The demons [Lent 3; St. Luke 11: 14-28]

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Jesus speaks to us today and says,

“Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.”

After the New Testament was completed, demons did not leave us. Indeed some are on the right trail when they say, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing everyone he doesn’t exist.”

And living in the peaceful and insulated United States, we must agree. We do not see Satan at work anywhere. There are no people born to end the world. There is no fight for the Holy Grail. There is no one who is changing colors, vomiting profusely, or spinning their heads all the way around.

We just don’t see the demons working like they did in Jesus’ day. Jesus and His Apostles were casting them out left and right, so let’s go through the examples, at least in the Gospel of St. Luke, where demons were being cast out and what they were doing.

There was a man in chapter 4, accused of having an unclean demon, but all we are told of his affliction is that he was shouting crazy things like, “Have you come to destroy us Jesus? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus told him to zip it and get out of that man.

Our next encounter is only second hand knowledge of Mary Magdalene. St. Luke says that several demons had come out of her. Historically she had been thought of as a reformed prostitute, so maybe that was the demon at work in her.

In Chapter 8, St. Luke tells us of Jesus meeting the famous demon “legion”. This possession made the man run around naked, live among the tombs of the dead, thrash about, and drive the man into the desert on multiple occasions.

At the end of chapter 9, the only son of a man was possessed and the demon would seize his body, make him scream, and throw him into convulsions, foaming at the mouth. The last encounter St. Luke records in today’s Gospel reading, where the possessed man was prevented from speaking, yet regains his senses after the exorcism.

Now, how many of us have seen people shouting crazy things seemingly uncontrollably? How many of you have seen or know about prostitutes? How many of you know what a streaker is? How many of you have seen or heard about people doing unnatural things with dead bodies, or throwing bodily tantrums, or running into the wilderness with no proper preparations?

How many of you know someone who can’t speak?

Make no mistake. There are demons among us even this day and they still act like they did back in Jesus’ day, but as you hopefully noticed, we diagnose them differently now-a-days. Today, we have medical and scientific terminology to categorize these ailments. Tourettes Syndrome, personality disorders, mental disorders. All are given names which somehow seem to pacify us into thinking that they are under control, simply because we gave it a name.

Repent. We have been duped. We have been told belief in demons are for the superstitious and it has nothing to do with modern science. This fleece has been pulled over our eyes so that we do not see demons, but harmless biological and neurological ailments that, if studied enough and with enough government funding, can be cured.

More important than blaming modern health problems on demons is finding out that these are just normal, everyday happenings. These are sins and actions that anyone of us could, and probably have committed. Thus, we must conclude that the normal, everyday person is possessed by a demon, no matter how normal you may feel you are.

Most importantly, we don’t have to wait for the Jesuit or the exorcist or the spiritualist to come and send our demons into the next dimension, instead of our hearts. There is one demon Who has come to clean house, take names, and conquer victoriously.

In St. Mark’s version of the Temptation of Jesus, he uses the word “cast out” to describe Jesus going into the wilderness. This is the same word used for demons being “cast out” of people, in the Bible. 5 times Jesus is accused of being a demon. Twice they say that He works under the ruler of the demons, Ba’alzebub (Mt. 9:34; Lk. 11:15), Twice He is called insane and paranoid for what He says and they attribute it to demons (Jn. 7:20, 10:20). And once, He is flat out called a demon to His face (Jn. 8:48).

This demon has done things like care for others, remove evil and violent spirits, heal the sick, feed the poor, and love all people. We could use more demons like this! Yet, in our backwards, upside down world, this God-man is a demon. He is treated like a demon, exorcised like a demon, and punished as a demon.

Jesus predicts His suffering and death and everyone calls Him paranoid. He says He will lay His own life down and take it up again and they declare Him insane. He commands you to love your neighbor, to be baptized, and to eat and drink His Body and Blood and He is found guilty of demonic possession, worthy of death.

It turns out that Jesus does work in the possession business. He does send His Spirit to dwell in a person in order work His will in their lives. Where demons work sin and death. Jesus’ Spirit works life, light and forgiveness.

True demon possession is yielding to sin, thereby enslaving us to sin, as being possessed. True demon possession is not necessarily only as Hollywood portrays it, but the demon’s true intent is to turn you away from Jesus; His Gospel and His sacraments. It is important to recognize this, because demons are not scary, but friendly and persuasive.

And nothing is beneath them as a means to achieve their goal. They do all that stuff, haunt houses, and even pose as dead loved ones in order to turn us.

In the long run, it matters not what the demons do for they are judged. They can possess, oppress, even perform miracles and it will not fool you, the Elect. This is because even if someone were to rise from the dead, you would not believe because all who rise from the dead point to Jesus rising from the dead.

In the Last Days the demons will be given power to do New Testament miracles, but the Church no longer looks for those miracles because she has Jesus. The only miracles the Church seeks are those given in Body and Blood. The only exorcism she needs is that given by water and the Word. The only spirit she desires to be possessed by is the Holy Spirit.

The Age of Miracles is over, at least those that point to Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. The Age of the Church and the age of demons is coming to its conclusion where the demons will be found guilty and the Church found innocent.

Jesus is no longer a demon or charged with that accusation. Easter cleared all that up. The Church on earth, however, will be called demonic and much worse, by those who are actually possessed.

Jesus indeed took our demons to the cross, not possessed by His own, but by that of all the world’s sin and death. He went to the realm of the demons, hell, and judged them guilty there sentencing them to eternal condemnation. While the prison doors are still open, the horde is being pushed back by Jesus alone.

Our battle cry then, is the same as at any other time whether we are encountering life, death, evil, or demons. That is that we are Christ’s. That we are baptized into Christ and that His promise stands for us and against the demons, so that we don’t have to. We simply rely completely upon His promise of salvation to forgive our sins and deliver us from the evil one.