Adapted for the people of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Adell from a message included in the Concordia Publishing House Lenten Series For Us

Healing From Demons

Text: Mark 5:1-13

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Tonight, we’ll continue looking at the themes from our hymn “O Love, How Deep” and how our enemies, the demons, rage against us.

We talked about angels during Midweek of Lent 1 and demonstrated how Jesus, in becoming man, makes Himself a little lower than the angels, and yet is the ultimate servant of all as the Son of Man.

But there’s no real discussion about angels without including demons. Demons, after all, are fallen angels. They followed Satan when he was cast from heaven. They aren’t TV characters; they aren’t cartoons with red pointy tails and horns. They are very real and nothing to scoff at.

The account before us in the Gospel Reading from Mark 5 demonstrates this all too well. As an agent of death, this unclean spirit had possessed this man who was most at home among death and the grave, and no one could do a thing about it. No amount of shackles or chains could restrain this man with a demon. The poor man was completely helpless, trapped in this awful plight. All the demon wanted to do was torture and hurt the man.

Why do demons hate us? They hate us because God became one of us. They hate us because Christ, the Son of God and Son of Mary, became human flesh and blood. He came to defeat sin and death and hell, and Jesus did so by becoming one of us and one with us.

So, when this demon sees Jesus from afar, he knows that his time is up. He knows that his possession of this man is going to be cut short. Miraculously though, he goes to plead with Jesus: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me.” The demon knows who Jesus is, so he implores Jesus to swear that he would not be tormented.

At first glance, perhaps we might have sympathy for this demon. After all, what did he do besides simply dwell in this man? But make no mistake. This demon wanted nothing more than to hurt and harm not only the man but also everything and everyone around him. It wasn’t a game at all.

In a way, we often treat our pet sins, our temptations, and even our worst sins much like this demon. After all, they aren’t that bad, are they? Go on to other things, that sinful voice may say. Go on and deal with other problems. The demon will be there when the time comes.

This, however, is not how our Lord addresses the demon. Jesus quite simply says, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” The twentieth century pastor and theologian Hermann Sasse put it this way:

Every pastor knows, or should know, that there are cases when a discussion is impossible and the only answer to a question can be that “Be gone, Satan!” which Jesus spoke not only to the devil but also to his faithful confessor, Simon Peter. Not every question can be settled by means of a friendly discussion. This is necessary to remember in an age which has a superstitious belief in dialogue as the infallible means of settling everything. There are questions raised by the devil to destroy the church of Christ.

What this means in plain English is that you don’t argue with a demon. You simply tell it to be silent and go away.

This doesn’t only apply to literal demons, of course. It also applies to the temptations, the nagging problems and weaknesses that we each have. We want to rationalize. We want to talk about it, be reasonable, and try to come up with some compromise that will allow us to keep on sinning, to keep on living in the domain of Satan and the world. After all, it’s only a little thing. How bad can it be? How many problems can it really cause?

This is why Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” At some point, you have to simply own that the problem is nothing short of satanic and that it must be cast out.

So, may that be your goal. Cast out the temptations and the little demons that seem to have you caught up in yourself. Repent, turn around, and leave them behind you. You don’t need them. Christ has already died for them, so they are no longer yours but His. Recognize that those things that you cling to, the things that bring you down and cause you no end of trouble, they can be gone. As surely as the sun rises in the east, Christ has taken your sin into Himself. And Jesus Christ says to them all, “Come out of him,” “Come out of her, for she is mine.”

When you come to recognize the work Jesus does, your view of the world, your life, indeed everything begins to change. You begin to see how God orders all things so that you might be saved by faith and trust in Him.

Come and receive the forgiveness of sins given to you from this altar. From these words, God gives you peace that passes all understanding, a conscience at rest, and a life restored. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.