Sunday Nugget - Tag Team Demons

From today's gospel:

Mark 1:21 - 28

They went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God." But Jesus said sharply, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. "Here is a teaching that is new" they said "and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him." And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.


Either devils have bad grammar, a multiple personality, or union rules say they must work in groups . The man in the passage was possessed by an unclean spirit but it answered Jesus in the plural. The narrative continues then in the singular. I find it interesting in this instance of the spiritual realm that one thing can be many. The Mark 5 passage about Legion is the same way but the narrative moves from singular to plural.

In Mark 11:24-26 Jesus explains the phenomena: "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." Indeed, if you are fighting spiritual warfare, consider it an interest bearing account. Remember when investing in sin the returns are much greater and more dangerous than the principal down.

File Under : Demons, Devils, and Compound Interest.

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