Sermon: “Demonic”
So Jesus’ ministry is off to a great start. He got baptized by John and heard the voice from heaven pronounce him “beloved,” as we heard two weeks ago; he spent some time in the wilderness, successfully wrestling with his temptations; he emerged from the wilderness, announced his mission, and recruited some followers, as we heard last week;
…and now, Jesus arrives at the synagogue in Capernaum and begins teaching, and the people are blown away by what he says and the way he says it. They recognize the truth and the authenticity with which he teaches, and they are astounded.
Really, you couldn’t ask for things to go any better.
But then: there arrives a man with an unclean spirit. A demon! A demon, which had taken over the body of a man, and which was speaking through that man.
This demon interrupts Jesus’s teaching. The demon, this unclean spirit, confronts Jesus, shouts at Jesus!, and challenges Jesus.
Imagine what that was like! If you were there, what would you see? What would you hear? What kind of a voice would that demon have? Was it that man’s own voice, or was it some deep, gravelly, non-human type of voice?
I don’t watch many horror films, but I did see, last year, The Pope’s Exorcist.
In that movie, a little boy named Henry gets possessed by a demon. This boy has an almost angelic face, but when the demon takes over, the boy’s eyes bulge out, the pupils look more catlike than human, his smile twists into the most evil, sinister grin, and his voice… it’s this loud, guttural, super-deep, monster-like growl that no human—much less a child—would be capable of.
Is that what the demon in today’s Bible story was like?
Mark’s gospel always describes things quickly, without a lot of detail.
Yet Mark does describe the demon as crying out with a loud voice, and causing the body of the person that was being possessed to go into convulsions. So, that’s enough to get our imaginations going… right? The commotion, the chaos, all happening right there in the place of worship.
I don’t know if you believe in the literal existence of demons. I’m not actually sure if I believe in the literal existence of demons, so that’s okay…
If you do believe in the existence of literal demons, do you think they are like the ones we see in movies like The Pope’s Exorcist: supernatural beings with monster voices that can take over individuals, control them, and inflict harm on them and those around them? Is that what demons are like? Or is that just the stuff of Hollywood?
I do know that belief in demons has risen and fallen at various times throughout history. In some historical periods, lots of people believed in demons, and descriptions of demons and exorcisms are plentiful; but at other times in history, there are almost no descriptions of demons and exorcisms.
So, why are there some historical periods with lots of accounts of demon activity, but in other historical periods, the demons seem to disappear?
Scholars have noted that Galilee, in the first century, seems to have been a particularly active period for demons and exorcisms. Although scripture says that Jesus acted with an authority that was rare, he was far from the only exorcist around. There were exorcists all over the place.
What made Jesus stand out wasn’t that he was casting out demons, but that he was doing it with authority.
Scholars have also compared Galilee in the first century with other cultures and historical periods where demons and exorcisms were prominent. These scholars were looking to see if they had something in common, besides the high number of demons and exorcisms. Maybe there was some commonality that would explain why demons appeared so often in certain times and places, and why demons didn’t appear in other times and places…
What the scholars discovered is that, in all these cultures where stories of demons appear, the people were being ruled by an outside, colonial power. In all these cultures, a foreign power had come in, and taken possession of the land and its people, and this foreign colonial power was seen by the people as an oppressive, dehumanizing, outside power controlling their lives.
Like a demon.
In the case of the first century world in which Jesus lived, the Roman Empire had taken control of the land, and taken control of the lives of the people.
Rome had occupied Galilee, Judah, and the surrounding regions. Every person’s life was now under Rome’s control. Even the synagogues were, in a very real way, controlled by Rome. The synagogues were under Rome’s influence. One could say that the synagogues were possessed by Rome.
The scripture says that the demon, the unclean spirit, appeared in “their” synagogue.
I still remember my seminary professor, almost 30 years ago, making a big deal of that word, “their.” It was “their” synagogue.
Who does that refer to? Whose synagogue was it?
Well, it should have been God’s. Every place of worship should belong to God.
But in the first century, Rome had control over the places of worship. Rome used its powers of persuasion to get religion to align itself with the empire, so that it would be easier to control the people and keep them in line.
Which is why Herod went to all that trouble to build, in Jerusalem, that magnificent, gleaming temple. If Herod could control and manipulate the religious institution, and if he could control the religious narrative, then he could control and manipulate the people.
Constantine did something similar a few centuries later. Before Constantine, Christians were persecuted, but then, in 312, Constantine converted to Christianity and made Christianity the official religion of the empire.
I have no idea how sincere Constantine was in his conversion. But by making Christianity his official religion—the official religion of the Roman Empire—it allowed Constantine to control and manipulate Christians, and keep them in line. Same thing as Herod did with the Jews.
Last weekend, some of us heard William Barber speak at the MLK Awards Luncheon. William Barber mentioned how Ronald Reagan made King’s birthday a holiday—signed it into law—and then went about dismantling nearly everything King stood for. It was Reagan’s way of controlling King’s message and legacy.
In the same way, the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time had taken over the Jewish religious institution, to tame it, control it, and use it for its own purposes.
And that, scholars say, is why there are so many stories of demons and exorcisms in the first century.
So, Mark’s story of a demon in the synagogue is Mark’s way of saying something about the Roman Empire, and how it had taken control, taken possession of the religious institutions.
According to Mark, the demon was Rome.
There’s another story in Mark’s gospel, about a demon. In chapter 5, Jesus meets a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him. The people even tried chaining this poor man up, but because of the demon, he was able to break the chains. He was uncontrollable.
And the scripture says he was always howling; just roaming around, howling.
Jesus asks the demon its name, and the demon says, “My name is Legion.” In the first century, Legion was the name given to a group of Roman soldiers, up to 6,000 strong. A Roman Legion was a symbol of Rome’s oppressive power.
The demon’s name is Legion.
So, again, Mark links demonic power with the Roman Empire.
Then there is the book of Enoch. The book of Enoch was written, maybe, two centuries or so before Mark. Enoch isn’t a part of our Bible, but Enoch’s descriptions of demons may have influenced Mark…The book of Jude (which is in our Bible) actually quotes the book of Enoch, which shows that New Testament writers knew about Enoch and were influenced by it.
When Enoch talks about demons…
Well, Enoch talks about the nephilim, which are half-god, half human giants; and, according to Enoch, these nephilim literally breathe out demons into the world.
But Enoch doesn’t mean this literally. Enoch identifies these giants and their evil spirits with the oppressive, dehumanizing institutions of his time: the kingship, the temple, and the priesthood, all of which were, in Enoch’s time, abusing their power.
Of these institutions, these Nephilim, these giants, Enoch says that “they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst and cause offenses. They consume all the acquisitions of human beings; and when human beings can no longer sustain them, they turn against them and devour humankind.”
In Jesus’ time, the Roman Empire so dominated society that it deprived people of their livelihood. It made people into something less than human. And the highest-ranking religious leaders collaborated with Rome in all this.
New Testament professor Herman Waetjen wrote this about these institutions: “Metaphorically viewed as giants, they were too powerful to be conquered or overthrown. They breathed evil breath, unclean spirits, into society;” unclean spirits that took away people’s autonomy, glory, honor, freedom, and dignity.
Let’s go back to Enoch. Enoch says: “evil spirits have proceeded from the giants’ bodies… The spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth and cause trouble.”
So, according to Enoch: evil spirits come from the giants. The giants are really the institutions that took away people’s rights, oppressed them, and denied them their humanity.
And Mark, it seems, was drawing on this imagery when he wrote about demons.
Jesus’ encounter takes place in the synagogue; in “their” synagogue; the synagogue that had become one of the giants, one of these nephilim; the synagogue that had become, according to Professor Waetjen, “a subversive reality which fosters necessity, bondage, destruction of individual sovereignty, and living death.”
As someone who cast out demons, Jesus wasn’t just casting them out of individuals; he was casting the demons out of the synagogue. He was cleansing the synagogue. He was cleansing the religious institution, getting rid of the powers that dominated and controlled the religious institution; he was working to return the religious institution to God.
In casting out demons, Jesus was demonstrating that the kingdom of Rome was no longer in control. The kingdom of God was now at hand.
In the kingdom of God, we are set free from whatever force or power binds us or controls us. In the kingdom of God, the church is set free from whatever force or power binds us; the church is set free from whatever prevents us from living out the gospel.
Because the gospel always sets people free and makes people whole. The gospel is a liberating force in our world, not a force that binds or controls. The gospel restores people to wholeness. The gospel defends people’s rights.
So when the church tries to take away people’s rights, that’s a sign that it is possessed by an unholy spirit. When the church is bent on controlling people’s lives, rather than helping them to live freely the lives God has given them, that’s a sign that the church is possessed by an unholy spirit. When the church refuses to address the powers of oppression and injustice, which all try to control people’s lives, that’s a sign that the church itself is possessed by an unholy spirit.
But a church that works to help free people from the powers that bind them, that’s a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
A church that works to free people from poverty is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
A church that works to free people from the powers of racism and homophobia and transphobia is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
A church that works to free people from the stigmas associated with mental health care is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
A church that works to free our society from its addiction to violence is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
A church that works to free our world from the power of greed and the destruction that power has on creation is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.
May God free us from all that binds us and controls us and possesses us, so that we can be a church that frees others from all that binds and controls and possesses them, and so that, together, we may all dwell, in God’s kingdom, of shalom.
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