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 from a boat, along the coast of 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
solve our problems. We have to be careful. Crowds can carry us along where we
shouldn't go.
Jesus was suspicious about crowds, 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 busy then
and 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 who were "hyper" about Him,
if only they knew it. 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, having 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 had heard. To grow
spiritually they needed time out, time to be healed at their own speed, in
God's time. 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.