Why Demons Feared Jesus
During Jesus' first sermon some demons show up and immediately get defensive--as though Jesus was coming after them. What was their deal?
Here’s a photo of three men. Can you identify and/all three?
At the end of this post I’ll share why I’ve included this trio of pastors.
But first… if you’re just now tuning in, lately we’ve been exploring a brief story from Mark 1:21-27.
Thus far we’ve established:
this was Jesus’ first sermon and it blew people’s minds,
then a demon shows up (aka, an evil spirit.. aaka, better understood as “the spirit or ideology of uncleanliness”)
Jesus rebukes the spirit (and by “rebuke” it is meant…)
Bonus: if you feel compelled to do any rebuking, read this first
But let’s go back now and unpack the confrontation between the spirit and Jesus because I’m interested in the question:
Why did this demon/spirit have an issue with Jesus?
Notice how it is the evil/unclean spirit who speaks first to Jesus,
“Let us be. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy/abolish/put-an-end to us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”
-Mark 1:24
Two questions: First, who is this “us/we?”
Let us be? What have we do to with you?!
And second: Why this bro trippin? (Sorry to gender the spirit here, but most of the, ugh, mean-spirited energy I get online from people are almost always Bro’s… so I guess it just tracks for me)
Jesus was just minding his business, teaching folks in the synagogue, and Mark doesn’t give us any indication that he was, you know, coming at this guy. But the guy (or rather, the spirit within the guy) reacts to Jesus with this defensive manner as though he’s just been attacked.
To the first question about plurality…
On one hand, demons/evil spirits in the age of the NT were often referred to in a plural sense (see: Legion). Likely this was in accordance to the ancient mindset of how they would talk about the spirit world. Speaking in plurality was merely a reflection of how they viewed the world.
But let me take that a step further.
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