“Demons,” and other words that matter
The gospel of Mark moves fast. Today’s passage comes from the first chapter, and already Jesus has been baptized by his cousin, resisted temptation from Satan while in the wilderness, begun his ministry, called his first disciples, removed an unclean spirit from an afflicted man, and grown famous in Galilee. Now we find Jesus doing what I like to refer to as “Jesus-y things.” He heals Simon’s mother-in-law, as well as many who come to the door afflicted with illness and demons; he goes to a deserted place to pray; and then he continues to teach in synagogues around Galilee, casting out demons along the way. As he says to his disciples, that is what he came to do.
Jesus clearly had a heart for the afflicted. Even when they were lined up at his door or approached him in crowds, Jesus took time to heal them. They didn’t need to listen to a lesson first, prove that they were gainfully employed, or show proof of insurance. God’s son wanted people to be well.
Judging from today’s passage, being well involved being free from demons and unclean spirits. We might use those terms interchangeably, but if you look at the Greek, different words are used, πνεύμα for spirit and δαιμόνια for demons. The translators aren’t just mixing up the terms to add flavor.
Writing about related beliefs from that context, biblical scholar Raquel Lettsome says “the world was believed to be inhabited by spirits, which were mainly malevolent in nature. Both Judaism and the pagan religions of the Greco-Roman world saw the need for people to be freed from the power of unclean spirits [or] demons. In Judaism, the presence of unclean spirits symbolized the struggle between God and the forces of evil.” (Lettsome, loc. 40333)
The author of Mark wasn’t introducing the idea of demons to the culture; they were a pre-existing condition. (That’s another factor Jesus ignored in his healing practice.)
Belief in demons continued into later writings, such as The Testament of Solomon, which dates between the first and third century CE. Biblical scholar Warren Carter writes that in that text, demons are presented “as the devil’s agents involved in every area of life and attacking people, human society, and God’s purposes in all sorts of destructive ways. For example, demons seek ‘destruction by means of tyrants . . . jealousies and murders . . . [they] instigate wars.’ Another demon says, ‘I create divisions among people. . . . I set fields on fire. . . . I make households non-functional.’ Other demons enact murder and infect with diseases. Exorcisms, then, defeat their power and societal damage.” (Carter, 123)
So the author of Mark was making a statement when writing about the exorcisms Jesus performed. They weren’t just about restoring individuals to a state of wellness; they demonstrated the presence of the Holy Spirit in Jesus, and “a sign that the present evil age [was] coming to an end.” (Perkins, 407) I like how Carter puts it: The good news of God’s . . . reign leaves no place for demons. It is bad news for them.” (Carter, 124)
Something else made clear in this and similar passages is that the demons know who Jesus is. They recognize him as the Son of God even as the religious authorities bearing witness to his ministry do not. And it appears Jesus wants to keep that a secret for the time being. He has a plan for revealing the entirety of his message; it wasn’t to be realized all at once. But for the time being one part of his mission was to, as scholar Donald Juel puts it, “plunder Satan’s house,” (Juel, 71) one demon at a time.
Part of me hesitated to talk about demons in this week’s reflection. Demons aren’t a topic that comes up in polite conversation. Scholar Nicole Duran writes that “to believe in demons in the United States is to be marginalized by the dominant culture. To say from within the dominant American culture that you or someone you know is possessed by demons is to risk being institutionalized.” (Duran, 38)
I hope we’re on good enough terms that you don’t consider such measures for me, and perhaps I should start by saying I don’t have any tales of a personal encounter with demons. But I do have some stories to share.
The last overnight shift of my chaplaincy work was particularly difficult. I had spent hours with a family whose teenage son was dying as a result of a motorcycle accident, and was back in the chaplain’s office after the parents departed the hospital. Not long after that, I received a call from the emergency department. A patient had asked to speak to the chaplain, so I headed to her room. She told me that she had been tormented by demons, and asked that I bring her a Bible. I did so right away, and it seemed to provide her with relief.
Was she in fact tormented by demons? I can’t say for sure, but they were a reality for her. Chaplains are taught to respect every patient’s theology (or hostility toward theology), so I acted accordingly. Something was tormenting the patient, and the best remedy I could offer was the Bible she requested.
Some of you might have heard me mention the partnership I have with an organization that matches me with people who seek help online. Many of the folks with whom I’m matched are struggling with depression or relationship issues, and some are just in search of a faith community. But once in a while, people reach out because they feel the presence of an evil power in their lives. Some mention demons, others mention spirits, and others mention something along the lines of “the enemy.” When they do, I try to meet them where they are, praying that they will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that they will be free of the forces causing them distress.
Some might frown on this acknowledgment, but something I’ve learned over time is that God is bigger than my reality and my culture. Duran writes that “Western thought cannot accept that there might in fact be a spiritual force (as opposed to a chemical or sociological force) acting upon this person. The West has been distinguished by its veneration of the (Western) subject.” (Duran, 40) But at the end of the day, God is God and I am not. Thankfully, I’m not responsible for deciding where the boundaries of reality fall.
At the same time, I’m not insisting that demons are real. I remember being terrified as a child of an image of Satan that I saw at church, and I don’t think that contributed positively to my spiritual development. The church has abused such imagery over the years, and just last week I heard a story of a pastor who told some parents that their son had a demon. My intent today is not to cause similar harm.
But if you believe in demons, you have company — the writer of Mark’s gospel clearly does. Duran says that “reading over the demons in the Gospels could have negative ethical effects, negating or patronizing the experience of many contemporary cultures as well as the ancient culture embedded in the text.” (Duran, 43) Ours is not the only culture on earth, and there are some today that incorporate demons in their beliefs.
Something else to consider: Many of us who don’t believe in demons profess belief in the Holy Spirit. She’s mentioned in most creeds and confessions, including the commonly-used Apostle’s Creed. There’s much less stigma attached to that belief, especially in Christian churches. So many folks believe in the Holy Spirit, but not necessarily in unclean spirits, what scholar Pheme Perkins refers to as the “antithesis of the Holy Spirit.” (Perkins, 407)
The language we use matters. Here at Intertwined, we use “faith community” instead of “church,” “gathering” instead of “service,” and “sojourner” instead of “member.” There are reasons behind those choices, and I like to think they better meet our needs than more traditional language.
For some people, “demons” might be a word that helps them make sense of their experiences.
Not so for many Biblical scholars. Duran writes that since the early days of biblical studies, they have “read the Gospel’s demons as something other than what the text assumes them to be.” (Duran, 39) One of the possibilities they raise is that talk of demons is a reference to colonial powers that so often occupied the lands inhabited by scripture authors. By speaking of otherworldly evil spirits, they veiled their sentiments toward those in power. So a demon represented perhaps an occupying soldier, and I’ll let you guess what an exorcism represented.
Why might those in the time of Jesus have been resentful? Carter writes that:
despite claims from various elite writers that Roman rule had healed a sick world, diseases of deprivation and contagion were widespread. For many, procuring adequate nutrition and drinkable water was a daily challenge; perhaps up to 70 percent of the population suffered from varying degrees of food insecurity. Mental health was precarious with numerous factors of stress, including irregular income, unemployment, and poor housing conditions. Infant mortality was high, and lifespans were short. That is, the imperial world with its vast inequalities of wealth, poor living conditions for many, extensive food insecurity, numerous stressors, and significant levels of poverty for many made people sick. Jesus’ healings roll back this imperial damage and repair its negative effects on people’s health. (Carter, 127)
There was a reason people were lined up at the door to be healed by Jesus. Not only were they physically ill; their souls were suffering as well. The gospel that Jesus preached included the promise that the unjust systems behind that suffering would be dismantled. He cast out many demons during his ministry, and passed on that ability to his followers. So whether you consider an exorcism to be the removal of an evil spirit from a possessed person or a “ritual of resistance” (Carter, 123), today’s scripture passage offers much to consider.
Last week, while I was thinking about whether the term “demon” serves a purpose in our society, I ran across the story of the state of Alabama’s execution of a 58-year-old man using nitrogen gas. In case you’ve not heard about it, the authorities in that state were so consumed with the desire to violate the sixth commandment that they used a largely untested method to suffocate the life from one bearing God’s image.
Why didn’t they use lethal injection, you might ask. It seems the companies who produce the needed drugs are no longer willing to sell them to those who would use them to execute others. I’ll say that again: these corporations — entities whose main purpose is to generate revenue — occupy the moral high ground when compared to the 21 states who see capital punishment as a reasonable application of power.
In Deuteronomy 32, God proclaims that “Vengeance is mine.” Sadly, too many of those in power are unwilling to recognize that. They feel entitled to abuse their authority and continue the antiquated and rare practice of capital punishment.
If I were to use the term “demon” in our society, I think I’d find more use for it in a corporate — as opposed to individual — sense. We must be possessed in some way to preclude our own country from the majority that have abandoned capital punishment. Evil spirits must have a grasp on our hearts if we’re willing to dehumanize people to the extent we do in the name of vengeance. We must be in need of a serious exorcism if we incarcerate more of our citizens than any other country.
We like to think that human rights violations largely exist elsewhere, but these numbers from the Equal Justice Initiative suggest otherwise:
- The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of its incarcerated population.
- Our spending on jails and prisons reached $87 billion in 2015, an increase of 1000% from the $7.4 billion spent in 1975.
- In 1972, there were only 200,000 people incarcerated in the United States. Today that number has grown to 2.2 million.
Whether you blame demons, evil spirits, racism, fear, the prison-industrial complex, or a poor interpretation of scripture, it’s clear we have a problem with our unbridled thirst for vengeance.
A few moments ago I mentioned that Jesus not only cast out demons, but he also gave his followers the ability to do the same. So what might it look like to cast out some of the evil inclinations that lead not only to the broad statistics cited above, but also to local manifestations of such injustice like a prisoner dying of hypothermia in Dauphin County Prison? (PennLive)
Perhaps we first need to be willing to see the demons in our midst. Recognizing our societal willingness to execute people as unnatural, problematic, unusual, and immoral, and then naming it as such helps change the narrative around capital punishment. Only then will we have begun following the example of Jesus, truly healing the afflicted and working toward the promise of the gospel.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Works Referenced
Carter, Warren. Mark (Wisdom Commentary Series Book 42). Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2019. Kindle Edition.
Chandler, Kim and Sean Murphy. “Will other states replicate Alabama’s nitrogen execution?” AP News. Accessed February 2, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/nitrogen-execution-alabama-oklahoma-lethal-injection-c088b01aeb581da7bfb73e52aa6caf3f
Duran, Nicole Wilkinson. “Other People’s Demons: Reading Mark’s Demons in the Disbelieving West.” In Mark (Texts @ Contexts), edited by Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Teresa Okure, and Daniel Patte. Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fortress Press, 2011.
Equal Justice Initiative. “Criminal Justice Reform.” Accessed February 2, 2024. https://eji.org/criminal-justice-reform/
Juel, Donald H. A Master of Surprise: Mark Interpreted. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1994.
Lettsome, Raquel S. “Mark.” In Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha, edited by Gale A. Yee, Hugh R. Page, Jr., Matthew J. M. Coomber. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Kindle edition.
Perkins, Pheme. “Mark.” In New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VII. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015.
Wikipedia. “Capital punishment by country.” Accessed February 2, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_country
Wise, Jenna. “Family wants to know why man had hypothermia when he died in county prison.” PennLive. Accessed February 2, 2024. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/02/man-who-died-at-dauphin-county-prison-had-hypothermia-in-62-degree-cell-da.html
