"Do You Know the Demons?"
Mark 1:21-28
February 1, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John Andrew Fleming
This week I heard the story of a pastor who went to visit one of his older members at her house. He wanted to know how she was doing. He asked her the question John Wesley used to ask his preachers, "How is it with your soul?" She thought about his question for just a moment, and then she said, "Well, I am okay, but the old devil is giving me a rough time lately." Her husband was in the other room. The pastor did not realize that he was home. When the man heard what his wife had said, he countered, "Now hold on, I'll have you know that she's not that easy to live with either!" Listen again to her words, "The old devil has been giving me a rough time lately." I wonder if you've had that feeling.
Our scripture lesson for this morning, taken from the first chapter of Mark's gospel, has Jesus just finishing up his wilderness experience and just past the point where he has assembled his disciples. Nothing else has happened. There have been no powerful sermons. There have been no great teachings. Jesus hasn't turned water into wine or anything else like that.
On the Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples came to a synagogue in Capernaum. Mark simply tells us that Jesus taught that Sunday. Those who were listening, those who were really listening, were astounded and astonished by his teaching. Jesus did not teach like all of the other teachers. He did not talk about the past. Jesus didn't refer to some of the prophets of old, people like Moses or Elijah. Jesus spoke of a future and a kingdom that was just beginning to happen. His words were full of what Mark calls authority. Jesus is about to take authority to a whole new level. Watch and see.
Almost casually Mark tells us that there was a man in the congregation that day that had an unclean spirit. That is the word the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible uses. Other versions call this spirit evil. One says that it was a demon. You can call it whatever you want to call it. It had a grip on this man.
I want you to learn what I learned and notice what I noticed in our lesson. The spirit, the demon, did not burst through the heavy doors of the synagogue in a fit of rage. The spirit didn't disrupt the worship service. The spirit was sitting there in the man in the pew. Most likely he was a respected leader in the synagogue. He might have been on the governing board of his church. The leaders of the synagogue would have allowed none less.
I also want you to see this. This demon is not attached to any illness. Mark is the gospel writer who has a prominent place for healing in his story of Jesus. By the time you get to the end of his gospel, you have read about eighteen miracles. Thirteen of them involve healing and of those, four tell of an exorcism.
If this demon was not making this man ill and causing some kind of sickness in his life, what was he doing inside him? The truth is that we do not really know. My guess is that the demon was causing all kind of havoc in his life, tearing him up on the inside.
What demon do you think it was? You can take your pick. It could have been a demon of hate or one of revenge. This demon said, "Just you wait. I don't get mad, I get even!" I heard of a man who was complaining to his wife about someone he worked with. He said, "He's getting the best of me!" His wife looked over and gently said, "As far as I can tell, he's not getting the best of you. He is getting the worst of you."
Inside the man in the temple in Capernaum could have been the demon of a lust for power, stepping on whoever it took to get where it wanted to go. Or, it could have just been the demon of lust. Perhaps it was the demon of uncontrolled greed or the one of fear. You know that demon, don't you, friends? We have been told that all we have to fear is fear itself. Still for many fear is a real demon.
There are more of course. Maybe the demon inside this man was the one of low esteem. I struggle with that one from time to time. Do any of you? I can hear that things are great, but then one small word will fall me. Do you know the demon of low esteem? Then there is the demon of guilt and the one of envy. Many of us know the demons of jealousy and greed. The gossip demon is one of our favorites.
I could go on and on and maybe the demons are racing through your mind just now. You know them well. Which one of these was inside the man sitting in his usual place in the synagogue in Capernaum? I don't know.
What I do know is that the demon knew Jesus. The demon called out to him. It wanted to know, "What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" It is amazing. The demons already know who Jesus is. Jesus has not done anything miraculous and still they know him. Jesus' disciples, just called, will spend three years trying to figure out who Jesus really is. They will misunderstand him. They will miss who he really was and what he came to do. The demons knew Jesus. This demon wants to know, "Have you come to destroy us?"
That, friends, is exactly what Jesus has come to do! His authority isn't just words, its action. It is word and deed. From the get go of this gospel Mark is putting us on notice and telling us that Jesus is stronger than the demons of this world. The demons are afraid of him. They see him and scurry away. The demons have a bad reputation. The spirits talk a terrible game, but when they are confronted, particularly when they are confronted by Jesus, they head to the hills. Once they head into a herd of pigs. These demons want to know, "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." Jesus' answer is "Yes, I have come to destroy you."
Look at how the story ends. Jesus rebukes the spirit, tells him to be quiet and to come out of the man, but the spirit, this demon, won't go quietly into a dark night. The demon grabs the man, makes him fall to the ground. Then the demon screams out in a loud voice, but come out of the man he did.
Now about these demons, we have called a few of them by their names. You know the nature of these demons, don't you? These demons tend to be stronger than we are. Inside of us, these demons have reached a point where they are more powerful than us and without Jesus, they will stay where they are. We have got to do something about this!
Let me close with a story. It is the story of a pastor who served a congregation in downtown Atlanta. A few days before Christmas, his secretary called from her office to his office. There was a man who wanted to see him, who had asked for a blessing. The preacher was sure that what the man really wanted was money. Men like him were pretty common, especially near Christmas.
The pastor told her to let him in. When the man walked through the door, the pastor saw someone he was not expecting. The man was neatly dressed and clean shaven. He could not have been more than twenty-five or six. There was an air of dignity about him.
The young man sat down and said, "I'm sorry to take your time. I know you're busy. It's a busy time, but I would like a blessing." He went on to explain, in an articulate way, that the devil was on his back and that he couldn't shake him. As much as he tried, the man could not get rid of him. The young man did not say what the demon was doing to him or which demon it was. He simply thought that if he could find a pastor who would bless him, the devil would go away. The man wasn't depressed, nor was he desperate. He seemed to be both calm and in control.
The pastor tried to explain that his church wasn't in the practice of casting out demons or offering blessings. He tried to explain that he didn't have that kind of power, that authority. The man wasn't interested in church talk. He said it again, "Sir, all I really want is a blessing."
The pastor asked the man for his name. He and Andy knelt together. The pastor asked God to bless the man as he was sure he was already doing. He asked God to help him. He quoted the passage from James, the one that says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." This, evidently, was not working for the man. The pastor asked God to take away this man's devil, the one that was stopping him from living. Then he said, "Amen."
Andy stood and smiled. He thanked the man for the blessing and walked out the door as gently as he walked through it. There was not a word about a meal or a place to spend the night. The man was not homeless or helpless, he just needed a blessing to help with the devil on his back. Maybe you need that, too.
The folks in Capernaum that day asked, "What is this? A new teaching - with authority. He commands even the unclean spirit, and they obey him. Those there that day should have not have asked what is this, they should have asked, who is this. The demons know him and so do we. His name is Jesus and he is stronger than anything you face. Let us pray.
(Special thanks to P.C. Ennis, the Theologian in Residence at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia for the closing story in this sermon. The story can be found in the commentary, Feasting on the Word. Year B, Volume 1, Advent Through Transfiguration, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor).