Some of you remember Mercury Morris, a great running back for the Miami Dolphins back in their glory days when they were winning the Super Bowls. Mercury was one of the first professional athletes be caught involved in drugs. He was arrested, tried and sent to jail. Why should such a successful athlete do such a dumb thing? Why should he throw his life away? At his trial he said, “I wanted to get away from it, but the demons wouldn’t let me.”
That sounds dramatic when we hear it in that fashion. I’ve counseled with people – some of them drug users — more of them engaged in other equally self-destructive types of behavior – actions and attitudes and relationships that ruin their lives. These people are intelligent; they have comfortable lives – in fact, many of them have everything they have wanted in life. But they keep doing things that destroy everything that’s good about them. And they always tell me they don’t know why they do it. If you press them, they say, “I don’t know. I’m not myself. Something gets a hold of me.” What is it that possesses them, that causes them to continue their journey of self-destruction?
The message of the gospel is clear. Jesus is the mighty One who calls us to repentance, announces the Kingdom of God, for sins, heals the sick and casts out demons. Have you noticed that the first miracle Mark records its that of Jesus casting out demons – that’s in the very first chapter.
The other Gospel writers join Mark in picturing Jesus as the healing One, who frees people of unclean spirits and casts out demons. Other New Testament writers are in agreement about the power of evil in our lives. Paul states the case in categorical drama:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6: 10—12 RSV).
Is the language too archaic? Does the whole notion strike you as terribly alien to the enlightened mind of the 20th century? I understand. I’ve wrestled with this for years, because I’m a child of the enlightenment as you are. That’s what we call it – enlightenment.
“Two hundred years ago science burst forth with a whole series of amazing discoveries about this world, They discovered through Newton and Copernicus and Galileo that the world is run by laws, not by spiritual or supernatural forces. The world is not governed by demons and evil spirits, but by rational laws. And neither are we controlled by those dark forces, but we are controlled by reason. The good life can be found by rational people – thinking clearly – using your brains.”
But something has happened. Enlightenment has not done away with the darkness. In the nations where the Enlightenment flowered and great universities flourished and rationalism was the shining star, we had the holocaust – over 6 million people burned in ovens.
“As we approach the end of the 20th century our optimism has waned, and science is no longer seen as the savior of human kind. We now know science may destroy the world. And reason
no longer seen as a pure and infallible guide to human behavior to the good life. Reason, we have seen, is open to the highest bidder, and human life may not be as innocent as we thought it was in 1900. Depth psychology has shown that we are controlled as much by irrational desires as we are rational ideas.
Whatever the language, we are realizing that there “hosts of wickedness” that invade human life. Whether you call them demons or not, there is something that possesses us and turns us into demoniacs. People who are inhuman and who degrade and destroy human life.
Paul Tournier has been one of my favorite writers. A Swiss psychiatrist, who was first and foremost a Christian. In A Doctor’s Case Book, he wrote, “Doubtless there are many doctors who in their struggle against disease have had, like me, the feeling that they were confronting, not something passive, but a clever and resourceful enemy.”
That’s an intentionally know psychiatrist speaking about the power within us, the power of evil.
Doesn’t that say something about the power of sin in our lives? About the struggle with devilish forces that most of us know? We’re drawn to Christ in our deepest longing. We know that there is healing and cleansing in Jesus. But other forces pull us, preventing us from coming clean with Jesus. Preventing us from casting our crowns at his feet and making Him Lord of our lives.
Look further at the man – his speech is wild. He literally shrieks, cries out in hatred — and at the same time, in despair. Instead of describing him as a man with an unclean spirit, some translations have it, “a man in an unclean spirit as if the human spirit was immersed in that filthy flood.” (Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Vol. 8, page 26).
What does that say to us? We can so give in to the sins of our life that the sin of our life will dominate our total being. Notice how I said that. We can so give in to the sins (plural) of our life, that the sin (singular) of our life will dominate our total being.
I mean by that that we can give in to the pull of sin here, the power of evil there, surrender ourselves to destructive habits, cease waging battle against that which we know is out of God’s will, until the course of our life is not Godward, but rather the opposite direction.
The ultimate tragedy is that this can go to the extreme, as it did with the poor man in the synagogue. He recognized Jesus for what He was, but he hated Him all the more.
Listen to verse 24 again: “And he cried out, ‘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?”
What a miserable state. To hope we will have nothing to do with Jesus, and He, nothing to do with us.
That was the picture of the desperate man in our scripture. Now look at Jesus. His response was direct. No beating around the bush, no debating the issue. He spoke directly to the forces that control the man, verse 25: “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!”.
Now go on to verse 26: “And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.”
Mark would leave no doubt about it: The demon immediately obeyed. Jesus is the Mighty One. All of this leads me now to make some bold declaration in conclusion.
One, if you take the New Testament seriously, you have to deal with this issue of demonic powers.
Two, it was obvious that Jesus knew full—well that He could never heal a person unless He assumed the reality of the disease of sin and evil as the primary issue.
Three, even though you might not use the same language or rational categories, to disregard the power of evil in life is intellectually naïve and spiritually suicide.
Four, that does not mean we are to look for a devil under every bush, and substitute an easy language for that which will always be shrouded in mystery. Some religious folks today are giving more attention to Satan then they are to Christ. They are quick to label everything going on as the devil at work and/or demon possessed.
Or it looks like this. Harper Lee wrote a novel some years ago about the South in the days when prejudice was institutionalized as an evil. The lawyer’s name was Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch is defending a black man in a system in which he had not chance at all of winning. But he defends him anyway, because he knows that the system is evil, the opposite of life, and he knows that he must oppose it. In the end he is defeated, the man is convicted, though he’s innocent, and later he is murdered.
The lawyer’s daughter, a little girl, is in the courtroom at the conclusion of the trial. She is sitting in the balcony that is segregated for blacks. There is no room on the mail floor. The courtroom is packed. The verdict is given. The judge leaves. The white people downstairs all leave the courtroom. The people in the balcony remains. Atticus Finch picks up the papers off his table, puts them in a briefcase, heads for the door. The people in the balcony stand. The man standing next to Atticus Finch’s daughter says to her, “Stand up. Your father is passing by.”
Atticus lost. He was defeated. But he was on the side of truth and righteousness and peace. So he won.
It’s a picture — a faint one, but enough for us to go on. Jesus is the Mighty One, so he is the Savior, our Savior. And He lives within us who claim Him as Lord. So don’t ever forget: “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
In his inimitable way, Sidlow Baxter has provided just the right story to make the point and finish my sermon.
“Some years ago, a traveler who was hunting in South America was attracted by the startled cries of a father bird which fluttered in agitation over its nest, his mate and tiny family was there. The cause of alarm soon appeared. Creeping slowly toward the tree was one of the most venomous snakes in South America, his small glittering eyes fixed on the nest. Then he witnessed a curious development. The s male suddenly flew away from the nest, fluttering looking for something. A minute or two later it returned with a small leaf - covered twig which it laid carefully over the nest. Then, calmer and quieter, he perched on one - of the upper branches, and watched the enemy. The snake twisted round and up the tree; then glided along the branch to the nest. He poised himself to strike; then, suddenly threw his head back as if he had received a deadly blows he recoiled and writhed away down the tree again as fast as possible, while the male bird now broke into rapturous song. The fascinated traveler climbed to the nest and secured the twig. He learned from the natives that it was from a bush which is a deadly poison to snakes, the very sight and odor of which causes them to flee. The helpless little bird knew this bush, and had plucked those covering leaves as a sure defense in the hour of danger.
Sidlow Baxter says we are reminded of another serpent, even more deadly, and of another tree, the leaves of which always drive this serpent away if we pluck them and use them. That other serpent is the devil; and the protecting leaves are the precious words and truths of our dear old Bible.” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Awake My Heart, p. 36)
But not just the word - the Bible, the Living Word, Christ, is available. He is the mighty One, our Savior, and He lives within us who claim Him as Lord. So don’t ever forget: “Greater is He that is in you, than He that is in the world.”