You either hate or love Tom Swiftie puns. If you hate them, I am sorry.  If you love them, well, as Tom said right before he flipped the switch, “You will be delighted.” Here are some of the classics:

  • “‘Where are my pants?’ asked Tom briefly.”
  • “‘These lines keep intersecting,’ Tom said crossly.” 
  • “‘I like ragged margins,’ said Tom without justification.”
  • “‘Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes,’ Tom said sheepishly.”
  • “‘I’ve got a new watch,’ Tom said with abandon.”
  • “‘I’m tired of boat rides,’ Tom said sternly.”
  • “‘I’ve been waiting to see the doctor,’ said Tom patiently.”

For the last few weeks, we’ve been trying to ascertain how people in Jesus’ day (and even how Jesus himself) perceived demons. We’ve consulted the “Book of the Watchers” (3rd century BCE), the “Book of Jubilees” (2nd century BCE) and the “Dead Sea Scrolls” (1st century BCE); and all of them point in the same direction. Matthias Henze explains (Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus; Fortress Press, 2017): 

“Jesus and his followers lived in a world, the world of ancient Judaism, that was densely populated with demons and unclean spirits. Demons were ubiquitous. And they were thought to be real, in the sense that they could dwell in humans and wreak mental as well as physical havoc. A variety of maladies are attributed to their workings. According to the evangelists, unclean spirits could cause the inability to speak, hear, or see; they could induce epilepsy-like symptoms; and they could lead humans to insanity and even to self-destruction. Demons were a constant threat.” 

This was the world Jesus inhabited, but this was not the end of the story. While the Second Temple Jewish perspective was, generally-speaking consistent, Jesus (and the gospel writers) had several things to add.  

Mark this down (you may now begin to see why we started with a lot of puns)! According to Mark and the other evangelists, demons had left a black mark on the world. Worse, they could not be destroyed and that meant our world would be marked by misery and suffering and agony until the end of time. We were an easy mark because our world was under the domination of wickedness. Life in this fallen world seemed hopeless because we were powerless against demonic forces. But Mark felt such anxiety missed the mark completely. “Mark my words,” he said, Jesus has come to demonstrate that he is Lord, even over the demonic world. In fact, in every encounter with a demon, Jesus triumphed remarkably by setting the prisoner free and by marking that person as one of his forever children. They were marked for life, not death. And we see this in the very first chapter of Mark’s gospel because Mark felt it was important to proclaim this good news so that there would be no question marks. Jesus had come to declare victory over all the cosmic forces of evil. And you can mark that with an exclamation point (which is simply a punctuation mark indicating an outcry)! And as soon as the demon is cast out, the people were so amazed they even asked each other (Mk. 1:27): “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” It is important that we don’t end up wide of the mark here. Mark’s gospel gives us numerous new insights into how we should understand the realm and activities of unclean spirits, so let’s see what new observations he provides. Are you ready? On your mark, get set, let’s go!

In Mark 1, we read Jesus’ first encounter with an unclean spirit (note, Mark routinely uses the term “unclean spirit,” as opposed to the word “demon,” perhaps to indicate that they are the epitome of evil or of all that is unclean in the world. The two are synonymous, but Mark prefers to use the expression “unclean spirit”). We read (Mark 1:21-28): 

“They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried 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!’ ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.’ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

Since we know that most people during the Second Temple period believed in demons, it is not surprising that Mark feels no need to introduce this episode with any background information about demons. He doesn’t feel the need to explain who demons were, where they came from or what purpose they served. He simply accepts that demons exist and are bent on doing evil in the world. But Mark understood that everything his culture knew about demons was dangerously incomplete in light of the coming of Jesus. In his gospel, Mark sought to correct at least six deficiencies. 

First, before Jesus, people believed that demons always had the upper hand. They were the ones on the attack, and we were the ones who should be afraid. But Mark wants us to know that Jesus is Lord even over the demons. In the passage we quoted above, we find Jesus teaching in a synagogue.  Apparently, a man possessed by an unclean spirit is also there, listening. But in the middle of Jesus’ message, the demon drives the man to interrupt Jesus, shouting out (Mk. 1:24): “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!” The obvious reason why the demon speaks out here is that he is afraid of Jesus. And with good reason: he (they? It?) feared that Jesus had come to destroy him (them/it). It was a common belief that demons could not be destroyed until the end of time, but these demons fear that day has come. And that fear signifies that these demons no longer have the upper hand. They are afraid of Jesus; and because he is close to those who pray (Ps. 145:18), they are now also afraid of his people. C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, writes (remember this is written from the point of view of a demon): 

“Wherever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action. He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees, He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion. But even if He defeats your first attempt at misdirection, we have a subtler weapon. The humans do not start from that direct perception of Him which we, unhappily, cannot avoid. They have never known that ghastly luminosity, that stabbing and searing glare which makes the background of permanent pain to our lives. If you look into your patient’s mind when he is praying, you will not find that. If you examine the object to which he is attending, you will find that it is a composite object containing many quite ridiculous ingredients. [But] if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers ‘Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be,” our situation is, for the moment, desperate. Once all his thoughts and images have been flung aside or, if retained, retained with a full recognition of their merely subjective nature, and the man trusts himself to the completely real, external, invisible Presence, there with him in the room and never knowable by him as he is known by it-why, then it is that the incalculable may occur.” 

The tide is turned. Christ Jesus holds the upper hand, and we are protected by his love and grace and promise.

Second (and closely related), before Jesus, most people understood the defeat of demons to be a sign of the end of time (since everyone knew that demons would plague the world until their destruction at the end of the age). And yet, when Jesus casts out demons, time goes on. This made little sense. But the biblical authors understood that Jesus’ exorcism was a foretaste (or a down-payment) of the coming of God’s kingdom, but it was not the full realization of that kingdom. Biblical scholars talk about the “already,” and the “not yet” aspects of God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is already here, but it is not yet fully here. Henze explains: 

“When Jesus casts out demons, the evangelists make it clear that this act of exorcism manifests the superiority of the kingdom of God as it breaks into the present world order. To the Gospel writers, Jesus’ exorcisms are not incidental acts of kindness or random stories of healing. What Jesus is confronting is nothing less than an opposing power of a different kind, a well-organized kingdom of demons and unclean spirits. This powerful realm is ruled by Beelzebub, ‘the ruler of the demons’ (Luke 11:15), whom Jesus calls Satan. When Jesus drives out the demons, he takes on the enemy of humankind.” 

Jesus’ exorcisms also picture another element of this. Before you can plunder a man’s house, you must first tie up the man. In Mark 3, Jesus is accused of having an impure spirit and casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus responds (23-27): 

“How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”  

It is clear, Jesus, by plundering Satan’s house, is declaring victory over all the forces of evil. Their doom is quickly approaching. God’s kingdom is sure, but it is not yet.  

Third, most people saw unclean spirits as a vile enemy, fit only for the slaughter. But Jesus was never cruel, ruthless or vicious. Instead, he was gracious. When the demon in Mark 5 begs Jesus not to torture him or send him “out of the area,” Jesus shows mercy.  And when the demons beg Jesus to allow them to go into the pigs that were feeding on the nearby hills, Jesus again acquiesces and gives them permission. Now, some scholars believe this was an attempt to gain power over Jesus, but I’m not so sure. I believe that Jesus knows that he holds the demons’ very existence in the palm of his hand and knows that, one day, they will be cast into everlasting torment. Armed with this knowledge and in this moment, Jesus shows mercy to the demons and allows them to escape into the pigs. Interestingly, the size of the herd seems extremely large for one person to own, so it is likely that it was the property of the whole village. That sets up the climax of the story when the village sees the man who was healed, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, they showed they cared more about their own profits than the life and well-being of a person. And that seems to be the point: Jesus cares about us and our suffering and often does so in spite of us. Jesus is even gracious to demons.

Mark all that down. Mark and the gospel writers have much to tell us about demons; information that is not found in any of the other writings of the Second Temple period. The presence of Jesus changes everything. Now, we are halfway through looking at what the New Testament adds to our discussion of demons. We deal with our last three points next week. In the meantime, “‘we can’t let the fire for learning die out,’ Tom bellowed.”