Breaking the Evil Forces

According to the Gospel of Mark, the public ministry of Jesus is inaugurated with an exorcism story (Mark 1:21-28).  Right from the beginning, Mark is illustrating how the Kingdom of God is embodied in Jesus and the powerful difference it makes in the real struggles of people.   In a world where demonic powers are real in their enslavement of people, Jesus has broken its hold.  With the coming of God’s Kingdom in Jesus, evil forces have no more power over us.  That is still true today.  We too have been rescued from evil forces through the lordship of the crucified and risen Christ.  The problem is that we live in a modern era in which it is hard for people to believe that our lives are impacted by forces from outside us.  Charles Taylor, in his book “A Secular Age”, calls our world a “disenchanted world” with “buffered selves” who cannot think of ourselves as “porous” to the influences of forces from outside us.  How do we live with this exorcism story from a first century world in our so-called sophisticated 21st century world which questions the realness of such matters?  Do you believe in the realness of God’s victorious power through his Son Jesus Christ as making all the difference in the midst of all kinds of forces in your life today?