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The Verse
Mark 1:25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!”
My Paraphrase
Jesus spoke firmly and unwavering, "Shut up. Get out."
My Thoughts
Most translations say "Be quiet," but I chose to paraphrase with "Shut up!" because the Bible says Jesus said it sternly, and I don't think we need to censor Jesus here. As believers and followers of God, we have all authority over the enemy and demons and can speak with ultimate authority over them. It is inappropriate to say "Shut up" to other humans because we are created in the image of God, but demons are fair game, in my opinion. Demons don't deserve respect.
Also, interesting about this quotation is its brevity. Jesus doesn't belabor the scene. He doesn't bring in pyrotechnics. He doesn't embellish. He just gives two short commands: He silences, then exorcises. We should learn from this. We don't need to beat around the bush where the enemy is concerned. Address him head-on--(1) Silence him and (2) rebuke him. Done. Demons also don't deserve a big spectacle.
Something else interesting is that the first command ("Be quiet!") could have been addressed to both the man and the demon. In other words, even though the demon was speaking through the man, the man was still responsible for allowing the demon to speak in the first place. It was the man's lips, vocal chords, and lungs being used, after all. This problem needed to be addressed. In saying, "Be quiet!" Jesus not only silenced the demon, but also pointed out the man's accountability. This is how we need to address problems in our churches. We need to address them head-on as demonic and expose the deception so that people can see where they are being lead astray. We don't need to candy-coat nor do we need to enable.
Shut it down, and shut it down fast. No room for footholds.
Okay, so we know that Jesus was directly addressing the demon and the man, but did you realize that there is a third party here in this verse that was also being taught? The other members of the synagogue. This man had been in their midst for who knows how long! Then, here came this Guy who not only taught with authority, but also cast out demons with authority! Honestly, this exorcism should have happened long ago in this congregation, but clearly if none of the teachers felt they had enough authority even to teach properly, then it's no wonder there were demons running so rampant! I mean, if Jesus' teaching alone was blowing their minds, then I imagine His display of authority over demons was really throwing them for a loop!
All right. Now we come to Jesus' second command, "Come out of him!" This is directly to the demon. Jesus is obviously Spirit-filled because only the Holy Spirit can cast out an impure spirit. "Perfect love casts out fear." (I John 4:18). Demons operate with nothing more than fear and intimidation. Jesus--the picture of Perfect Love--casts out fear with nothing more than simple words.
However, even though Jesus directly commands the demon, He is also indirectly speaking to the man. Jesus doesn't just say, "Come out!" but He also says, "of him." There is a human element to the command of which the man was still a part. Whether the man was willing for the demon to come out or not, is irrelevant because we are dealing with the Son of God here, and if He commands something to come out, it's coming out no matter what. Still, the wording "of him" connects the man to the responsibility of letting the demon get in there in the first place.
Well, now that the demon was out, maybe the man wouldn't have to leave and find work in Damascus after all. (Sorry. That was a stupid joke from my former post.)
Another point about the command "Come out of him!" and that is this: Jesus makes it very plain that the demon is not welcome under any circumstances. He shows us in very few words that there is a big problem with allowing demonic influence into our lives. Simply this: They don't belong there. We were created for something far greater, so. . .don't waste your time with beings that don't belong in you. Don't waste your time thinking about another person's spouse. Don't waste your time worrying about things that might (and probably won't) happen. Don't entertain thoughts that make you angry against another person. Just stop it. Say this right now: Get out. Right now. Evil thoughts, you don't belong in my head. I am created for life, not death.
Lastly, Jesus is perfect, so we can assume that this was and is the most perfect way to cast out a demon. You don't need candles. You don't need spell books. You don't need crucifixes. In fact, if you use anything EXCEPT God-empowered, Spirit-filled, authoritative words to cast out a demon--you're doing it wrongly.
Like. . .really wrongly.
The Verse
Mark 1:24 “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
My Paraphrase
"What are you going to do to us, Jesus? Will You destroy us? I know you're God's Chosen One!"
My Thoughts
(If you are just tuning in, I am doing a verse-by-verse study of the Book of Mark, and it helps me to think when I reword the verse. I'm not suggesting that my paraphrase is Scripture or anything. It's a little Bible study tactic I learned from a Priscilla Shirer simulcast.)
So many things in this verse and where to begin. . .
So first of all, whenever I have read this verse in the past, I tended to read it as though the demon had all the information that we do today. (Just like how I used to read the temptations of Jesus as though Satan actually knew with Whom he was dealing in verses 12-13. . .You know what? Go here if you don't know what I'm talking about.), so I used to think that maybe the demon was being sarcastic like how Goliath was all, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with a stick?" (I Sam. 17:43) Like. . ."Is this tiny person supposed to scare me? I'm so much scarier! Bwahahaha!"
When I was little, I used to be really scared of demons, so I think that now--even as an adult--I have just given them too much credit. Honestly, I think the demon in this verse was just going on whatever information Satan was able to give him from his "Temptation of Jesus."
Which, honestly, was not much. During "The Temptation," Jesus hadn't done any miracles. He hadn't tried to fight. He hadn't tried to prove Himself. All He had done was to withstand temptation--which, granted, had exceeded most Old Testament men's decisions (Think: David and Bathsheba, Noah and his daughters, King Saul and. . .everybody....*cough*)
So here's how it probably went down: Satan tempts Jesus. Jesus withstands temptation. Satan concludes, "This Guy must be at least a prophet--and a good one at that. . .But is He that blasted "M" word?. . ." Remember, it's the Messiah that he has been trying to thwart all the way since the Garden of Eden, so any prophet up to this point has been fair game. (Talk about being a nervous wreck! Satan has known this Messiah to be his undoing for millennia!)
So, anyway, Satan gathers his minions (Like. . .the actual definition of the word. Not the adorable one-eyed yellow rip-offs of the Aliens in Toy Story. . .). Satan tells them, "Okay, Guys. This Man needs constant surveillance--I couldn't even crack Him!"
Obligatory gasps.
"What in bleepity-bleep is Yahweh up to???" Satan notices one demon in the crowd that didn't gasp. He's too busy playing Words with Enemies on his cleverphone.
"You!"
All hell is silent as all eyes fall on this demon. His buddy next to him nudges him. He shoots his buddy a look of death and then realizes the situation. He is mortified. His cleverphone zips out of his hand and up onstage onto Satan's podium.
Satan looks at the phone, holds up his fist to smash it, stops at the last second, and then starts speaking. . .patiently, yet through his teeth, "Since you obviously have a lot of time on your hands, you will go to that synagogue, and when this Jesus starts preaching, I want you to FINISH HIM!"
The demon whines, "But, Sire! It's not fair! I'm only second level! I haven't even been given grave wandering rights yet, let alone execution ones!"
Satan, hot with (self-) righteous anger, yells, "Oh my...G-Gog and Magog!!!" grabs a lightning bolt from his stack, and is about to hurl it at the demon. Just then, the guy on Satan's left taps his shoulder, whispers in his ear, Satan turns to listen, after two seconds pushes him away, looks back at the demon in question, and waves his hand. "Okay, so. Whatever. Avada-Kedavra! Boom! You have them now, Okay?"
Another frantic tap to Satan's shoulder. More whispering. Lots of pointing and "No"-nodding and hands making an "X" like, "Not the best idea with this one. . ." Satan looks perplexed, smacks his forehead, and whispers under his breath, ". . .So hard to find good help these. . .ever. . ." He looks up realizing he said that into the microphone. To the crowd he says, "Just another perk of running hell. Am I right?"
The crowd laughs nervously, thankful for a little tension release.
Satan turns back to the demon with feigned composure, "Can you. . .inhabit?'
The demon says, "Yes." Buddy nudges him again. "...Sir!"
"Can you intimidate?"
"Probably. . .Like. . ." The demon furrows his brow stupidly, "That means yell, right?"
Satan rolls his eyes, "Yes. . .Yell!. . .Wave the guy's arms! Froth at the mouth! The regular routine!" Satan grabs the podium with both hands trying to restrain anger, "I mean...anti-Christ! Do I have to spell it out for you??? Just get him to reveal His plan!. . .If you can, do the--" Just then a thought pops into his head and he begins pacing onstage as he brainstorms, "Here! I know what to do!--I can't believe I didn't think of this before! When I had my one-on-one with Him, I kept qualifying His title with an 'if,' as in, 'if you are the Son of God,' and that didn't work, because it was too easy to brush off! It wasn't in-your-face enough!" Satan stops pacing, looks at the demon, and starts wagging his finger, "What you need to do is look Him right in the face and, as eloquently as you can, get him to divulge His secrets!"
"But how--" Nudge. "--Sir?"
At this point, Satan ignores the demon's ineptitude because he is so excited with his super intelligent plot, "Try calling Him. . ." He puts a hand to his chin and then releases it, "The Messiah!--No, no, that's not grandiose enough. . .Try, 'The. . .The Holy One of God'!--Yes!!!--and see where that gets you!" Satan claps for emphasis and then crosses his arms, standing tall, "If you puff Him full of smoke and flattery, maybe that will trip Him up!"
The demon slowly repeats the words, calculating how they feel in his mouth, "The. . .Ho-o-oly Wu-u-un of G--"
Satan interrupts, "--But remember! Be eloquent!. . .Remember what you learned in 'Inhabiting an Atheist Professor' class!"
The demon looks a little confused, but says "Uh. Okay. . .Right. . .Yeah." Then, his face changes to spoiled boredom and he says indignantly, "I can do it. Okay? Whatever. Can I have my cleverphone back now?"
Satan lifts his fist upward and shakes it as he yells, "Intertestiment-tennials!!!"
---------------------------------------
So the demon leaves, finds someone easily inhabitable in the synagogue, and finally the big day comes. He's confident. He's rehearsed his speech a thousand times. . .or at least twice. He has bullet points. He has rebuttals. He even has pauses for laughter. The whole shebang. So he gets his guy to sit down in the midst of the crowd. He's ready. He's golden. Then Jesus comes in. All of a sudden the demon is struck with a strange overwhelm. His guy's heart rate goes up. Just be cool, he whispers to them both inside his guy's head. Jesus starts preaching. But His words are like nothing he, or his guy, have ever heard before. Such authority. Such amazing grace. So. . .truthful. All of a sudden, the demon starts losing his bullet points. . .Wait. What was point one? Was it, "How can there be a loving God if there is pain and suff--?. . .Errrrrr was that point two?. . .Was it. . .Wait. . .Evah. . .No. .. Evo. . .lu-tion?--No, no no! That one doesn't come for another 1800 years!! His guy's palms start to drip from sweat. Wait. . .What's my name again?. . .Not your name, Stupid! Mine! Just then Jesus looks right at him, he panics, and the guy's leg straighten. He's up. Oh no. Everyone is looking. No going back now. And he blurts out,
"What do you want with us, Jesus?. . . .To destroy us??" . . .Wait. . .that wasn't right!. . .Idiot! Just keep going. Oh! I remember now, "I know who you are! The Holy One of God!" Yes! There! At least I did something right!--err--wrong. . .?
And then his guy thinks to himself, "Well, that's it for me here. Guess I better see if they're hiring in Damascus!"
[Aaaaaand. . .Scene!]
Okay, I'm pretty sure that's not how it went. . .
Still, how completely gauche and pedestrian is it to blurt out "Why are you here??? To destroy us???" Seriously. Giving away the punch line before the joke is even told? No class at all. How can you scare Someone who clearly scares you and fills you with such paranoia?
The stupidity of hell.
Lastly, look at this demon's tactic: He tries to intimidate Jesus by "blowing His cover." It's like he's taking the glasses off Clark Kent and everyone is supposed to gasp in horror or something. "I know who you are--The Holy One of God!!!" This, of course, is what is so hilarious about that statement: In trying to "out" Jesus, he is actually helping to solidify Jesus' Messiah-ship. How many non-believers became believers that day just because of this demon? Answer: Plenty of them did. (Spoiler Alert: Skip ahead to verse 27.) Way to go, Satan. Playing right into God's hands.
As per usual.
That's the thing about Jesus, Y'all. You can tell me that Jesus was just a good man, and that He's nothing special. So why do demons react to Him like this, then? Why do people who reject Jesus reject Him so much?
In the words of Billy Shakespeare, "Methinks thou dost protest too much. . ."
The Verse
Mark 1:23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out,
My Paraphrase
Suddenly, a demonized man in the synagogue started yelling,
My Thoughts
This a very short verse, but there is a lot of serious ramification within it. The first thought that hits me is this: So. . .what was this man doing in the synagogue? Did he just wander in from off the street? I kind of think that isn't the case because I think the Scripture would have said, "Just then a man wandered in from off the street," right? There is no reason necessarily to think this was some hobo coming in to cause a ruckus. So, I'm pretty sure this guy was a regular attender. He was a man "in their synagogue." I read several versions to verify the wording, and all of them suggest that this guy had been in the synagogue the entire time--like the entire time that Jesus was up there amazing the crowd at His authoritative teaching! Isn't that crazy? I mean, the entire time Jesus--Son of God, Creator, and Promised Messiah--is up there preaching His heart out, there is a demon-possessed man sitting there like a ticking time bomb! This begs the question: If a possessed man can sit through the teaching and be in the physical presence of Jesus Christ Himself, and no preacher today even comes close to Jesus: How many demonized people do we have currently sitting in our midst? Also: How many of us are demon-possessed/oppressed and don't even know it? Doesn't it seem really out of place for demon possession to occur WITHIN the walls of, what one would assume to be, spiritual protection? If a man can be demonized within the church--breathing the same air as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ--then, really, that means none of us is safe, right?
Did the rest of the people know this guy was demon-possessed or was this a surprise to them? If this man was a regular, did anyone ever question him? Did they whisper to themselves at home behind his back? Did anyone ever try to confront the evil spirit? Or did the man simply hide it from everyone? Was the man even aware of his possession until that moment? There are a lot of unanswered questions, but two really important answers jump out at me:
(1) Demon-possession can happen within the church. Not everyone who goes to church is a Christian, after all, and even Christians can be oppressed. (2) If it can happen in the presence of Jesus Christ, it can DEFINITELY happen (and most probably--and obviously--is happening) in our churches today!
This means we need to educate ourselves with how properly to deal with demons and evil spirits. Ignoring them or downplaying them is the same as enabling them.
I think the best teachings I have ever heard about demon-possession and demonic oppression are a sermon series called "Free Indeed" by Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church. (You can listen/watch the series by clicking the words "Free Indeed" above. They are in order from the bottom to the top.) He explains really well how believers can come under oppression a lot more easily than we may think. He also gives practical and helpful information about how to bind these spirits for good. (You really need to watch it if you haven't already.)
Anyways, my last thought here is how humbling it is that this first encounter with a demon in the Book of Mark wasn't out among the graves, nor in a house of tax collectors and sinners. Instead, it was within a place of worship. That is very telling and should give us all pause.
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