Today we’re going to talk about casting out demons or, as Mark calls them in today’s lesson, impure spirits. It’s not a subject that we talk about very much in church anymore, even though it figures prominently in the New Testament. Maybe at the end of today’s service I will perform an exorcism and cast out a demon . . . or not. Perhaps you have someone in mind that you think could profit from such an exorcism. But enough about members of Congress . . .
Some of you will remember a movie that caused quite a stir back in the 1970s called “The Exorcist.” The movie was set at Georgetown University. “The Exorcist” was written by a Georgetown alumnus, William Peter Blatty, and it was based on events that were reportedly true, the story of a child brought to Georgetown because of its reputation as a medical center and because of the community of priests that live on campus. The child, a boy, was brought there because it was believed that he suffered from demonic possession.
In the movie it is a 12-year-old girl who is demon-possessed. We know she’s possessed by these impure spirits because she displays strange and aggressive behaviors after playing with a Ouija board. She is constantly swearing and she displays abnormal strength, which, we learn, are early symptoms of demonic possession. Now you know the signs to look for in your 12-year-old.
The movie details this girl’s mother’s desperate attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two of the priests. And the results are horrific. Before you run home and download it for family viewing, let me hasten to say that, several years ago, “The Exorcist” was named by both Entertainment Weekly and Movies.com as the scariest film of all time. The scene in today’s text from the Gospel of Mark is far less dramatic than that portrayed in the movie.
Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum. It is the Sabbath. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. The people are amazed at his teaching, Mark tells us, because he taught as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. This is why people flocked to hear him. They knew, when he spoke, what he said was important.
Christ had barely begun his teaching this particular day, however, when a man in the synagogue began to cry out, and the interesting thing is he spoke in the third person plural: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” Then he reverts to the first person singular, “I know who you are the Holy One of God!”
Mark explains to us that this man who was crying out was possessed by an impure spirit. We don’t know if this means that the man was mentally deranged, but we might guess that he probably was. Sadly, such people do exist, of course. Maybe if this sad man were in today’s world, he wouldn’t just cause a disturbance in church. He might pull out an automatic weapon and begin mowing down worshipers. Disturbed people are unpredictable, though few are violent. Whatever the nature of this man’s affliction, however, Jesus was very much in control of the situation.
“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Mark tells us the impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The scene is a bit disturbing, but it doesn’t last long enough to make a scene worthy of Hollywood. Now this man who formerly had an impure spirit is sitting there calm and composed listening with all the others to Jesus teach.
The people are all so amazed that they ask each other, “What is this? A new teaching . . . He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” People began grabbing their smart phones and texting to their friends all over the whole region of Galilee, “You won’t believe what happened at church this morning!”
They didn’t communicate their excitement exactly like that, of course, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if when something exciting happened in worship, that we would tell our friends? I hope that if something in church does excite you, say if the music moves you or the children do something enjoyable in the worship service or whatever it may be, that you will say something about it to your friends on Facebook or Twitter or some other social media. Share your joy.
The only social media the people in first century Galilee had was person-to-person, but Mark tells us that the word spread all over the region. Here’s a man who teaches with authority and he has power over the demons as well. Quite a resume! Let’s talk a few minutes today about demons or impure spirits.
Is there an impure spirit troubling you? Not all impure spirits are supernatural powers that inhabit people’s minds and cause them to foam at the mouth and tear at their clothes. There are some perfectly normal people who have deep and deadly emotional issues. You may be sitting there placidly listening to this message and you’re having thoughts of suicide or even violence toward another person. Or you may be suffering from deep depression. Or you may know someone who is. There is no disgrace to talk with a professional about your problems. Don’t be embarrassed. Mental problems are no different from physical problems. You wouldn’t hesitate to see a doctor if you had a sharp pain in your side. You certainly should not hesitate if you are dealing with obsessive thoughts or if you cannot pull yourself out of a deep depression. Get help or gently urge someone you love to get help. Some of the finest people who have ever lived have had times in their life when they were tormented by such demons. Don’t suffer any longer if you are in that situation.
There are other kinds of impure spirits that work in quieter but equally troubling ways. For example, many of us are controlled by our fears. Fear is a demon that cripples many fine people. That’s one reason that many people are carrying guns today. Did you know that? A reporter interviewed a cross section of people recently with licenses to carry fire arms, and that is what he found. Many people feel the need to protect themselves and their families from unknown threats and so they’re buying guns. That’s in spite of the fact that many of us have never known anybody who was the victim of a violent attack. From watching television, though, you would think danger lurks everywhere.
Fear is a terrible thing. For some, it is the fear of being attacked. For others, it can be as seemingly benign as the fear of being rejected or being laughed at. Some people are haunted by the fear that somehow they do not belong, that they do not measure up.
Author Steve Chandler compares it to the feeling some of us had in high school—that everyone was cool but us. Did you ever feel like that? Chandler says many people feel like they’ve “been left stranded in high school forever. Like something happened there that we’ve never shaken off.
“Before high school, in our earlier and more carefree childhoods,” says Chandler, “we were creative dreamers filled with a boundless sense of energy and wonder.
“But in high school something got turned around. For the first time in our lives, we began fearing what other people were thinking of us. All of a sudden our mission in life became not to be embarrassed. We were afraid to look bad, and so we made it a point not to take risks.” (1) How can you live a happy and productive life if you are constantly afraid of being humiliated?
In an interview years ago David Brinkley asked advice columnist Ann Landers what question she most frequently received from readers. She said the question she was most asked was, “What’s wrong with me?” (2)
Do you have that feeling from time to time that something’s wrong with you, that you do not somehow measure up, that you do not belong? That’s a demon that holds many good people back.
Dr. Thomas Harris wrote a very popular book a number of years ago titled, I’m Okay, You’re Okay. Some of you undoubtedly read that book when it first came out. Among the many salient truths in that book is one that we need to be reminded of from time to time. This truth is that we all have scripts that are written and imprinted in our brains. These scripts even have a sound to them, the sound of parent or parent figures. We hear the sounds in our heads. The painful reality is that the loudest scripts that we have to deal with are the “I am not okay” scripts. These are scripts that diminish and devalue us. We hear words like, “You always screw things up,” “You are never going to amount to anything,” “You don’t take care of your room, your clothes, your things,” “you’re disorganized,” “you’re a failure.” (3)
We imprint those words on our brains, and they stay with us all our lives, unless we allow Christ to exorcize those demons by telling us that we do belong, we do measure up. We are God’s own child, accepted in His family. Fear what a terrible demon, whether it’s fear of other people or fear that there’s something wrong with us.
Fear is related to another impure spirit that controls many people. It is the spirit of anger. Many people today are filled with free-floating anger and they’re just waiting to explode.
Chuck Swindoll in his book Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life uses the example of a camel. He says that camels may build up a pressure cooker of resentment toward their owners. Finally that resentment will explode and the camel goes berserk.
In Asia, when a camel driver senses trouble, he will give his coat to the animal. The camel takes out its resentment on the garment jumping on it, biting it, tearing it to pieces. When the camel feels it has blown its top enough, man and animal can live together in harmony again. (4)
Don’t you wish that would work with human beings? Many wives would be thrilled to give their husband one of their garments for him to take out his resentment on. Some husbands also feel that way about their wives. A recent survey on marital violence reports that approximately one in every seven American couples has used some form of physical abuse during an argument in the past year. (5)
Anger is certainly an impure spirit.
Jim Taylor in Currents magazine tells about his friend, Ralph Milton. One morning Ralph awakened to a noise that sounded like someone repairing boilers on his roof. He looked at his clock. It was 5:00 a.m. Still in his pajamas, he went into the back yard to investigate. He found a woodpecker on his TV antenna, “pounding its little brains out on the metal pole.”
Angry at the little creature who ruined his sleep, Ralph picked up a rock and threw it. The rock sailed over the house, and he heard a distant crash as it hit his car. In utter disgust, Ralph took a vicious kick at a clod of dirt, only to remember too late that he was still in his bare feet. The woodpecker was still pounding but now Ralph had a broken car window and a sore foot.
Anger does so much damage, to ourselves and to others. Angry cynical people die young. Men who score high for hostility on standard tests are four times more likely to die prematurely than men whose scores are low. (6)
Anxiety and anger are certainly impure spirits. But the number of impure spirits in the world is manifold. The most deadly of all of these spirits is the spirit that tells us we are unnoticed and unloved.
On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were killed at the Sandy Hook elementary school by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who had earlier killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in their home. As police approached the school, Lanza took his own life.
It is the second-deadliest mass shooting in US history.
A police report reveals that Adam Lanza possessed a list of 500 of the world’s most notorious mass murderers, and was trying to rack up the greatest number of kills in history.
Could we agree that Adam Lanza was possessed by an impure spirit? It was a spirit that told him his life didn’t matter that he was unnoticed and unloved. The only way to rectify his situation was to rack up a world record. Then people would notice.
It is a terrible thing when you are young to feel unnoticed and unwanted. Of course, Lanza’s feelings and his way of acting them out were extreme. Most people with such feelings are no harm to anyone but still they live a miserable experience.
Psychologist Dr. D. Ross Campbell studied young people attracted to religious cults back in the 1960s and 70s. He said these cults were quite adept at exploiting the feelings of being unnoticed and unloved. He described how one group that was particularly successful, the so-called Moonies, went about this exploitation.
He told of an emotionally charged session in which several Moonies surrounded a young man. This young man was required to think back into his childhood and remember painful moments. He told of an incident when he was three years old. He remembered feeling lonely and distressed, and tried to seek comfort in physical contact from his mother. His mother did not have time for him at that moment and he felt rejected. Then the Moonies embraced him repeatedly, giving him the physical contact he longed for. They also stated repeatedly that they loved him (implying, of course, that his mother did not). (7)
Who among us has not harbored this feeling at some time in our lives? I’m nobody. Nobody notices me. No one appreciates me.
Is that the impure spirit that is troubling you? Do you feel unnoticed and unloved? If there is one impure spirit that the gospel of Jesus Christ should dispel, it is this one. You are loved. Jesus said it so beautifully in Luke 12:6, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (6-7).
I joked that I might perform an exorcism at the end of this service. Of course, only Christ can cast out an impure spirit. He can do that by filling us so full of the love of God that there is no room for any other spirit to torture us. Are you afraid, angry, feeling unnoticed and unloved? Open your heart to God and let God create a new heart and a right spirit within you.
1. 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever (Kindle Edition).
2. John Maxwell, Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (Kindle edition).
3. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983). Cited by Rev. David A. Stammerjohn,
http://www.laboratorychurch.org/sermons/Pentecostb15.2003.html.
4. National Institute of Mental Health, Family Happiness is Homemade.
5. Contributed. Source unknown.
6. Bottom Line.
7. How to Really Love Your Child (Wheaton, Ill: Victor Books, 1960).