, used her talented tongue to distract his wife Hera while he engaged in affairs with other demi-goddesses on earth. Well, soon enough Hera discovered this scheme and cursed her to be unable to speak anything other than the last words spoken to her. [1] “You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first.” [2] She was doomed to be nothing more than an echo of what others said to her. This is us. We think we’re speaking the last word but in reality we’re just echoing what the devil, the world, and our flesh said first. Most of the time it doesn’t bother us because what they say is flattering, what they say agrees with our fallen reason, what they say inflates our egos; telling us you can live life your way; you don’t have to answer to anyone; you get the last word. But what does living that lie get you? Just one thing: death – both now and eternally.

Sinners want the last word, but God has it. And the good news is that God has given us his last word in the flesh and blood of Jesus. That’s what the writer to the Hebrews told us in our second lesson: In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature. He sustains all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:1-3). Jesus is God’s last word to us in these last days. What he says goes.

Jesus proves this today by exercising his authority over an unclean spirit. 12 months ago, I don’t think the term “unclean” would have meant as much to us as it means now. Today, if a contact tracer or your employer or an app on your phone tells you that you’ve been within breathing distance of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, you are considered “unclean” and must quarantine yourself – cut yourself off from fellowship with others – for days or weeks. In much the same way, under God’s Old Testament Law, a person was unclean – and therefore excluded from religious and ceremonial fellowship – for any of a number of reasons: touching anything that was dead, giving birth to a child, having a skin disease (Leviticus 11-13). Because this man had an unclean spirit he was cut off from fellowship with God. 

Do you know what that’s like? To live with an unclean spirit? No, maybe, by God’s grace, we’ve never been physically possessed like the man in our text – but we’ve all lived with unclean spirits nonetheless. We are living with an unclean spirit when we believe that the accusing voice of conscience and the haunting sins of the past are more powerful than the cleansing words of absolution. We are living with an unclean spirit when we think that our pet sins, our sinful habits and addictions, are more powerful than the Holy Spirit’s power to grant new life through the rebirth and renewal of Baptism (Titus 3:5). We are living with an unclean spirit when we think that any disease or virus or cancer is more powerful than the medicine of immortality that our Lord offers us through his body and blood. When we do that, we are allowing Satan to have the last word. We are agreeing with him, that our sinfulness is more powerful than the righteousness Jesus freely gives us through the means of grace. We are giving him, not Jesus, the last word. And living with these “unclean spirits” of doubt and disbelief and despair cuts us off from fellowship with God.

And nothing but the authoritative Word of God can expose and expel these unclean spirits. Did you notice that in our text? Where would you expect to find a demon-possessed person? Skulking in a cave somewhere? Howling at the moon in the forest? Living with farm animals? This man was in church. By all appearances, this person man was a member of the synagogue in good standing. He was sitting in church just like you are. Apparently the unclean spirit could put up with the so-called experts in the law droning on about which scribe says this and which rabbi says that in regard to how thoroughly you had to wash your hands or how much you had to tithe out of your spice cabinet (Matthew 23:23-24). That kind of legalistic, work-righteous sermon didn’t bother the spirit at all. Sadly, there are millions of people in our world today sitting in synagogues and mosques and even heterodox churches who are suffering from unclean spirits of guilt and shame and fear and addiction – and they are finding no relief because unclean spirits aren’t exposed or expelled by rules and laws fabricated by men. Demons love man-made laws because they know that the law leads only to hell (Galatians 3:21-22). It wasn’t until Jesus showed up and taught as one who has authority – that the unclean spirit was exposed and expelled. It cried out, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit shuts up and with an unholy scream comes out of the man. Jesus got the last word.

That’s amazing, but do you know what’s even more amazing? How Jesus earned the right and authority to have the last word – even over the demons of hell. He didn’t accomplish our salvation by exercising his absolute power and authority but by giving it up (Philippians 2:6-8). He wasn’t born and raised in royalty but poverty. He wasn’t praised but despised by the masses. He didn’t prove his authority over an apostate church and a wicked government by leading a rebellion against them but by submitting to them. He didn’t assert his equality to God by coming down from the cross but by crying out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) He didn’t show his power over those who crucified him by calling down fire from heaven to consume them, but by praying for them: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). He didn’t crush sin, death and the devil by calling upon the legions of angels at his disposal (Matthew 26:53) but by gasping with his last breath Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). And, while his shameful crucifixion was visible to all, his glorious resurrection was hidden from the sight of all but a relative few eyewitnesses.

Why? Why did Jesus cloak his power and authority in humility and shame? He did it for us! He became our sin so that we might become his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). He endured the curse of God (Galatians 3:13) so that we could receive his blessing. He was cut off from fellowship with his Father so that we could be reconciled to God as his children. And having given up all authority to bring us back to God, Jesus took up his authority again so that just like with that possessed man he comes to us and says “Be quiet and come out of them. These people belong to me. I kept the commandments on their behalf. I suffered the punishment they deserved. I rose to life and I will raise their broken, disease-ridden bodies to life when I return!” Just as easily as Jesus freed that man from his unclean spirit with just a word he can free you from whatever unclean spirits afflict you today. Whereas living as if you have the last word gets you only doubt and despair and death; letting Jesus have the last word leads to peace and freedom and life.

To put it another way, Jesus has “the say.” You know about “the say,” right? When it’s your birthday you get “the say” on what everyone eats for supper. The head coach gets “the say” on whether to go for it on 4th down or kick the field goal. The officer has “the say” on whether to write a ticket or not. In the same way, Jesus has “the say” on right and wrong, on sin and guilt, on life and death – even on whether you and I will go to heaven or hell.

And today, right here and right now, Jesus gives his “say,” his last word, to you. He says that baptism has ripped you out of the devil’s kingdom and adopts you into God’s family – and so you are God’s child today, tomorrow, and every day (Galatians 3:26-27). He says whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven (John 20:23) – and so you are forgiven! He says that by eating his body and drinking his blood with a believing heart you receive the gift of eternal in heaven (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) – and no virus or disease or sickness or death can steal that gift from you. He sends you out of this house into this dark and confusing world with his blessing (Numbers 6:22-27) – and so, wherever you go from here – you are blessed!

From the moment the devil led Eve to believe his last word over God’s Word to the end of time – people will fight over who gets the last word. Today, Jesus proves that the last word is his and his alone. By giving up all authority to come to earth to suffer, die and rise Jesus has in fact won authority over all things: including sin, death and the devil. Let the devil, the world and your own sinful flesh scream all they want; in the end, Jesus will have the last word, and his last word to you will one day be: come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_(mythology)

[2]https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Echo#:~:text=Echo%20was%20an%20Oread%2C%20a,last%20word%20in%20all%20conversations.&text=You%20shall%20still%20have%20the,'