Jesus bolts out of the starting gate in Mark. He acts boldly, decisively and quickly in this gospel. The beginning of a gospel can tell us a lot about how that gospel writer understands Jesus. We enjoy the beauty of the poem that sets the stage in the Gospel of John. It contains important and sometimes even startling theological insights about Jesus. We could reflect all day on some of them, such as the Word becoming flesh. Those theological insights prepare us for the deep thinking behind the Gospel of John. Matthew and Luke give us long genealogies that connect what God did in Jesus to what God had done all along. We need to know how Jesus fits into God’s long history with Israel. But what do we learn from Jesus as the man of action Mark portrays?

            In Mark, Jesus reaches full gallop quickly. His baptism and time in the wilderness zip by us. Before we know it, Jesus stands toe to toe with an unclean spirit. Despite our modern sophistication, we should not dismiss the New Testament’s talk of “unclean spirits.” This talk may teach us about a spiritual reality. At a minimum, this talk of unclean spirits reminds us of the tenacity of evil. Humanity seems helpless to eliminate war, poverty, cruelty, bullying, torture, division. Those things sneer at us as we try to banish them from our world. A representative of all that evil tries to stare Jesus down early in Mark’s gospel. This early battle sets the tone for the whole book. Everything is at stake in this battle, and we see here the first skirmish. Jesus brings healing and good news, while the forces of evil — however we understand them — try to crush him.

            Jesus casts out the unclean spirit without breaking a sweat. The battle ends up as no battle at all. Nevertheless, the war will continue throughout the gospel. Following that early clear-cut victory, Je

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