There is one similarity between mice and men. None of us wants to die. Self preservation is one of the strongest instincts in living creatures. And yet high in the Scandinavian mountains lives a small mouselike creature that every few years commits mass suicide. The creatures are called lemmings.
They have given us the phrase, "like lemmings headed for the sea," for that is what they do. Every few years when their population has grown too large and the food supply has become too scarce they leave their burrows and like a mighty army, swarm out of the mountains and rush downward toward the sea. Normally, lemmings fear and avoid water. During their mass march, however, they brave streams and lakes. They also devour everything in their path.
After running for weeks the lemmings finally reach the seashore, and then, row upon row, plunge headlong into the water! For a short time the frantic rodents remain afloat, but soon the creatures tire, and one by one sink to their doom.
Many theories have been offered about this mass suicide. Some zoologists argue that the fatal plunge of the lemmings is just an error of judgment. Perhaps the creatures think the ocean is just one more wide river to cross on the way to a larger food supply. All explanations remain only guesses, however. No one really knows what gets into all those suicidal lemmings.
Usually the behavior of animals is relatively predictable. Rarely, for example, will a dog bite the hand that feeds it. As Mark Twain noted, that is the principle difference between dogs and humans. Strange things do happen in the animal world, but not as often as in the world of humans.
Did you read about the census worker in the last census who approached a house in her territory very slowly? There was a fence around the house and the worker was terribly afraid of dogs. She opened the gate ever so quietly and hurried stealthfully up to the house and rang the bell. She breathed a sigh of relief when the lady of the house opened the door. She felt safe now. Whereupon the lady of the house promptly bit her! It's true. The census worker required medical attention for a human bite.
When a dog bites someone we might ask, what got into Rover? We are more likely to ask, however, what got into Ronnie or Rhonda or Randy or Ramona. Humans are far more unpredictable than animals.
What is it that gets into people? What is it that got into Jim Baaker and Jimmy Swaggart that caused them to jeopardize their ministries and their marriages? What is it that causes a man to go on a rampage and murder his former boss and several coworkers before killing himself as we've read about in recent days? What gets into a young person that causes him or her to experiment with dangerous drugs and run around with the wrong kind of people? What is it that causes a woman to make one wrong choice after another in the kind of man she marries? What gets into a man who abuses his wife and his children? How do you explain it? What gets into us?
Some would say, "The devil made me do it." That reminds me of a story about a little girl who got mad at her younger brother. She pushed him down, called him a name, and then spat on him. Her father got onto her and said, "Honey, I think the devil made you do that." The little girl answered, "The devil might have made me push him down and call him names, but I thought of spittin' on him all by myself!" Some would say with regard to our destructive impulses, "Satan made me do it."
There are others who would trace aberrations in human behavior to a chemical imbalance in the brain. For example, depression is often treated nowadays with chemicals. Some forms of aggression can be controlled chemically. It is easy to demonstrate in animals changes in behavior caused by stimulating different parts of the brain.
One of the most famous examples was a feat performed by researcher Jose Delgado. Delgado had planted electrodes into the brain of a ferocious bull. He went into a rink with the bull armed only with a red cape and a radio transmitter. He waved his cape, the bull charged, Delgado pressed a button on his transmitter, and the bull came to a screeching halt only a few feet from him, then calmly wandered away. By stimulating a certain section of the bull's brain, its entire disposition had been changed.
Wouldn't it be great to have a radio transmitter like that in your possession? Then when someone in your family or in your office was hostile, you could just press a button and instant calm. Unfortunately life is rarely that simple. The causes of human behavior are usually very complex. Nevertheless, if someone in your family undergoes a severe personality change, a good physical examination is the first order of the day.
There is, however, inappropriate behavior for which there is no chemical or physical explanation. I suspect that this was true concerning this wretched man that Jesus met. The Bible says simply that the man had an unclean spirit. Today we would probably say the man had a mental disorder. Maybe he was in the habit of harassing people who went to the synagogue. Today we have people with unclean spirits who paint swastikas on synagogues.
Mark is not specific about the man's symptoms. All we know is that the man 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." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
There are three impressive elements to this story about the man with the unclean spirit. THE FIRST IS THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS. That is what impressed the people who heard him teach. He taught as one with authority.
Some people have that, don't they? There is something about their demeanor, something about their tone of voice, that inspires action.
I heard about a man who went to see a doctor about a headache. A large, businesslike nurse was behind the receptionist's desk. "I'd like to see the doctor," said the man. "I have a headache." The nurse said sharply, "Go in that room, close the door, and take off your clothes." "But ma'am,..." "Get in that room, close the door, and take off your clothes." Well, what did he do? He went into the room, closed the door, and took off his clothes. Suddenly he realized that another man was in the room with him. He also had his clothes off. He said to the other man, "I can't believe I'm standing here like this and all I've got is a headache." To which the other man complained, "You think you've got problems! I just came in to read the meter!"
Some people seem to have that kind of authority. Jesus spoke with authority, but his was an authority of another kind. Even unclean spirits recognized the authority of Jesus! Even Pilate, when he ordered that sign placed above Jesus' head on the cross, `King of the Jews,' may have recognized Jesus' authority. Jesus' authority came from his relationship with the Father. His was Divine authority.
THE SECOND IMPRESSIVE THING ABOUT THIS STORY IS THE POSSIBILITY OF DELIVERANCE. Jesus delivered this man with the unclean spirit. He has that authority today. He can deliver us from whatever may get into us. It is sad that so many people even in the church only give lip service to the authority of Jesus. They really don't believe that he can deliver them.
There is an old story about some linemen who were busy putting up telephone poles through a farmer's fields. The farmer ordered them off his land, whereupon they showed him a paper giving them the right to plant poles wherever they pleased. Not long afterward a big and vicious bull charged the linemen. The old farmer sat on a nearby fence and yelled: `Show him yer papers, darn ye, show him yer papers!'"
To many Christians Jesus' authority is only a paper authority. It is something we study for inspiration, but we really don't believe it applies to our situation. For many of us Jesus' authority doesn't extend to putting a marriage back together or a family. It doesn't mean curing an addiction or healing a character flaw. Maybe 2,000 years ago he had authority, but not today.
Some have only a tepid faith in Jesus' authority. Others outright rebel against that authority. Francis Schaffer tells us that Vincent Van Gogh abandoned Christianity believing it to be irrelevant. He believed that he could set up a new religion in which sensitive people (artists) would blaze the trail. He dreamed of starting this religion in the artistic community in which he lived. After Paul Gauguin joined him, however, his dreams for a new religion among the sensitive crashed. He and Gauguin quarreled violently. Many believe that Van Gogh committed suicide because he was mentally ill, or because he lost his lover to fellow artist Gauguin. But there was a deeper reason. Van Gogh died from disillusionment and loss of hope. He found that there is no human substitute for the authority of the Master.
Deep within the soul of every person is a longing for hope and purpose. Some disguise it, others seek it out in the wrong places. We need to tell them there is hope in this world. There is help. There is deliverance. It is found in the person of Jesus. He has authority! This brings us to the final thing to be said from this text. SURRENDER IS ESSENTIAL.
We are not lemmings. We are not slaves to some primordial instinct that drives us to inevitable destruction. We are free moral agents. We can choose, but choose we must.
If we want the healing of Christ, we must open ourselves to the Spirit of Christ. We must yield ourselves to the authority of Christ. Some of us want a nodding acquaintance with him. We want to be counted in his company, but at a distance. It cannot be done. Regardless of how hard or harsh it may sound, sooner or later we must confront our personal Gethsemane and pray either "My will" or "Thy will" be done.
As he came to the end of his distinguished ministry at City Temple in London, the great British Methodist preacher Leslie Weatherhead said: "I am to be asked shortly on a radio program to answer the question, `What have you learned from life?' Well, I have learned a lot of things from life, but from my own failures, from the confidences of innumerable men and women, from the rough and tumble of forty-five years in the Christian ministry, and from my observations as a student of personal, national and international affairs, I will tell you the outstanding thing I have learned. It is this: Life will only work out one way, and that is God's way. He made it like that. Every other way has across it a barricade bearing a notice which says, `No thoroughfare this way.' If you surmount the barrier, there is a precipice. Men will not learn the truth of half a dozen words: `OUTSIDE GOD THERE IS ONLY DEATH.' After all, Jesus did say, `I am the Way.' Perhaps He meant it. Perhaps He was right after all."
Jesus has the authority to deliver us from whatever may get into us. This is not to say that we throw away our medicine if our problem is physical. Neither is it to say that we should not seek human counseling if our problems are mental. It is to say, however, that many of the things that get into us go beyond human understanding and chemical fixes. At times such as these, only our Creator has the key that unlocks the doors to peace and serenity. He alone has the authority to say to the unclean spirits, "Come out!" Only a totally surrender of our hearts to His makes such a result a reality. Won't you surrender to Him today?
1. Francis Schaffer, THE GOD WHO IS THERE, p. 28.
2. KEY NEXT DOOR, (Nashville: Abingdon Press) p. 88, 89.