From the Holocaust that claimed 6 Million Jews to the Killing Fields littered with the bones of Cambodian citizens killed by their government; from the trenches of World War I to whatever military conflict of the present day there might be; from the cancer ward of a children’s hospital to the halls of an Alzheimer’s unit, we know that suffering and evil are real.
    When these encounters with evil intersect with faith, questions erupt.  “Why does God allow evil?” “Why doesn’t God do something about the suffering and evil that assaults the world?”  Job asked the question in the midst of losing his family, his riches, and his health.  The book of Ecclesiastes ponders the question in some depth – arriving at no answer.  The psalmists seem to accept the fact of suffering and wait on God, crying, “How long, O Lord… will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1).
    Maybe no answer is the only answer.  Certainly the idea that we can somehow have all the mysteries of the world explained and wrapped up in a package with a neat little bow may be asking too much.  But, is it too much to ask for more than divine silence on the matter?
    The people of Capernaum, no doubt, had the same question.  In fact, we learn as the story unfolds, that on the very Sabbath day (note that it was on a Sabbath day) that Jesus came teaching in their synagogue, evil came calling, showing its face in their midst.  A man possessed by a demon enters the room as Jesus is teaching.  Now, I know that we modern people sometimes immediately think, “Oh, those poor dumb ancient people believed in demons.  How silly.”  I am not sure if the unclean spirit mentioned here is a mental illness or a phenomenon that we no longer recognize.  Whatever it was, however, something was restraining this man’s ability to be a whole, productive, and happy part of the community.  Something was keeping this person from being what God created him to be.  The people in Jesus’ day saw this and called it an unclean spirit, a demon.  Maybe they were smarter than we think.
    Apparently, demons are rarely quiet and most times raise some kind of a fuss, which makes the whole place and all the persons uncomfortable, to say the least. (Have we witnessed these kinds of problems ourselves?)  The unclean spirit cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (1:24).  Unlike just about everyone else in Mark’s gospel, this demon knows exactly who Jesus is.  Apparently this demon in not only fearful of Jesus but sees a threat to all demons, questioning whether Jesus has come to destroy not “me,” but “us.”
    Jesus will tolerate no questions from the evil before him.  He simply says, “Be silent” (1:25); commands the demon to leave this man alone; and the demon cannot resist the command.  I guess the demon had reason to be afraid.  In the wake of the demon’s departure, the man is free of what kept him from being human in the best sense of the word.
    Why doesn’t God do something about the evil in the world?  This Holy One of God answers by casting evil out and freeing people from its power.
    In the fifth chapter of Mark, which we read, Jesus travels to Gerasene, the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee.  The minute Jesus steps to the shore, a man full of demons confronts him on the beach.  The man is stark naked, covered with gashes and bruises that have come from throwing himself against the stones in the local cemetery.  Broken chains hang from his arms and legs, chains a frightened town used to try to restrain him.  These demons also recognize who Jesus is and beg not to be tormented.  Upon finding out that there is a whole legion of demons robbing this man of his life as God’s creature, Jesus casts them out with a word, driving them into a herd of pigs that rush into the sea to drown.  When the town’s people come out to see what has happened to their livestock, they are shocked to find the man from the tombs “sitting there clothed and in his right mind” (5:15).
    Why doesn’t God do something about the evil in the world?  On a beach in the land of the Gerasenes, Jesus, Son of God, threw it into the sea.
    Perhaps one can mess with evil only so much, though. We know where all this confrontation with evil leads Jesus – right to a cross with his name on it.  In the end, Jesus suffers just like every other human who comes face to face with evil.  As the soldiers take their pound of flesh; as the people of power and privilege flex their muscle to show him who is boss; as the cross, the most evil form of execution ever devised, claims one more life, even Jesus asks, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (15:34).  In the end Jesus’ question sounds very much like ours.
    God answers three days later, and death is stripped of its power.  The ultimate tool of suffering in the arsenal of evil – death itself – is robbed of its power to sting and converted into a means of granting resurrected, eternal life.
    Why doesn’t God do something about the evil in the world?  In the cross and the resurrection, God redeems the suffering and breaks the power of death.
    I heard this story about a pastor who was in a hospital room with a close friend waiting for the oncologist.  When the doctor arrived, he announced that the good news was that the tumor was gone, that the surgery went well.  The bad news was that there was some lymph node involvement, which meant six months of chemotherapy.  The doctor went on to say: “I guess this makes you wonder why God would do this to you.”
With barely a pause the patient looked at him and said: “God did not give me cancer.  God is going to overcome this cancer, and is going to use you and me to do it.”  The patient and the doctor did overcome the cancer.
    Now I know that others do not always recover from the demon cancer.  Sometimes death comes.  But even while our grief is real, we know that death and evil do not have the last word – God does.  The word God speaks is eternal life.
    Why doesn’t God do something?  God has, God will, God is indeed doing something as we speak.

PRAYER:
    Almighty God, we know that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
    May our words of witness always be spoken in true compassion and care!  May our actions in Jesus’ Name always be undertaken in humility and reverence for others!  Keep us from hindering those who would seek Jesus.
    Father, let us never forget that your Holy Spirit goes ahead of us, preparing the way by which others may receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
    Help us all to know the welcome that awaits us all at our destination, we pray in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.