Jesus and the disciples went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.

In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit, and it shouted, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destory us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God." But Jesus said sharply, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. "Here is a teaching that is new," they said, "and with authority behind it; he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him." And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside. (Mark 1:21-28)

They didn't teach us much about counseling in seminary. I've been a pastor since 1960. Lots of different people from all walks of life have come for counseling - Miss Americas and little Miss Nobodies, Mr. Nobodies and important people. As I look back on these twenty-two years, I know that I've made lots of mistakes in talking to people - at times saying too much; then again, not saying enough; at times being too directive; at times not being directive enough. Counseling is a difficult art of listening and speaking to the demons in people's lives.

To make matters worse, every counselor has his or her own demons. Counseling people would be hard enough if the counselor were demon-free. But alas, the healer has demons too. Henry Nouwen speaks of "wounded healers." I really identify with that!

Jesus was different. Yes, he was wounded too. In a special sense he was the ultimate wounded healer because of his suffering, but he had something that no other counselor has, the power of purity; the authority of perfect authenticity.

"What authority!" the people said. "He isn't like anyone else we know. He gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him." Jesus taught and counseled with authority.

Jesus Knew How to Listen

Throughout the Gospels and again in today's Gospel (Mark 1:21-28), we have the impression that Jesus heard some things which no one else heard. Jesus heard the demons in the possessed man in Capernaum. This is just one of the many stories in the Bible about demons being called out of a person.

For example, a Samaritan woman who was married five times met Jesus at a well (John 4). She was living with a man not her husband. When she spoke, Jesus really heard the demon-malady in her soul - she was a loveless drifter. Jesus loved her - first by confronting sin; second, by loving the sinner. Initially, she was afraid. Then she felt ten feet tall. She told the whole town about it. "You must see the man I've just met," she said. "He knows everything about me." Jesus was the supreme listener.

In her book, The Listener, Taylor Caldwell says:

The most desperate need of men today is not a new vaccine for any disease, or a new religion, ora new "way of life. "Man does not need to go to the moon or other solar systems. He does not require bigger and better bombs and missiles. He will not die if he does not get "better housing" or more vitamins. He will not expire of frustration if he is unable to buy the brightest and newest gadgets, or if all his children cannot go to college. His basic needs are few, and it takes little to acquire them, in spite of the advertisers. He can survive on a small amount of bread and in the meanest shelter. He always did.

His real need, his most terrible need, is for someone to listen to him, not as a "patient, "but as a human soul. He needs to tell someone of what he thinks, of the bewilderment he encounters when he tries to discover why he was born, how he must live, and where his destiny lies.

The Samaritan woman at the well tried to change the subject. "Let's talk about worship ... Samaritans and Jews, anything ..." "No," said Jesus, who was listening to her soul. "Let's talk about you." He listened to her. He heard what she was really saying beneath what she was apparently saying.

Dr. Granger Westberg, founder of Wholistic Health Centers, Inc., has devoted his life to helping people in health care listen to patients as people. The biblical corrective of listening to persons is much needed today, not only in hospitals but everywhere in life. We all need to really listen to people.

I don't know what you or I might have said to the Samaritan woman at the well. Chances are we would have just passed her by with a "Hello, how are you? ... That's nice ... Have a good day ... Goodbye." Jesus listened. He heard the demons which possessed her and called them out, giving the woman new life.

Another great story in the New Testament is about a man named Legion (Luke 8:26-39). Jesus met him outside a cave in the territory of the Ger'asenes near the Sea of Galilee in the area we call the Golan Heights today. The man had been exiled there because the people said about him, "He's crazy." The man was wild. The man was naked. He had been tied with chains to keep him away from the children and normal human beings.

"What is your name?" Jesus asked. "My name is Legion," said the man, "because we are many." The very nature of demons is that they multiply as they divide, and distract and demand and dehumanize. "Come out," Jesus said. And they did. Jesus listened for demons; then he commanded them.

In today's Gospel we also see Jesus listening and speaking to a dehumanized man. In Capernaum, as in Samaria and the Ger'asenes, Jesus listened for demons; then he commanded them.

Jesus knew what to say because he listened first.

Jesus heard noises - senseless noises which distracted the man.Jesus heard voices - divisive voices, which divided and defeated the man.Jesus heard evil cries - demonic cries, putting unfair and cruel demands on the man.Then Jesus said, "Be quiet, come out."

Jesus Knew What to Say

"Shut up. Come out." That's not indirect counseling! That's counseling with authority - not autoc_esermonsratic or power-hungry authority - but real spiritual authority.

Many recovering alcoholics who are trying to help a brother or sister problem drinker know what to say and when to say it because they have been there. A recovering alcoholic recently told me: "We alcoholics are all con men. A recovering alcoholic is not as apt to take the con from another alcoholic as doctors, pastors and other counselors." Thus, Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) helps more alcoholics than all of the professionals put together. An A.A. member is more likely to speak with authority and call out the demons of drink than all of the rest of us put together. Those who know other persons from the inside, because they know how to listen, also know when and how to speak.

There is a story which is told about a woman with seven demons who came to Jesus one day. "Will you help me?" she asked. "Yes," said Jesus. "What can I do for you?" "I have seven demons," said the woman. "Yes," said Jesus. "What do you want me to do?" She paused. "Take away six," she said. "No," said Jesus.

Jesus knew what to say to the woman who liked one of her demons too much to be rid of it. Jesus also knew what to say to someone who really wanted healing: "Come out," he said to the man possessed by a demon, "Shut up. Come out."

All of this may be very interesting for Jesus' day. But what does it have to do with today? Demons today? Yes, today, according to four prominent Christian authors.

Dr. Paul Tournier, a noted Swiss physician, counselor and author, says: "In the thought of the Bible, evil - for the devils represent the source of moral evil as well as sickness (Revelation 18:2) - is not the absence of good, or some simple, natural failing, it is an active personal power, with its order of battle and its strategy. 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 cunningly resourceful enemy."1

1. Paul Tournier, A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible, tr. by Edwin Hudson. Harper and Row, New York, Evanston and London, 1960, p. 105.

Demons today? Yes, today. Bill Stringfellow, the attorney-author-theologian, writes: "Whatever form or appearance it may take, demonic aggression always aims at the immobilization or surrender or destruction of the mind and at the neutralization or abandonment or demoralization of the conscience. In the Fall (the biblical account of man's encounter with and capture by Sin), the purpose and effort of every principality is the dehumanization of human life."2

2. Bill Stringfellow, An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land.

Demons today? Yes, today. Keith Miller, the author and well-known public speaker, describes the satanic forces in our day as dragons. We are Habitations of Dragons, he says; "we all have dragons in our souls." "To know that I am not alone with the shameful dragons I fight in my inner life is very encouraging. Somehow the knowledge that others face these problems makes them not quite so fearsome in their habitation in my mind."3 Dragons, like the fear of failure, overcompensation, and anxiety, are as modern as the morning newspaper.

3. Keith Miller, Habitation of Dragons. Word, Waco, Texas, 1970, p. 7.

Miller speaks of the demon of not being able to accept a compliment: "Now I am beginning to see that instead of humility, this inability to accept praise or affirmation is really an insidious form of pride and insecurity. Further, it represents a completely thoughtless attitude toward the needs of the one trying to offer the congratulations."4 Demons? Dragons? Today? Yes, today!

4. Ibid., p. 89.

"The trouble is that we are self-centered," wrote Bishop William Temple in Nature, Man and God, "and no effort of the self can remove the self from the center of its own endeavor; the very effort will plant it there the more fixedly than ever." The demon of selfcenteredness!

Demons? Dragons? Today? Yes, today.

Jesus continues to listen and speak today. He does it through his Holy Spirit and through the Church. "The Word of God cuts through to the heart like a two-edged sword dividing bone from marrow," the Bible says, driving out the demons which possess us - loneliness, estrangement, anger, resentment, revenge. Jesus listens and speaks today!

Demons? Dragons? Today? Yes, today. But Jesus is also speaking today. "Shut up!" He says to the demonic powers at work in our world and in our lives. And then, "Come out!"