“COME OUT, UNCLEAN SPIRIT!”
Sermon Text, St. Mark 5:1-20. Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord Jesus, we thank You that You came to redeem us from the power of the devil. Lead us to pray to You to overpower him for us, and trust that You will, because we are Your baptized children and because Your Word is powerful. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ, the One before whom the demons beg and plead: Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, in truth and love, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two extremes when it comes to the devil and demons, and their activity. On the one hand are people who don’t believe that the devil and demons are real, for them it’s in the category of “fantasy.” On the other extreme are people who do believe the reality of such things, but have an unhealthy fascination with them, wanting to know more about them.
We go to the Bible to hear the truth about this. In 2 Peter and in Jude, the Bible tells us they are “the angels who sinned … who left their own abode,” and that God “cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.” God has them on a chain, and yet the devil and his evil angels are allowed to have power in this world. Jesus calls the devil “the prince of this age,” and in Ephesians 6 the evil angels, or devils, are called the “rulers of the darkness of this age.”
Where God really reveals to us the truth about the demons comes in the gospels. People wonder why there are all these cases of demon possession in the Gospels. A verse from the New Testament says: “For this purpose the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil”(1Jn 3:8). The devils know that Jesus has come to destroy their power, to destroy Satan and his works. They are drawn into open conflict with Him.
This brings us to this account from Mark 5. First God is going to give us appropriate fear of the demons because of how strong they are. Then God is going to show us how Jesus is stronger. And then, most important of all, God is going to show us how Jesus’ power over the devils comes to us.
- God gives us appropriate fear of the demons.
What we notice is the strength of these demons. Too many people have an unhealthy fascination with demons and witchcraft. They don’t know what they’re messing around with. They don’t have appropriate fear.
This account should give us that fear. God uses this man to show us the power of the demons. This man runs to Jesus from out of the tombs, where he was living; but we find out he’s “a man with an unclean spirit,” which is Mark’s word for a demon. It so controls him that it propels him forward.
Mark tells us what he was like under the demons’ control: The tough swineherds in this region couldn’t even control this man; they would try to bind him “with shackles and chains,” it says they had to do this “often,” but he would pull the chains apart and break the shackles in pieces! It says noone could “tame him.” He even helplessly “cuts himself with stones.”
God is showing us the super-human strength of demons. They overpower this man so he’s reduced to thinking the demon’s thoughts, speaking its words, doing its will. When he speaks to Jesus, it’s the man’s voice but the one speaking is the demon.
What are we to learn from this? We see a man who’s driven against his will, doing what the demons want, things that hurt himself and others, stronger to do evil than good, unwilling to be controlled. We’re seeing in a dramatic way what actually happens to us, that there’s an evil spirit – the devil – who drives us to do the evil we don’t want to do. We do things that hurt ourselves and others. This is true especially when we lack self-control, when we say things we shouldn’t or can’t bring ourselves to do what is right. The devil overpowers us. We can’t overcome him by our strength.
Sometimes it’s that we can’t speak the right things, or even think the right things. You won’t listen to anything good. You don’t feel like singing. You’re oppressed by negative thoughts, that the present is dark and the future darker. This is especially the domain of the devil: our thoughts. This is why TV and computer images are so dangerous, because the image that enters the mind doesn’t leave easily. The devil invades our thoughts, gives us thoughts we don’t want, plants desires we know are wrong.
- But then God shows us how Jesus is stronger.
Notice that the demons are drawn to Jesus against their will. They propel the man forward, and yet what when the demon called Legion speaks through the man, it’s fear and loathing: “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The demons confess Jesus to be have absolute power over them. They have to beg and plead with Him.
Then Jesus says: “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” There are some interesting details that follow, where the demons plead with Jesus, beg to be sent into the pigs, and He gives them permission. But Jesus’ power – the power of His word – is never in doubt. The devils must come out of the man, they can’t stay in the man at all once Jesus speaks and commands. “Then the unclean spirits went out,” just as Jesus commanded.
We need to see how Jesus is stronger and more powerful than all the devils. Satan himself is no match for Jesus, much less any of his demons. This is what we learn in the season of Lent, and on Easter Sunday. As He suffers and dies, Jesus looks weaker. But He isn’t. His suffering and death is how He wins the victory. Hebrews 2:14 says Christ came, that “through death He would destroy him who had the power of death, the devil.”
It’s how He redeemed us. His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death have purchased us to be His own, and took us out of the clutches of the devil and death. Through His death Jesus destroyed the power of the devil, redeemed us from the power of the devil.
The devil and all his demons use power only to oppress. Jesus uses His power – even when it looked like weakness on the cross – to save.
- Most importantly, Jesus’ power over the devils is given to us.
This only does you any good, if Jesus’ victory over the devil and his kingdom comes to you and is given to you, so you can overcome the devil. This happens in a way that, once again, looks like weakness but is strong.
It happens in baptism. Before baptizing the child, the pastor asks, “Do you renounce the devil, all his works, and all his ways?” Parents/sponsors answer, but it’s the child’s answer: “I do renounce them.” Then the pastor baptizes the child. In baptism God gives faith, which drives out the devil.
It used to be that in the baptism liturgy the pastor would actually address the devil directly: “I adjure thee, unclean spirit, by the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that thou come out of and depart from this servant of Jesus Christ. Amen.” It was actually called an exorcism.
It’s OK that it’s not in our baptism liturgy now, because exorcisms tend to impress people more than a baptism. But we’ve also lost something. Because we need to see that in Baptism God is driving out the devil.
Something just as spectacular happens in baptism as what we hear in this reading from Mark. In your baptism Jesus called you to be His own, and by the power of His Word, so early in life, you heard His voice and believed it. You answered His call. “Do you wish to be baptized? – Yes!” His name was put on you. You began to be called by His name – the name the devils hate.
You’ve continued to hear the name of Jesus, to hear His Word that releases you from the devil’s power. Just as the demon here had no way to resist Jesus’ word, so also when Jesus’ word of release, His forgiveness, is spoken to you, there’s no way the devil can resist it. His word powerfully releases you from all guilt, all shame, all sin, all evil, even from death.
Once His name is put on you in baptism, you also call upon His name, pray in Jesus’ name, and He hears you. This is something Mark emphasizes in this story: calling upon Jesus. The word He uses is “begging.” At the end the healed man “begged Jesus that he might be [stay] with Jesus.”His begging, asking, praying, is connected to what Jesus did for him.
Our baptism is a victory over the devil, but what this gift leads to – prayer – is victory too. We do a mighty thing: we pray, literally beg Jesus. Often we feel weak when we pray. But as you call on His name, as His baptized child who is called by His name, nothing’s stronger than you.
The devil is afraid of begging and pleading Christians. It drives him over a cliff when Jesus’ name is spoken. Nothing drives the devil away like prayer in Jesus’ name. It brings you back to the first time the devil was driven out of you, in your baptism.
Christ opens our ears and then opens our mouths. What comes out are the words our Savior gives us, the words of faith. That’s power. Amen!