Jesus came…to destroy the works of the evil one
I take been standing my teaching at New Wine (Hub 1, 2.xxx pm each day) on the question of 'Why Jesus came…' based on sayings in the gospels in which Jesus states his purpose in these terms. We begin past exploring Jesus saying 'I have come to preach [expert news]…' and then reflected on Jesus' saying 'I take come up to phone call sinners to repentance' (Mark 2.17, Luke 5.32).
This 3rd saying doesn't quite come on Jesus' lips himself, merely from a poetry in one John and from the proverb of someone on the receiving cease (every bit information technology were) of Jesus' ministry building. The verse is i John 3.viii:
For this reason Christ was revealed: to destroy all the works of the evil one.
When I became a Christian as a teenager, and avidly read the writings of David Watson, this verse was i of his 'top 10' memory verses for new Christians. I am not sure that information technology would exist in a top x today—and practise we still encourage the learning of memory verses?! I also remember that it was in a well-known chorus, and over again I wonder why we don't sing more than scripture in our songs. We might remember that this text was near 'spiritual warfare' or 'deliverance' ministry building—only in fact the context in 1 John is the relatively mundane question of holy living and not beingness led astray in our agreement of God.
Simply a similar phrase comes on the lips of the man possessed by an unclean spirit right at the beginning of Marker's account of Jesus' public ministry in Marker 1.24:
What exercise you lot desire with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you lot come to destroy united states of america? I know who you are—the Holy Ane of God!
In this section of the gospel, Mark appears to have pulled together a range of incidents in guild to offer the states a typical 'day in the life' of Jesus' ministry building. This pattern is expanded in chapter 4 and 5, where we meet Jesus preaching the good news (in the grade of a parable), driving out demons, raising the expressionless (Jairus' daughter) and healing (the woman with an issue of blood)—the aforementioned kind of blueprint of ministry that Jesus calls the disciples to in Marking 6 (and in parallel in Luke 9 and 10).
Jesus' run into with spirit-possession is explored in particular in the run into with the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5.1–xx. It is worth reflecting why it is, in such a short gospel, Mark tells usa this story in such detail, merely does not tell us more stories about these kind of incidents. I retrieve the but reasonable conclusion is that he offers this every bit an archetypal business relationship of such incidents; in one case we sympathize what is going on here, and then nosotros volition understand the dynamic of this aspect of Jesus' ministry. Marking offers us a kind of taxonomy of evil—a description of what the presence of the Evil Ane effects in a person's life, and how Jesus' ministry addresses that.
There are several things to note from a careful reading. First, the language of 'crossing the lake' occurs eight times in Mark, and refers non to crossing the centre of Galilee but traversing its top department, which takes Jesus from Jewish territory proper into and out of gentile territory. The gentile Decapolis region is where the story ends. This is role of Mark's interest in boats, fishing and fishermen; there is something distinctly 'fishy' nigh this gospel, which is evidence of Peter'south centre-witness testimony behind it.
Second, the story is really chaotic. Although Mark appears to be giving us an orderly account, things are really out of social club—the man shouts at Jesus in verse 7 simply we discover that Jesus has already been commanding the spirit out of him in verse 8. It is a chaotic encounter which must have looked similar a shouting match of sorts—and offers a challenge for anyone reading this passage out loud to capture this sense of chaotic struggle.
This points to the third dynamic—in that location is a mighty ability struggle at the centre of this encounter. It is highlighted by Mark's repeated emphasis on the man's strength, and he acts every bit a kind of literalising of the metaphor of the 'strong human' in Jesus' earlier dispute with the Jerusalem authorities in Mark three.22–29. The power dynamic pits the homo confronting the local people, it pits the man confronting Jesus, and of course it pits the ministry of Jesus against the presence of the unclean spirit(s). Nosotros need to be aware that the use of power in a spiritual or religious context is highly contested in our culture at the moment, with New Wine being named by some antagonists as a place of potential spiritual abuse because of education virtually the Holy Spirit—which is itself a cultural ability play. Simply we besides demand to call back that the (correct) utilize of ability is part of Jesus' ministry building and calling to us. Luke, in particular, focuses on the importance of power in Jesus' ministry.
Finally, there is the meaning presence of dissociation. The man has become cut off from his community—and it is striking that the end of this episode is focused emphatically and rather surprisingly on Jesus restoring him to the place he has come from, sending him home in every sense of the discussion. There is dissociation of the homo from his body, as he cuts and harms himself, and dissociation from the forces at work in him, as the vocalization of the unclean spirit(due south) speak to Jesus in verse 9. These dynamics of dissociation are very axiomatic in our world, with fractured communities and broken relationship, the apparent rise of mental health issue, individualism, and the defining of the self detached from actual identity at the heart of the debates virtually sexuality and transgender ideology. There is no sense in which I am suggesting that any of these things are the result of 'demon possession' but Marker is telling is the impact of Jesus' ministry on this circuitous range of bug.
We live with a long suspicion of claims virtually the spiritual realm in our materialist culture. Rudolph Bultmann, the highly influential German New Testament scholar, in one case declared that 'we cannot believe in the world of demons and spirits and the world of electrical lite at the aforementioned time' and this assumption was behind his programme to 'demythologise' the gospels and translate them into a bulletin about existential decision in response to the (contentless?) message of Jesus. But most scholarship now recognises that the business relationship of Jesus' ministry building of deliverance is theologically at one with his healing and his annunciation of the kingdom.
In Luke 13.ten–16, we encounter Jesus healing a woman on the Sabbath who has been bent over for 18 years. Luke introduces her condition in 'spiritual' terms, 'a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for xviii years' (Luke 13.xi) but that appears to be a theological judgement and not a phenomenal description. In all other ways this appears to be a 'straightforward' healing—yet Jesus likewise describes this illness as something past which 'Satan has bound her' (Luke 13.16).
The connection between aspects of Jesus' ministry and the presence of the kingdom of God is made even clearer in the primal verse Luke xi.20 = Matt 12.28:
If by the finger/Spirit of God I drive out demons, and then the kingdom of God has come up amongst y'all.
Jesus is here claiming that God himself, the one God of Israel, is nowadays in his ministry, that in Jesus the king of the kingdom has come, and that in his ministry building of deliverance the rule and reign of God is present. In other words, wherever Jesus exercises authority, Satan is dethroned.
We ofttimes miss the connectedness here, but it is at the heart of Christian prayer. When we pray every bit Jesus taught us 'Your kingdom come…' we go along to pray 'Evangelize us from the evil one' though this is disguised in most English versions that reduce this to a general statement near evil rather than a reference to the devil himself (the definitely article is present in the Greek text). And it is expressed in quite hit terms in John's gospel:
Now is the time for judgment on this earth; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the world, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12.31–33)
According to John, information technology is on the cantankerous that Jesus is enthroned and God'south glory is revealed. And when Jesus is enthroned, Satan is dethroned. This is office of the basic shape of NT theology, expressed in the language of the ii ages, 'this historic period' where there is sin and sickness, which is ruled past the 'prince of power of the air' (Eph two.2), and the 'age to come up' initiated by the resurrection of Jesus in which God is king. That is why Paul is articulate that our struggle is 'not with flesh and blood, only with the principalities and powers' (Eph half dozen.12)—but also that the boxing has been won by Jesus, who disarmed them in the cantankerous and resurrection (Col 2.fifteen).
The Book of Revelation offers the same theological perspective, but makes explicit the implicit connection with the political realm.
At present have come the conservancy and the ability and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. (Rev 12.10)
Here we see the triumph of the cross and resurrection (summarised in the male person child snatched up in Rev 12.five) bringing nigh the defeat of Satan, and then that there 'is now no condemnation' (Rom eight.i)—just the work of Satan on earth is continued by the 'beast from the body of water', a metaphor from Daniel seven of Roman Imperial power. This connects with Republic of chad Meyers' political reading of Mark 5, noting that the language of 'legion' used by the demons is borrowed from military images of Roman occupation of Judea and Samaria.
The good news is non and then much that 'God is honey' but that 'Jesus is Lord'. As the male monarch of the kingdom of God, he has cleaved the power of Satan and destroyed his works, including works of sin and sickness, brokenness of lives and communities. Jesus has the authority to restore what is broken in every aspect of human life, and he invites us to share that authority and join the work of restoration as his kingdom is made known.
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