As I prepared today’s message I became very aware how different the world Jesus lived in is to the world we live in today.
In the 2,000 years since Jesus lived our understanding of so many things has grown and grown and grown.
We now know the earth revolves around the sun and the sun is a fairly insignificant star in an ever-expanding universe.
We have split the atom, walked on the moon, developed machines so sophisticated that they can almost think and most relevant to the bible reading today our advances in medical knowledge have been so profound that the explanations and practices of the past are discredited and seem somewhat crazy.
We no longer apply leeches to draw blood from sick people. We no longer cut them and bleed them, and we longer attribute mental illness to demon possession.
Our world in the 21st century knows that mental illness is not caused by demons living inside us, but the product of chemical and electrical actions in our brain and also the tragic consequence of trauma such as physical, psychological and emotional abuse.
We no longer cast out demons. We no longer need an exorcist. Today we provide medication, counselling and psychological support.
We have come so far.
But in today’s reading we have to acknowledge that the writer mark was a child of his time, and he explained things as he was taught to understand them.
Firstly, let us go back to 1st century Palestine.
The world presented in today’s reading is a world where mental illness meant a demon lived within you and the only cure was to cast the demon out. Until then you lived on the fringes of society.
And so a whole group of people were outcasts from everyday society. Today that group would include schizophrenics, people with bi-polar, those suffering from anxiety and depression, those with acquired brain injury, those with psychotic illnesses, in fact a significant proportion of society.
Add to this those with physical disabilities and with contagious diseases like leprosy and 1st century Palestine is a world where exclusion is the norm.
The consequences of being an outcast was grinding poverty, constant illness and in the words of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes these lives were “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” and basically nobody cared.
There was precious little support for these outcasts beyond private charity by individuals. The state did not support them and if it did it was very limited.
As an aside, before the time of the Christian church there were no major charitable groups supporting the outcasts of society. Despite its many faults, despite its crusades, inquisitions and bloody wars the Christian church for nearly 1900 years was the main if not only supporter outside of immediate family of the poor, sick, elderly and ill-educated in the western world, a role which it still does today.
But returning to 1st century Palestine, it really sucked living in Jesus’ time.
And one group that really felt it were the mentally ill.
And so in today’s reading we have the story of Jesus’ meeting with a mentally ill man and true to the knowledge of the time the only explanation mark could give for Jesus settling the man down was that Jesus had cast out an evil spirit. So that is that story over.
Well not quite. It has occurred to me that the depiction of the mentally ill in the bible such as the one in today’s reading has had repercussions down the ages and even in our own time.
Imagine the vicious treatment people with mental illnes had because others thought they were demon possessed. This made them literally less than human and it is a short step to treating them as less than human and doing so all in the name of god, with the authority of the bible behind it.
It is a classic example of how the scriptures have been misused, but also an example of how ignorance of such things in the time of Christ echoed down the ages to do great damage to people who needed help.
And it is not just a problem of bygone days. The taboo nature of mental illness persists today. Despite our great progress we too are not quite there yet.
Talking about mental illness is a fairly recent phenomenon. We only began talking about it openly and non-judgementally maybe as little as 30 years ago, maybe less.
Mental illness was something to be ashamed of, something not to be spoken about, something and that means someone to be hidden away.
A lot of families had a family member that they didn’t speak about because they had problems. Where possible those with mental illness were institutionalised – out of sight, out of mind.
Rosemary Kennedy was the sister of American president John F Kennedy but I’m sure you’ve never heard of her. She had mental illness issues all her life and in her 20s her father agreed to have her lobotomised. The lobotomy didn’t go well, and rosemary’s behaviour became even more erratic. So she was institutionalised. The family never mentioned her publicly, fearful that this might taint the family name and impede the political ambition of her brothers. You may think that was particularly cruel, but it was also quite common in the 1930s and up to the 1970s and beyond.
I fear that this attitude had its roots in what we read today, that mental illness was demon possession and so it was more than just an illness it was evil, immoral, wicked and had to be stamped out.
To be honest with you, I have a particular distaste for this passage and for all the other passages where Jesus is said to cast out demons from mentally ill people because firstly it sets up the environment for mentally ill people to be literally demonised and secondly it holds out the hope that this type of illness can always be cured even if the only cure is miraculous.
We know that mentally ill people are not demon possessed, so casting out demons cannot possibly cure them. The story is a story trapped in time and unfortunately trapped in ignorance.
The story is told to show Jesus’ authority over all things, even the world of devils and demons. This authority is alluded to when earlier in the passage mark says “everyone was amazed at his teaching. He taught with authority, and not like the teachers of the law of Moses”.
Mark is telling a story to demonstrate Jesus’ authority over all things, and it can be seen at that level, demon possession and all.
But in the story i see another aspect that is far more important to me than the miracle cure story. The truly moving part of this story is that Jesus actually engaged with this man.
Jesus as a man of his times knew that the man’s illness was attributed to demonic possession. He knew the man was an outcast. He knew that all decent living Jews would have nothing to do with him.
But despite all that, he chose to engage with him. To me that is the true act of love and grace. That is the true miracle. That is the true example of authority. I think mark unintentionally has given a far more powerful message than the one he intended.
And so here we are.
The book of Mark written in the first century A.D., limited by the knowledge and prejudice of that time and place is sending a message to 21st century Australia that could be construed, as I do, as ignorant and dangerous.
But there, almost hidden away from view in the backstory is the truly remarkable act of Jesus to embrace the mentally ill man. That is the way of the Jesus that i know and can follow today in my time and place.
Amen
Featured image sourced from Pexels.