God’s Word for You
Mark 5:2 a man with an unclean spirit
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, September 11, 2022
2 When Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came from the tombs and met him there.
What are unclean spirits? Are they demons? And why do demons inhabit or possess human beings?
First of all: Yes, demons are unclean spirits. Let’s identify what the demons used to be (or goblins, as Luther liked to call them). The demons were once good angels, who fell from God’s grace sometime after the creation took place but before Adam and Eve were tempted (2 Peter 2:4). They revolted against God, perhaps on account of pride. “Pride,” Solomon says, “goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18), and the devil tried to tempt Jesus in a way that betrays his overblown pride: “Bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). Their rebellion was caused by their abuse of freedom, that is, the innate freedom that the angels originally had, to obey God. Since the fall of Satan and his angels, they (the demons and the devil) are capable only of sin, and they exist in a kind of madness, an insane desire to ruin God’s creation at all times and in any way that they can, because they can no longer be saved, unlike a human being who is lost in sin or unbelief (Hebrews 6:4-6).
The kingdom of the devil is organized in some way, since the head of that realm, the devil, is called “prince” (John 12:31). The dark lies of the devil hold that kingdom together, for he is the father of lies, as Jesus says (John 8:44). In his madness and the loss of his angelic reason, he suppresses the truth about God. Even though he knows that God exists (James 2:19), he doesn’t want to admit it, and so his peculiar possession is the lie.
A distinct work of the devil and the demons (who generally slander God’s glory and hinder his good will) is possession. There are two kinds of possession. First, that a fallen angel (whether devil or demon) has a person completely in his power, and makes that person into his obedient tool. This is bodily possession (Matthew 9:32). Such actions frequently rob the person of one or more faculties: “My son is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech” (Mark 9:17). But it may also give the person seemingly superhuman strength (as we will see in Mark 5:4) and drive the poor person to harm himself (Mark 5:5).
The second kind of possession is spiritual possession. This is when a demon actually enters into a person and fills that person’s spirit with its own, so that the person is incapable of obeying God any longer. “Ananias,” Peter said, “how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 5:3). There is also the horrible example of Judas Iscariot: “Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve” (Luke 22:3). Paul describes such spiritual possession this way: “the spirit (the ruler of the kingdom of the air) is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).
Demon possession is a judgment of God, and so spiritual possession seems to be a kind of sin against the Holy Spirit, where a person has given up on God and his forgiveness to the extent that they have held open the door of their heart, so to speak, for a demon to enter, for which Judas justly serves as an example. The cases of the possession of children and other helpless persons, that is, cases of bodily possession (not spiritual possession) are profound tests of faith for the parents of those children, who often brought their loved ones to Jesus. Other times, such as the one before us here in Mark 5, the man with the unclean spirit came down the hill to meet Jesus as he stepped out of the boat.
We will see why the demon did this in verse 7. It was not to attack Jesus, but on account of it’s complete absorption of the lies of its fiendish master the Devil. The thing is not to be pitied, but it was incapable of reason or logical thought in any way. It came to Jesus because it had no choice at all, like a moth to a flame, or in this case, a bug to a bug-zapper.
We, too, are drawn to Jesus, but for a better reason. We are not petrified of his punishment, but hopeful and even certain of his forgiveness. You see, everything and absolutely everything revolves finally around Jesus. He is truly Lord and Master of all. When he draws you, do not hesitate: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up” (John 6:44). Run to Jesus and never trust the old liar the devil who is never your friend. Those who reject Jesus will be lost forever. “They will be like the demons,” an early Christian Father wrote, meaning that they will suffer the same fate (Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans 2:1). Jesus is the one upright man in a thousand, and it is Jesus who makes us upright in God’s sight (Ecclesiastes 7:28-29). He has given us what no demon, and not even the devil, will ever have: the forgiveness of our sins, and the gift of everlasting life in heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.