Demons

 Most of us don't talk about demons these days. The gospels, though, talk about them all the time. Maybe we should take them a little bit more seriously. This sermon examines a story in which Jesus threw a demon out of a possessed man; and the ways that we are all possessed by demons.

It’s a jarring scene, isn’t it? (Mark 1:21-28) One moment, worship is humming along smoothly, everything going as planned; while the next moment, somebody is standing up screaming things at the preacher! That’s not the way that things are supposed to go at all. But that’s what happened in the very first Sabbath service that Jesus attended after he called his disciples. At least, that’s the way that the Gospel of Mark tells the story. Nothing was out of the ordinary when Jesus and his disciples visited the little synagogue at Capernaum. They went in; they sat down; and Jesus, as a visiting rabbi, was invited to preach that day’s sermon. Everything was going very well. Jesus impressed the congregation not only with his familiarity with the scriptures, but with the confidence of his teaching. “Wow!” the people said to one another, “This guy knows what he’s talking about! He’s giving us new insight into the scriptures that we thought we knew! Maybe they aren’t just old and dusty texts, after all. Maybe they have something to say to us today! It sounds like there are some things that we really need to think about!”

That’s when things got messy. Right in the middle of the sermon, somebody stood up and started yelling. Mark tells us that it was a man with “an unclean spirit” – a junior-grade demon. Unclean spirits aren’t the kind of demons that make people cut themselves, rip their clothing off, and run off to live in a graveyard. No, unclean spirits are vague shadows that crawl inside you and curl up in your mind. They grab you by the hair and refuse to let go. People with unclean spirits look just like everybody else, but they are held in the grip of something that makes them see Jesus as the enemy instead of as the Savior. When they encounter Jesus and hear what he has to say to us, instead of feeling a sense of peace and love, they are angry and afraid. This man saw Jesus not as a blessing, but as a threat. That’s why he yelled at Jesus, “What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us?” That was the demon talking; and that demon was very unhappy! He knew that Jesus had the power to throw him out and send him on his way – which is exactly what happened!

These days, we don’t talk much about demons. We are much more likely to blame poor choices or bad habits for the things that we do. But maybe we shouldn’t pooh-pooh demons quite so quickly. I’m pretty sure that they are still around, causing all kinds of trouble for us. Who are these unclean spirits, anyway? They’re more familiar than we might think they are. All of us deal with at some of them at one time or another; recognizing them is a very good thing to do. After all, when one of them decides to take up residence in our head, we’d like to be able to send him on his way as soon as possible! This morning, I want to introduce you to three demons that make our lives miserable. They’re easy to remember, because their names all begin with “D,” just like the word “Demon.”

The first demon is “Denial.” His nickname is “Not me!” Denial blinds us to problems that are perfectly obvious to everyone else, but that we refuse to admit we have. Denial wants us to ignore the facts, and cling to our long-cherished opinions. Addicts are the poster children for Denial. One of my dear friends is a recovering alcoholic, many years sober, but she tells me that she had to hit bottom before she would admit that she had a problem. She said the things that every other alcoholic says: “I’m not an alcoholic. I just drink every now and then to relax. I can quit whenever I want to; I just don’t want to quit right now.” She ignored the fact that she drank every single day until she passed out; and that she was incapable of quitting without help. The demon Denial had a tight hold on her, until one day, she realized that she was going nowhere fast. When she attended an AA meeting where everyone else knew Denial very well, she was finally able to send him packing.

The second demon is Denial’s brother. His name is “Diversion,” and his nickname is “Yes, but.” Diversion is just as bad as Denial. Diversion allows us to recognize that we have a problem, but he quickly shifts the focus to something else so that we never deal with that problem. Do you have a problem with your temper? Diversion allows you to admit it, but then says to you, “Yes, but my temper isn’t as bad as my neighbor’s is.” Diversion is really just a sneaky way of telling yourself that you are better than somebody else. If you pull the mask off Diversion, you will find that underneath all of Diversion’s deception, he is Arrogance in disguise. If you have a problem, don’t give that problem on to somebody else! It’s YOUR problem, no matter what other people may be struggling with! Don’t worry about what anybody else is doing!

The third demon might be the worst one of all, though. His name is Despair, and his nickname is “It’s useless.” Despair snatches away the hope that things might ever change. The alcoholic moans, “I’ll never be able to quit drinking,” and the bad-tempered person cries, “I’ll never learn to control my temper.” The demon of Despair whispers that we’ll never, ever be able to change, so we might as well give up; and he keeps whispering that same thing over and over and over again. And pretty soon, guess what? We give up and resign ourselves to trouble for the rest of our lives, because… well, it’s useless. But Despair is a liar! With God’s help, things CAN change, and often do.

These three demons cause more trouble in the world than we realize. In fact, they cause more trouble in our own lives than we realize! When we are blind to our own faults – and we all are – we are under the spell of the Denial demon; and when we look at other people and say, “At least I’m not THAT bad!” we are under the spell of the Diversion demon. And we have all fought with the Despair demon over the past year as COVID has ravaged the world and political divisions have torn us apart! These three demons work together to make our lives difficult. Here’s how they do it. Let me focus on a situation that isn’t that uncommon. Let’s say that the doctor tells you that you need to lose weight for the sake of your health. Uh, oh. How do you react? My first reaction would be, “No, I don’t!” Denial is the very first demon to take a crack at me. After the doctor shows me the facts, I move rapidly to, “Well, at least I’m not as heavy as some people are!” That’s Diversion’s voice. If my doctor is wise, he’ll keep my mind on my own weight, not on someone else’s. And even before I leave the office, Despair will be trying to convince me that I’ll never be able to lose that weight, so why should I even try? One Demon hands the lies off to the next as deftly as a runner in a relay race hands off the baton! Believe me, friends, those demons are good at this!

Now, my point is not to accuse any of you of being obese. I simply want to open your eyes to the demons that keep us where we are and prevent us from becoming the people that Jesus wants us to be. Denial, Diversion, and Despair don’t want us to live the free, fulfilled lives that God intends for us to live, because if we did, they would be out of a job! They don’t even want us to know that they exist, so they hide under statements like, “Things have always been this way,” or “It’s the way that I was brought up,” or even, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Statements like those keep us from believing in the possibilities that God offers us.

“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” the demon in Capernaum shouted. “Have you come to destroy us?” Yes, absolutely! Jesus has come to throw out all the demons that make our lives miserable, so that our lives can be joyful, peaceful, and free. And now that you know these three demons – Denial, Diversion, and Despair – I invite you to ask Jesus to throw them out of your life, even if you don’t think that they are there. He will be only too happy to send them packing. Thanks be to God!