Say the word "demon" and the first thing that might pop into your mind is the image of a child you know. Sometimes we describe an ornery child as "a little demon." But in the Bible, the word demon is never used that lightly. It is a word that is always used seriously and fearfully to describe one of the forces of evil, an unclean spirit.
Saint Mark records for us the story of one demon who filled a father’s life with agony because of the way he possessed the man’s son. Shortly after the Transfiguration of our Lord, a man came to Jesus with a pitiful request. "Teacher, I brought my son to you because he has a spirit," the father said. The demon used to seize the boy, dash him to the ground, make him foam at the mouth, and grind his teeth. It would cause his body to become rigid all over. At the very moment that the father brought the boy to Jesus, Mark tell us, the demon tormented the boy again, casting him down to the ground right there in the street.
Jesus was filled with pity and compassion. "How long has the boy been like this?" he asked the father. "From infancy," the father replied in desperation, adding, "and often it has cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him ... Have pity on us and help us," the man begged (Mark 9:14-24). Jesus did help them; he cast out the demon.
For that father and for Jesus, demons were all too real and their torment just as real. Demons possessed anybody, adults and children alike, causing blindness, deafness, sometimes symptoms that looked like epilepsy. One girl, out of whom Paul cast a demon, was possessed for the sake of foretelling the future. Because of what the demon did in her, she was enslaved and forced to work for her master’s gain. Saint Matthew tells us that a mob of demons Jesus cast out of one man went into a herd of swine, causing them all to run off a cliff into the sea and drown.
Demons are hard for us to believe in because of our sophistication. Much of what the Bible writers attributed to demons could easily be explained today in terms of mental and physical illness. We are tempted to dismiss that concerning which they wrote, attributing it to nothing more than ancient superstition. We might find it easy to explain away demons also, except for two things: Jesus believed they were real and the demons knew Jesus before almost anyone else ever did. Knowing Jesus is not something that automatically happens in those who are merely ill.
In our Gospel lesson today, the testimony about the godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ comes from a demon. Jesus was in a synagogue in Capernaum. Suddenly a man possessed by a demon burst into the place, disrupting the worship and confronted our Lord. "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" the demon asked; "Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!" A demon testified about Jesus! A demon knew who Jesus was! A demon called him the Holy One of God!
This was not the only time that a demon gave witness to the divinity of our Lord. Mark tells us that whenever Jesus confronted a demon, "they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God’!" (Mark 3:11). Luke tells us the demons knew that Jesus "was the Christ"! (Luke 4:41).
It seems more than a little strange that demons should know Jesus and give witness to him. This kind of testimony could hurt a person more than help. Ever since the Garden of Eden we have known better than to listen to what the devil says, for he is a liar. For this reason, Jesus commanded the demons not to speak about him.
How in the world did they know him? They knew him, not because of who they were, but because of who he is: True God, the One who has power to destroy them. Saint James wrote, "The demons believe - and shudder" (James 2:19). Like that demon in Capernaum that cried out in fear, "Have you come to destroy us?" all demons know that Jesus is the Son of God who was manifested for this very purpose, "that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
The deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus is made manifest to us not only by virtue of the fact that the demons recognized him and announced him as the Christ, the Holy One of God. We also know that Jesus is God by virtue of his power over the demons. "With authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him," the people said in amazement after Jesus cast out that demon in Capernaum. It had never happened that way before. They had always been powerless before demons until Jesus came. He cast out all the demons. Not one of them was able to stand up against him. All were defeated - because he is God. Only God has power over demons; Jesus has that power because he is God.
There are demons in our lives that control us as harmfully as demons tormented people in our Lord’s day. The demons that run rampant in our lives are things such as pride, guilt, envy, an unforgiving spirit, a favorite sin. Sometimes these things control us so completely that we are powerless against them.
Recently I spoke to a man oppressed by the demon of pride. I’d never met him before but he called to talk to me about a problem he has because of a decision he made. The decision was a bad one and it put him between a rock and a hard place. Deep down in his heart I believe he knows it was a bad decision, but, in his own words, "I’ve come too far to turn back now." He is going to lose something that means a great deal to him because the demon of pride will not allow him to say, "I was wrong." It will not allow him to change his mind. It is driving him to do something that he really does not want to have to do. Sad, isn’t it? Pride, like a demon, causes a great deal of separation in our lives.
Pride combined with envy is a demon that pushes and pushes and pushes people to "keep up with the Joneses." Actually, it never just pushes us to keep up; it always pushes us to do better, get more, have more. Because of this demon, people in families lose touch with each other; they sit in nice, big houses and never talk to each other; they are always too tired for each other; they fall apart.
About a year ago the city of Plano, Texas, experienced the kind of tragedy this demon can cause to happen. Plano lived through the nightmare of multiple suicides. Six young people, aged 14 to 18, took their lives, leaving that community wondering what in the world was going on. A boy and a girl, both 17, killed themselves because their parents said they couldn’t see each other as often. One boy was killed in a car race; his friend, who had started the the car race, committed suicide out of grief and guilt. Another boy killed himself out of grief over the suicide of his friend. How could it happen, in a place that has everything, where the average home costs $180,000, and where the high school football team always wins? Some of the people living there believe they know what the problem is. They explained that the only thing that counts in their community is being the best: the best at tennis, at bridge, at making money, in school. You have to have the fastest car, the biggest house, all that kind of thing. If you are not the best, you just don’t count. And if you don’t count, perhaps you commit suicide. Pride and envy, the demon of greatness, has ruined many lives.
It is easy for us to sit back and point a finger of condemnation at the people of Plano. We would never be as senseless as they are. Or would we? God forbid we should only condemn; God help us to learn from what happened there.
Perhaps the second cruelest demon is the unforgiving spirit that sometimes consumes us. It makes us demand absolute perfection from everyone and everything at all times. It makes us want never to be disappointed, never to be hurt, never to be let-down, never to be failed. Doctors had better never make mistakes. The driver in front of us in traffic had better get out of the way right away. If anybody or anything ever does something to let us down, well, we just won’t be their friends anymore; that’s all there is to it. This demon especially delights in destroying marriages. All this demon ever accomplishes is to make us frustrated and angry and lonely.
The cruelest demon of all is guilt. This nasty one hangs around us, haunting us with our past. We know better than to listen to it; we know Jesus has forgiven us all our sins; we know his blood has washed us clean; we know that in him there is now no reason for God to condemn us; we know that God no longer remembers our sins. But we remember them; we can’t let them go, try as hard as we might. Guilt, like a demon, possesses us.
Jesus is God. He has power over demons. He cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. He has power over all the demons of our lives also. Through Word and Sacrament he brings that power to us and says to the demons in our life, "Be gone!" He says it as often as we need to hear it, over and over again, until by his power we are free from them all.
In Jesus’ name. Amen