The story of Jesus exorcising demons is challenging for the modern reader. The real question is what is Mark trying to show us?
the point beyond the miracle
Epiphany 5B | Mark 1:29-39
“That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.”
Waiting, watching, expecting something. What? A miracle? Hope? Something other than the inevitable?
These people gather, huddling around the door, to see the magic happen.
Mark is an under appreciated storyteller. His style is sparse and direct. Jesus is always moving. The narrative is always pushing forward. And then, and then, and then! But here, we get this brief pause.
Jesus has just called his first disciples: Andrew, Simon (Peter), James, and John. Then they went to a synagogue. I suppose to fish for people. A synagogue in which a man was tormented by a demon. A demon that recognized Jesus. And Jesus drove him out.
They left and went Andrew and Simon’s house. And it is there that Simon’s mother-in-law is sick (OK, there’s totally a story there, isn’t there? And we’re supposed to skip over it! Andrew and Simon are brothers, and this is Simon’s mother-in-law? I’m just saying I’m curious!). And Jesus invites her out of bed and she is healed.
So much happens in these few verses. But we arrive to them with the sense of urgency to move on because the details are not the point. This moment is, itself, not the point. Something bigger, more important is happening. Keep moving! Follow along!
But here is where we slow down. That evening, after the synagogue and the healing of the mother-in-law. That is when the people gather. When they bring people to Jesus. This one evening. It is beginning.
This moment is different.
And it is different because the evangelist tells it different. He tells it slow (at least slow for Mark). He names the day and time. He’s trying to show us that what is about to happen is important.
I think that this is the moment when people start to believe. Because they act on their belief. They bring people to him.
We might like the action in the synagogue. Or the miracle moments ago with Simon’s Mom. But these are not the thing we are to take particular note of.
We are gathering now around the door of this gospel to see what is happening. Not because our belief is so important, but because belief is just the invitation. It isn’t the destination—it’s the ticket. The way in. And it draws us to that door to see what happens there.
Miracle upon miracle.
Perhaps this is what distracts us. This sounds like more of the same. The stuff we just read about in the synagogue and Andrew and Simon’s house. Healing and exorcizing of demons. When we know the story, this might sound like more of the same.
But talking about Jesus healing people isn’t the point of the story.
The people were coming to believe. And they brought the people they love to Jesus to be healed. This is why we slow down. So we can see the pattern.
It’s about the invitation.
Person after person, bringing a loved one to be healed. The tormented to be relieved. Offering life and hope.
It’s about the demons.
The demons know Jesus, which, the evangelist says, is why Jesus silences them. Which is totally curious, isn’t it?
It’s about Jesus leaving.
And his disciples searching for him. Leaving to pray, alone. And for his followers to look and to find. The people want more. Of course they do.
Which is why it’s also about Jesus widening the circle.
Not just this one town with all of its people. But the next one. And the one after that.
“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”
We gather to see this. In particular. Not as another healing story. But as a special one. One that teaches and reveals something new and noteworthy.
So let’s talk about the demons.
They know Jesus. They always know Jesus. But why does Jesus silence them? Scholars refer to this as the Messianic Secret. In the gospel according to Mark, Jesus is always telling people not to talk about him. But they do anyway. It’s a big theme for this gospel.
This doesn’t explain why Jesus silences the demons. Or why only demons truly know Jesus.
This will later be something used against Jesus, as his critics pick up on this idea and think Jesus must be into the demonic. But the opposite is the more compelling argument. The demons are totally NOT into Jesus.
It should cause us to slow down and notice that only the demons get who Jesus really is. Everyone else is coming to believe in his power, certainly. He heals people. He saves people. But only the demons get who he is beyond all that.
He is the antidote for all that they desire to do to the world.
So I suspect that silencing them wasn’t only about keeping a secret. Jesus is silencing evil, destruction, selfishness, and hatred. He is silencing what is ailing people to prevent more pain. He is silencing an evil that knows it is evil; a hatred that knows it isn’t love.
They know that Jesus is good and stands in the way of evil. He stands in their way. And is infinitely more dangerous to their mission than anything else.
Jesus doesn’t just keep his mission a secret. He actively ends the tyranny of evil.
affliction
I think we can all name demons that afflict us.
The harder part is acknowledging what this story tells us about ourselves. That the demons have an easier time seeing Christ in our midst than we do.
None of us really wants to hear that.
But the evangelist shows us this moment through the lens of the outsiders, the newcomers, the inspired who gather at the door to see something miraculous. Not because the miracle is the point, but so that we can turn, learn, and then…pray, worship, bless, go, rest. To follow Jesus’s Way of Love.
Not just to believe but to accept the invitation to invite others in. To save them, too.
And brick by brick, we build the kin-dom right where we are.