Kingdom - Part 5 - Demons

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." Matthew 10:8. New American Standard. 

Hi folks.

Today, we're gonna talk about demons. 

Yes, I said it. Demons. You know, those evil monsters that like to sneak up on people and turn them into zombies, or cannibals, or demented little girls that can turn their heads all the way around. As you can see, one of my hopes in writing this is to remove some of the power that's been given to these sci-fi gremlins that evidently are secretly hovering around us this very moment.

Be careful. Be very, very, careful.

We're moving backwards, so first we need to acknowledge demons in our culture. So, lets make a list of phrases and words we've all come to know in our crazy literal religious culture. 

The Exorcist. Paranormal Activity. exorcisms. demonology (an actual course study in some seminaries). Satan. Beelzebub. "Exorcise the demon!" ouija boards. spells. evil spirits. possession. angel of death. Fallen. 

Do these all ring a bell? Good.

Now lets move back, a long way back, all the way back to pre-Christianity and pre-Judaism. 

Babylon. The first millenium BCE. 

There's a god that we all know, and we call it Gad, or, better known to us as the god of fortune. And there's this radical, nomadic tribe that wanders all over the arid plains of East Africa claiming that their god is the greater than our god. (This tribe will later be called the "chosen people," and even later than that will develop a tributary tribe called the "Christians," but more on that later). 

And so we pray to Gad every day, every night. We pray to Gad before we eat. We pray to Gad all the time. Why? Because we want good fortune, right? Who doesn't want good fortune?

But there's a problem that this wandering tribe has with our Gad (ya' like gads). Our Gad evidently is inferior to this tribe's God (a play on words in our modern scriptures??), so this tribe continuously chooses leaders (or prophets) to enter into our city and tell us we're doing it all wrong. And in doing so, they eventually decide to start infiltrating our city (only to be wiped out eventually by our massive armies) and attempting to destroy all of our versions of worship to the god Gad. god gad. 

Now, lets move forward in time. 1st century Roman world. Babylon is gone and has been replaced with the Roman empire. And, Rome has picked up a lot of Greek mythology. Gods and goddesses, angels and demons, good vs. evil. And one of the words that's become very familiar to us as citizens in this world empire is . . . 

daimon, or, "an inferior deity, whether good or bad"

Does this sound familiar? If you said it sounds like demon, then give yourself a hand clap. 

Now demon is a Greek word. Gad is a Hebrew word. The word demon doesn't exist in Hebrew literature, although there is some Jewish folklore that involves some evil spirits (but not something that was mainstream or widely followed, especially in a literalistic way).

The word demon is an adaptation and word twist of the Hebrew word gad.

In other words, demon = the Babylonian god of fortune (and any deity other than the "one true God"). With me? Good.

So, as a first century Jewish person, we believe that demons include all "versions" of our one, true, God who has picked us out as the chosen ones, the chosen tribe, the tribe above all tribes. 

And this God is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God above all other gods. 

As good, practicing Jews, we don't talk much about demons because they're just not a common part of our language or our history. The concept is non-essential. It makes for good campfire stories, but it's just not woven into the fabric of our rich, religious tradition. 

But, there's a problem. If the concept of demons isn't an essential part of Jewish tradition, then why does Jesus appear to be talking about demons so much and casting out demons so much? 

One more thing. Every gospel contains multiple accounts of demon related activity. However, Paul's writings (which were closest chronologically to the life and times of Jesus), contain two verses with demons in them, and I'll list them here:

"No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." 1 Corinthians 10:20-21. New American Standard.

If Paul wrote more than any other author in the New Testament, and he was the earliest writer in the New Testament, why did he only mention the word "demon" four times and in only two verses?

Because as a Jew, the concept just wasn't that important.

And, if you notice, the way Paul uses the word fits the context of "other gods." Paul was talking to his audience in these two verses about worshiping other gods, not watching out for evil, invisible creatures that were always ready to attack.

Whoever wrote the book of Matthew was highly influenced by Greek mythology. It plays a part throughout the book and plays a huge part in the uprise of the first church. However, rather than Jesus actually giving so much power to the concept of demons, I think the author of Matthew put the words on Jesus's lips. The author wanted Jesus to be more Greek than Jew, more philosopher than realist. 

But lets say Jesus really would've said something along the lines of "cast out the demons." What would he have meant?

In my opinion, he was the front runner of breakthrough Jewish reform. So, he would've known a ton about Jewish tradition, but would've also been interested in reforming some of the more outdated, unjust, and prejudiced practices and beliefs of the Jewish people. He would've believed in a God who invited everybody to the table (since he practiced this himself), including Jews and Greeks and Romans. 

Jesus was often found right in the melting pot of society on every socio-economic plane. He's caught with beggars one day and with high priests the next. He's caught with prostitutes and Roman soldiers. He doesn't discriminate based on class, and he doesn't discriminate based on belief. 

It's foolish to think that all of Jesus's companions believed the same way he did. Each person had a story, an upbringing, a religious culture of his or her own. And what did Jesus do? He walked right into the middle of it. He worked within it, he loved within it, and he built relationships within it. 

So, to the author of Matthew, Jesus was all about the demons. It was as if the demons were everywhere Jesus went. He couldn't get away from them. But I think this was an exaggeration and a projection of the author's own culture and religious leanings that influenced him or her to write about Jesus in this way. 

But, remember, Jesus is outlining in this chapter what it looks like to participate in the "kingdom of heaven." So, if Jesus even came close to talking about Matthew's version of "casting out demons," what would he be talking about? 

For Jesus, there was only one God. And this God was love. And all that mattered about this God was that this God loved humans more than humans could comprehend. And this God's love worked independently of all the crazy, irrational, religious beliefs that the humans came up with. 

So, if I were to put words in Jesus's mouth concerning demons, he'd say, "You worship other gods? Ok. Lets talk about that. Let me show you how my God works . . . "

This God's love didn't work based on how "right" a person's belief systems were. This God's compassion wasn't based on how well a person prayed. This God's love didn't wait for the right person to say the right thing at the right time. 

This God's love infiltrated the human heart with all its broken, flawed, and messed up philosophies and transformed it gradually from stone to flesh. And Jesus represented this God and wanted to show the world all about this God. 

So, to close.

May we show the world today that Love is more powerful than "wrong" beliefs. May we show the world today that Love breaks down even the hardest of hearts. And may we show the world today that Love can engulf even the whackiest religious minds that we know.