Mark 1:21-28
One of my favorite websites to read when I’m working on sermon preparation is called Working Preacher. This is how my favorite columnist on that site began his post on this text:
“Dear Working Preacher, Tell me the truth: don’t you just dread exorcism stories? I mean, if there’s one kind of biblical story we have a hard time relating to, it’s got to be this one. Miracle stories are hard enough in our post-Enlightenment, scientific age, but at least we have experience with longing for healing or a desire to feed those who are hungry. But demon-possession? This is simply beyond the experience and imagination of most of us. (Or, if we have any imagination about exorcism, it’s been unhelpfully shaped by . . . Linda Blair [and the movie The Exorcist].)”[1]
I think he’s right: we don’t know what to do with the exorcism stories. Was Jesus confronting actual demonic forces? Did demon possession really happen then? Does it happen now?
Many scholars believe that what people called demons was the manifestation of mental illness. Physicians at the time had little understanding of the brain or how it operates, so if someone heard voices, for example, others might assume those voices were evil spirits. Other scholars believe, because the texts sometimes refer to seizures, that the cause was epilepsy or some other physical illness that would have been unexplainable at the time.
We don’t know exactly what the Gospel writers meant when they said Jesus cast out unclean spirits or demons. So in order to apply it to our lives today, let’s set aside our Hollywood images of spinning heads and think metaphorically: what are those forces that are diametrically opposed to God’s will?
The writer I quoted earlier describes these forces this way: “Rather than bless, they curse; rather than build up, they tear down; rather than encourage, they disparage; rather than draw us together, they seek to split us apart.”[2]
Seen this way—as forces that are diametrically opposed to God’s will—then demons are all too familiar.
I asked on Facebook this week what these forces are, although I didn’t use the word demon. I just asked what forces are diametrically opposed to God’s will. I received a couple of interesting answers.
One answer was religion. Now that’s an intriguing answer on a church’s Facebook page—that religion is opposed to God’s will. The person who posted that went on to say, “Especially the kind that creates an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy.” My first response was “Oh, I agree! Those other churches are horrible about that.” My second response, of course, was “Oh. Ouch.” . . . for in our rightful indignation at the churches who preach bigotry, we, too, can be guilty of building walls between us and others seeking God.
Another answer was war. Yes, I believe war is diametrically opposed to God’s will, for God’s will is peace, not violence. I simply cannot believe that God, the creator of us all, would condone the mass killing of one another. I’m not saying there is no such thing as a just war. But personally, I believe it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one. And I do believe God would much rather we find any other solution than killing one another.
I think the strongest answer I got on Facebook was hate. I can think of nothing that is more opposite of God’s will, nothing that is more contradictory to God than hate.
And we see it around us in so many ways, in so many places: racism, sexism, homophobia; blaming victims instead of holding perpetrators responsible; putting people into prison instead of restoring them to community; unarmed citizens gunned down by those they should be able to trust; police officers gunned down because of what others in their profession have done.
Hatred goes on and on, and we seem powerless to stop it. We cannot seem to cast out the demon of hate. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” I believe this to be true.
But I think there’s another reason we cannot cast out the demons, those societal forces that are opposed to God’s will. I think it’s at least partially because we are so possessed by our personal demons, the demons within us, that we have no strength to fight the ones around us.
For some of us, our personal demons are easy to identify: our addictions. In many ways, addictions are like the demons we read about in the New Testament. They make us self-destructive and sometimes destructive to others. They keep us isolated and alone.
But don’t assume I’m only talking about drugs and alcohol. If that applies to you, if that is your addiction, then go ahead and stay with that message. But for many of us, that’s too easy. We hear “addiction” and we immediately shift the focus away from ourselves. We’re not addicts.
Well, not that kind, anyway. But we all have things that control us, that make us self-destructive, that keep us isolated and out of true relationship. Now, I do not mean to belittle the power of chemical addiction. I’m just saying that those of us not plagued by chemical addiction still have things in our lives that have too much control. There are other habits that can become addictive—whether it’s smoking, pornography, spending money, or eating chocolate. And if you have a problem in your life with one of these things having control, feel free stay with that message.
But for many of us, that’s still too easy. There are other forces that dominate us, other demons we need to address.
Some of us are addicted to control. If we are not in control of everything—and everyone—around us, our palms get sweaty and our stomach aches and our head pounds and we’ll do anything to make that feeling go away, even if it means leaving someone else powerless. I once heard a young woman say, “I don’t have a problem with authority. I just don’t like anybody telling me what to do!”
Others of us are controlled by our need to impress people. We’re dominated by our need for approval and accolades. If somebody doesn’t approve of us or what we’re doing, our palms get sweaty and our stomach churns and our head pounds and we’ll do anything to make that feeling go away, even if it means sacrificing what we believe in, even if it means compromising who God calls us to be.
Some of us are possessed by the power of the past. We long for the way things used to be. Life was better then—and maybe it was. But if we allow ourselves, year after year, to give all our energy to the way things used to be then we will have no space in our hearts for the way things can be, and we will be stuck in the longing.
For others of us, the past was not so wonderful. In fact, it was pretty dreadful. Here the past has multiple ways of possessing us. First, it can control us if we refuse to resolve it. If we have painful issues in our past and we refuse to look at them head-on, they will always control us. On the other hand, if we refuse to move on, we will die there. There is a difference between visiting our past for a time to heal it and taking up permanent residence in the pain. If we hold onto the pain, if we allow ourselves to carry the rage within us, we will keep paying the price for someone else’s sin.
Our demons are many and varied. And when we’re consumed with them, we have little energy for anything else. We cannot confront the demon of war if we are at war with our own intentions. We cannot confront the demon of hate in our society if we cannot cast out our own self-hatred, or the hatred we hold toward those who did us wrong.
Years ago, I went through a very tough time. I was dealing with painful issues from my childhood and my first marriage. I was spending many hours (and thousands of dollars) in counseling. One day I complained to a friend of mind that it felt like my recovery had taken over my whole life. She said to me, “You are contributing to the healing of the universe. That is no small task.” I wonder now, years later, how I am contributing to the healing of the universe, if I am contributing to the healing of the universe. Are you?
I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books, for a variety of reasons. But I think what I like most about them is not simply that the good guy wins; it’s that love wins. In the Harry Potter universe, love is more powerful than any force, magical or otherwise.
Voldemort, the evil lord bent on destruction and dominance, has the power to enter into people’s minds and possess them. For most of one book, Harry tries to learn how to shut his mind so that Voldemort can’t enter it. He is unsuccessful. But when Voldemort does enter Harry’s body, he can’t stay there. When Harry thinks of those he loves, Voldemort is forced to flee.
Dumbledore, the wise headmaster, tells Harry that this is because of the power of love. “[Love] saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”[3]
Love is what saved Harry from the power of evil. It can work for us, too.
[1] Lose, David. “Possessed.” www.workingpreacher.org.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.