Having grown up in the 80s, under the thrall of exciting books like This Present Darkness, and many thrilling discussions about spiritual warfare and the malign power of the New Age, I have always tried to temper my inclination to see demons in every corner. It’s too easy, for the most part, to see something bad and attribute the badness to a spirit sitting there, trying to wreck everything. But lately, as the tempering quiet of Christianity recedes from the West’s spiritual imagination, I’ve been more inclined to throw caution to the wind and see the demons when they appear. For example, this is horrible. I saw it make its way around Twitter toward the end of last week. I entirely agree with all the posters who pointed out how very demonic she sounds. Who is this woman? And why is she licking her teeth so much?
In my wonderful women’s Bible Study a couple of weeks ago, we got to the healing of the Demoniac in the region of the Geresenes in Luke. And it was so unsettling to see the transformation of a man so full of demons that no one could constrain him, or reason with him. He had to go out of the community of the living and into the realm of death. He had to rage amongst the tombs, alone. But one meeting with Jesus and he was restored to himself. The town came out to see what happened and found him sitting “at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.” The people were so afraid they insisted that Jesus go away. They did not enjoy the strange disruption of their social order. For every society needs death, needs someone to be cast out and to hold in himself all the evil, to keep it contained in one place a little bit away–but not too far–so that commerce and pleasure may continue unabated.
Satan, in every case, is about the status quo, is about families and peoples and nations doing the same thing all the time and getting the results they prefer–uneasy and unsettling peace maintained by death. But a peace that is always threatened by Jesus happening by and casting out the darkness. Because, no matter what anyone else thinks, more than the status quo, more than your ethereal and earthly happiness and great job and subservient husband and docile children who were allowed to live, Jesus wants total and complete healing and goodness. He desires for people to come into their “right minds,” which is to be restored to the faculty of reason.
For, no matter which way you cut it, to kill your own child for your career is irrational, not to say wicked, suicidally wicked, dumb, and ugly. Letting babies live is the good thing to do, the blessed thing to do, the beautiful thing to do. Sacrificing yourself so that others might live is the path to life yourself. You think will you die, but in fact, you discover a life and joy beyond yourself that you could never have imagined.
When you cast out the tiniest and stupidest of all the demons, as well as the big ones, and even Satan himself, you find a multiplication of joy and reason, of healing and hope. For the lady screaming her guilt and cruelty, I likewise will never stop talking about Jesus, about his power, about the cross, about his love for those caught in the stranglehold of death and ruin. I will never tire of praying for those who seem most beyond healing and love.
So anyway, find me on Substack and have a nice day!