What is it with evil spirits? (Hunch 23)
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from
Galilee followed. When they heard all
he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the
regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he
told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from
crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing
forward to touch him. Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before
him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not
to tell who he was.
In a Nutshell
Jesus' healing and teaching work continued in the open-air. Many had deep problems and came to Him looking for healing. His open-air teaching was done from a boat, along the shores of Lake Galilee.
Questions
What do you think? Why was Jesus so strict about who could tell others about Him?
I'm
not sure I like telling stories about evil spirits. It's scary to think people
can be controlled by evil. We should not think the story of Jesus is to scare
us out of our wits. But how should we think about "spirits" and
"evil spirits"?
Ever
been in a large crowd at a big event? When large crowds gather, and we are
right there in the middle, it's easy to feel dizzy. Ever had that happen to
you? If these events are held regularly then we learn to cope. But if we are
not used to dizzy spells we can freak out. There are too many people. We panic.
We lose sight of what helps us stay calm. In a crowd it is easy to lose
direction, to feel very strange. Crowds can't solves our problems. We have to
be careful. Crowds can carry us along where we shouldn't go.
Jesus
was suspicious about crowds and about the way people joined movements, yes,
even when they joined His movement. Maybe that had something to do with the
"evil spirits" that were
there. "Uptight people" often try to find release when they have a
crowd around. He knew that in large crowds some people are tempted to
exaggerate. They lose their grip on reality.
“Well he must be important,” says one, “look at all these people!” “Yeah”, says another, “He's such a rad teacher. Would He get such large numbers out if He didn't have a cool message?” “And we are God's own people after all,“ says another “and we have some idea of what's what. Surely God wants Rabbis who are popular?"
In John's Gospel (2:23) it says that people loved to have Jesus around because they believed all the signs and wonders He did. When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people said they believed in Him because they saw the miraculous signs He did. But Jesus would not trust himself to them; he knew them all. He didn't need anyone to tell him; he knew what was on the inside of a person.
Maybe
Mark was saying that lots of people then, like now, were "up tight"
or "very up tight". They saw Jesus and had a real bad panic attack.
Maybe that's what Mark is saying. They would freak out and ask Him to go away.
They couldn't stand it. Maybe it was something like that. It's hard to know for
sure. They were not all that different from us. But as for Jesus, He wasn't
fooled by crowds. He withdrew. He needed time out and so did the people. He was
not going to allow the crowd to dictate. Some were there to hear about God’s
Kingdom; others may have come for wrong reasons and some, I guess, didn't know
why they were there. They had come for the ride. When Jesus “withdrew”, He
showed them His way of teaching was not a crowd thing.
By
going away, Jesus was telling the crowd that He was giving priority to His
closest disciples. They needed to know that and He was also reminding them of
their own responsibilities; their family duties, as wives, husbands, children,
parents; their tasks as friends and neighbours living in communities. Jesus expected people to leave Him alone when He had time-out like
that. He wanted people to live their lives, not just hang around waiting for a
miracle to happen.
Jesus
made sure they could leave when He said so. He had the boat ready. He kept
things under control, telling the evil spirits to keep quiet. They shouted but
He was not impressed. He knew the people in the crowd needed time to think
about what they have heard. To grow spiritually they needed time out, time to be
healed at their own speed. If there was to be any “shouting” it would be a
shout of praise to God, just like all of creation does already, day by day,
when it shows off God's goodness and grandeur in sun, rain and even in the
beautiful fog.
So when He quietly withdrew, Jesus was telling the people to quietly follow His example. He does not want shouters or ranters; He wants followers who listen to the teaching of the Kingdom of God and put it into practise. Jesus' teaching is more valuable than the finest gold, sweeter than the sweetest honey-comb. Those prone to panic attacks are taught to rely upon God’s promises, to trust His timing, for all their lives, for all of their days, from top to bottom, from inside out.