And there was in their synagogue a man [possessed] by an unclean spirit, and he cried out
Mark's Gospel opens with the Servant at work, and His teaching runs straight into conflict. The shock here is not that a man was under an unclean spirit, but where he was sitting — inside the place where God's people met to hear His word.
The setting is the point. The Servant's work begins in the religious sphere, and that is where the enemy shows up.
We are not surprised that the Lord's service in this book of service began in the inner sphere of God's interests — in what people would call the religious sphere. What surprises us is finding an agent of the devil in that circle, an unclean spirit. We might expect to find the unclean spirit in the theatre or the cinema, or moving in business and political circles; but in the synagogue! in the church! Surely not. Yes, there was no doubt about it: the unclean spirit was in the synagogue, and it had a voice there. The rulers of that synagogue may have tried to cast it out, or to bind it into some appearance of decency with chains and fetters. If so, their efforts had failed. The foul spirit was there when Jesus entered the place.
The religious leaders there had never disturbed him.
A man held by a demon could be present there without fear of challenge from the scribes and Pharisees. But the power of the Lord Jesus in His ministry was a threat to the authority of the evil spirit.
The same evil may have been in that room long before this day. It shows itself now because Christ has walked in.
How strikingly these cases of demon possession appeared in the presence of Jesus! As we read the Gospels, we might almost think that every possible case of that time had crowded around Him. But the truth is, there may have been as many before; the presence of divine light brought it all out then. The presence of Jesus, the Son of God, cornered Satan and pulled off the mask that may have hidden his victims before. And we see this to a degree wherever the power of God's truth and holiness are at work.
Teaching with authority is one thing. Driving out an unclean spirit calls for power.
The casting out of the unclean spirit shows another mark of the perfect Servant. If He speaks with authority, His word carries power. In the place of religious profession there was a man with an unclean spirit. The presence of Jesus is intolerable to such.
The man's own words show how closely the spirit had fastened itself to him. What follows is a warning to every reader.
Think of the terrible identification of the unclean spirit with the man, which his language reveals. There is no creature in the universe that offers a den so welcoming to a demon as a sinful human heart. As long as you are far from the Lord, you are near and open to the power or the tricks of the spirit of evil. He is your great enemy; the Lord Jesus is your greater friend.
The Servant's ministry did more than deal with one man. It gave a true reading of the whole nation.
How soon the Evangelist shows that the ministry of the Servant-Prophet brought out the true moral condition of things in Israel! The Light shone into the darkness, and there in the synagogue revealed the hypocritical scribes in the pulpit, and an unclean spirit in the congregation.
The Lord deals with the spirit by speaking. Set His word beside the words of an archangel, and its weight shows.
The Lord acted in His own authority, and did what even Michael the archangel held back from doing. Michael did not dare bring a slanderous accusation against the devil. He said only, "The Lord rebuke you" (Jude 9). Jesus rebuked him and quieted his wild speech with a word. He quieted the howling winds, the tossing waves, and the raging, burning fever with a word like it. Going beyond mere restraint, He commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
- Presence exposed. The spirit sat unchallenged in the synagogue until Christ walked in. His presence pulled off the mask.
- Presence intolerable. The spirit cried out because the presence of Jesus is unbearable to it. The outburst tells you who had walked into the room.
- Presence divides. The light showed up the hypocritical scribes in the pulpit and the unclean spirit in the congregation. Nothing in that room escaped it.
- Presence claims. The man's own words showed how far the spirit had merged with him. A sinful heart is the den a demon looks for.
- Presence delivers. Christ used no more than a word. He silenced the spirit, commanded it out, and the man went free.
saying, Eh! what have we to do with thee, Jesus, Nazarene? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.
A voice interrupts Jesus while He is teaching in the synagogue. It is not a worshipper. It is a demon, and it names Him out loud as the Holy One of God. Why does the clearest statement of who Jesus is come from an unclean spirit? And why does Christ refuse it?
Demon possession shows up again and again around Jesus. One writer explains why.
How strikingly these demonic possessions appeared in the presence of Jesus! As we read the Gospels, we might almost think that every case then existing had crowded around Him. But the truth is, there may have been as many before; the presence of divine light brought it all out then. The presence of Jesus, the Son of God, cornered Satan, and pulled away the mask that had covered his victims. You can see this to some degree wherever the power of God's truth and holiness is at work. Does He raise a flag for truth? Opposition appears at once, and the enemy shows himself.
Where it happened matters. Satan's power showed itself in the place set apart for God.
To meet the power of Satan in such a place was truly remarkable. The Saviour often met demon-possessed people in the outside world. That was a painful reminder that the world is under Satan as its prince. But for a demon to intrude into the very presence of God was extraordinary.
The words come out of a man's mouth, yet the pronouns are plural. One writer hears the demon speaking for himself and for his victim at once.
Until now the unclean spirit had stayed hidden behind the man's personality. He revealed himself by this public statement: "What have we [the man and I] to do with you, Jesus the Nazarene?" The spirit of lying spoke truth, for "what fellowship has light with darkness?" But it was not the whole truth, for Jesus came to deliver man from the authority of darkness (Colossians 1:13).
Note: the ESV reads "What have you to do with us" — the plural is the same. At the end of the verse the demon drops the plural and says "I".
The change of pronoun here is very suggestive. The knowledge of the Holy One belongs to the demon alone. He would draw the man in with him into the dread it inspires, and into the wish to escape Him as a destroyer. Yet this is the very One who is to be the man's Saviour!
The demon knows the highest title, yet addresses Him by the place-name people used to look down on Him.
The demon knew Him to be the Holy One of God. Even so, he used the expression "Jesus of Nazareth," a name men often used to suggest something inferior. He asks whether the Lord had come to destroy them, that is, the demons. For they can understand nothing of grace.
Notice which title the demon never uses.
Demons will not give Him the title of Lord. The evil spirit at Ephesus said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know" (Acts 19:15). He did not say, "the Lord Jesus," but gave Him no more title than he gave Paul. See also Mark 1:24; 5:7.
The question is a confession of fear. The demon is right about his own end, but wrong about the man he holds.
Yes and no, foul spirit. "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). But as for the man, "the Son of Man came not to destroy people's lives but to save them" (Luke 9:56).
Note: the Luke 9:56 wording quoted here follows an older translation.
The dread was real, but the moment of final judgment had not arrived.
It is remarkable how these evil spirits acknowledge Him according to the truth. But they do it only out of dread, and they would have avoided His power if they could. It was the reluctant acknowledgment of a power they could not escape. The time had not come to cast them into the pit, but to deliver man.
Everything the demon said was accurate — and Jesus still refused it.
The demon knew Him, and did not hesitate to confess Him as the Holy One, a title assigned to Him long before in Psalm 89:19. But the Lord could not accept testimony from such a source. Nor could Paul later, when a fortune-telling spirit spoke up for him in the streets of Philippi (Acts 16:16-18). Christ and Satan have nothing in common. Between them lies the deepest moral opposition.
- Exposed. Jesus does not create the evil. His presence unmasks what was already hiding — even inside the place of worship.
- Confessed. That light makes the enemy speak the truth. He calls Jesus the Holy One of God, but he never calls Him Lord.
- Dreaded. The demon expects only destruction, because demons "can understand nothing of grace."
- Divided. The demon's "us" drags the man into his own dread. But Christ came to destroy the devil's works and to save the man.
- Refused. True words from a corrupt mouth still count for nothing. Christ accepts no witness from the enemy.