Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out…
He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons…
Jesus was an exorcist. No, really. He was. An exorcist is a person who drives out evil spirits from another person or place.
Nowadays evil spirits, demons and exorcists are the stuff of film and imagination. At least that is how it seems. How many of us can even name someone who was “possessed?” How many of us have attended worship only to have it interrupted by an evil Spirit? Not many, if any, of us have.
Then what do we do with the gospel according to Mark? We have this flesh and blood bios written by a stubby-fingered student of Peter. We have a rough, wilderness for 40 days, Jesus who even gets angry (see Mark 3:5). Everything feels real, authentic, raw. And it is full of evil spirits.
Hmm.
What do you do? What do I do with it?
Can we do each other a favor? Can we start with the text itself? Over the next few days we will look outside of Mark, and eventually slightly past scripture to understand all this. But, for today, can we agree to stick with Mark? Sound good. Great.
Let’s look at the two places where Jesus has a conversation with an evil spirit:
In Mark 1:21-26, we have the story of a possessed man in Capernaum. The evil spirit cries out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
In Mark 5, Jesus is in the region of the Gerasenes. An evil-spirit filled man say, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!”
It seems that from a literary standpoint, the evil spirits in Mark are what you would call a foil. A foil is a character whose role is to highlight characteristics of another or other characters by magnifying the opposite. On the show House for instance Dr. Wilson’s compassion (to a fault) highlights the rough nature of Dr. House. Another example is the classic comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The opposite nature of their voices, looks, style, etc. highlighted and complimented the other.
You see, the evil spirits in Mark get it. They know who Jesus is. They understand that he is the Son of the Most High God who has come with power and authority. The Pharisees, teachers of the law, scribes, townspeople, Jesus’ own family… they don’t get it. They don’t understand. They don’t know who he really is.
This should jolt us out of our stupor. Mark uses evil spirits to highlight the biggest question of the book. In Mark 8, Jesus asks the disciples who people are saying he is. He then asks, “Who do you say I am?” This is the central question of the gospel. One that lingers long after the final word. The evil spirits/demons know who he is. Do the disciples? Do we?
Peter gets it right. “You are the Christ.” The Messiah.
And an interesting thing happens. The evil spirits are now silent. They no longer need to confess. They are still mentioned and excised. They no longer speak. They don’t need to. Peter gets it.
Do we?
I know what you are thinking. Are they real?
See you tomorrow.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:12 am
i took a world religions class. we had a guest speaker from just about every faith. one day we had a catholic priest come speak. his title was something overly vague and dramatic, but he was an exorcist. he told us a couple stories (leaving out names and places). at that time in my life i wasn’t sure who i was or what i believed. hearing and meeting a man that ‘fought real evil’ was definitely something that made me think more about who Jesus was and what happened when He was here.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I am confused. You actually went to class? Just kidding (sort of). A question, though. What was it about this man that made you believe him. Not that you shouldn’t. I am just wondering what it was about him that grabbed your attention, curiosity, etc.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
well it was in high school (pretty cool we had a class offerd like that at a public high school), so i had LESS of a choice about going. because of were i was in my life and my craving of someone telling me who i was/am, i tended to actually show for that class. first, he had a very calm demeanor (which surprised me after i found out what he did). second, when he told us some of his experiences, none of them seemed to be exaggerated. he wasn’t John Constantine or anything. they were more like something you could actually see happening ‘now-a-days’. not that that makes them true immediatly. But thirdly, like i said he was very careful not to give out to many details. you could see him working it out in his head as he told the story (what to leave out/what was ok to say). i think all that was exactly what did make it stick in my head. that he seemed honest and his stories seemed to match up and all. just the fact that this was still going on shooked me i guess. the closest i had heard of/seen an evil spirt experience, at the time, was my friend ‘getting the holy spirt’ and started shaking on the ground. (oh my teacher was a member of the church he was a preist at, too.)