Day 16: Casting Out Demons
Today’s Passage: Mark 3: 13 - 19
In my traipsing around the global Christian world I witness Jesus’ followers doing the three things we read him calling the disciples to do in today’s reading, including casting out demons.
Yet many people, Christians, are skeptical about demons.
If you struggle with this idea of demons perhaps C. S. Lewis’ perspective on this area might be helpful for you.
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors…” The Screwtape Letters
I bring this topic up because this passage is where Jesus calls his disciples. To be sure, we are not the Apostles. Yet, while our role is different, the process of becoming a follower and the task are very similar to what we read today. One of the tasks in casting out demons.
Before we deal with demons, let me first note this passage shows three distinct steps in becoming a follower of Jesus.
Step One is to separate. Jesus goes up on a mountain and calls his followers likewise.
To join Jesus for mission in this world, will mean that you cannot be of this world. It comes down to how we engage and are engaged by the world. The things of this world must grow strangely dim for us. If not, then we will always be torn as we seek to follow him.
Step Two is Jesus’ call. He says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you”. He said this to the Apostles, and he says it to all who follow him.
Step Three is our response. The disciples came that day, and so must all who follow him. We must come.
Let me be blunt. You have to hear his voice. He is the initiator. Then you have to move. You cannot follow Jesus without moving. You might even say turning around, repenting. You will notice when you move to him, you are moving away from this world. It will be an uphill battle.
You are either with and for Jesus, or against him and siding with the demons and their leader.
The task at hand is also threefold: to be with Jesus, to proclaim the Good News, and to cast out demons. I think we can directly correlate demons and evil. Most successful demons don’t want you to know they are afoot.
Being with Jesus, proclaiming him, and challenging evil in his Name, is not easy. Merely thinking about these three creates a tension in me.
We must be with him. We do not do this alone. The challenge here is that we “go”. Too often his followers “go to church” or “go to Bible Study”, but do not “go into the world baptizing…”
You might wonder about casting out demons. Casting out evil is not just exorcisms. Evil is everywhere. It is in corrupt business dealing. It is in the lies that surround us. It is a disease that is constantly seeking to infect every aspect of our person and our world.
Returning again to C.S. Lewis:
“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.”
This perspective of sharing the Good News and confronting evil is a missionary perspective. It will require we understand the perspective of those who do not yet believe. We should not see them as evil, but as captured by the enemy, in need of setting free.
To challenge evil makes us much more vulnerable. It means we must first look at ourselves. Further, it will take courage to stand against it. Yet when we do, we will learn the extent and the power of the message we proclaim, the authority it carries, and the depth of love which God has for all of His creation—for all of us.