Healing people generally and casting out evil spirits specifically played an important role in Jesus’ ministry. It’s almost as if that were expected of him — he didn’t perform other miracles that might have helped people, like creating new sources of water, ending droughts, or fixing broken equipment. Surely miracles like these would have benefited many more people than just healing a few individuals here and there.
So why did he go around healing people? Is it a coincidence that this would be among the most subjective miracles, the sort most readily open to abuse and scams as evinced by faith healers today? Just how many of these people stayed healed?
The fact that Jesus encountered so many “unclean spirits” is worth focusing upon. In the past, people attributed mental or emotional illnesses to demon possession (and sometimes physical ailments as well, like fevers). Today, we provide counseling and medication. Why did Jesus contribute so strongly to the mistaken perception that mental problems are caused by spirits?
If he were God he would have known that not to be the case and could have recommended different courses of treatment — something that might have made life much better for tens if not hundreds of millions of people with mental and emotional problems over the past two millennia. Then again, maybe none of these encounters actually happened — or at least didn’t happen as described.
In the gospels, “Jesus the Exorcist” is engaging in an eschatological activity that heralds the coming of the Kingdom of God. His ability to cast out spirits is described as being dependent upon the power of God and this, in turn, is dependent upon the faith of those around him. The message would have been clear to the audiences of the gospel authors: with sufficient faith, people will be able to partake in the power of God to drive evil out of the world, vindicate the true believers, and help establish the Kingdom of God over all the Earth.
One interesting fact to note about this first encounter is that the spirit knows who Jesus is, saying “I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” According to the First Epistle of John, “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” Does that mean that this “unclean spirit” is really “of God”? Seems a little strange.
Why does Jesus then rebuke the spirit for saying this, stating “Hold thy peace”? This appears to be the earliest instance of what has been labeled by scholars the “Messianic Secret,” the secret identity of Jesus as Son of God and savior of mankind.
It’s also interesting to note how the demon addresses Jesus. First he identifies Jesus as being “of Nazareth.” Unlike the other two synoptic gospels, Mark has nothing to say about Jesus’ birth or early life. This is one of the only indications that he even has a past. This identification would continue in the other gospels, despite their authors’ insistence on placing his birth in Bethlehem.
The spirit also addresses Jesus as “the Holy One of God.” If Jesus is the Messiah in the traditional Jewish sense, why not address him as the “Son of David”? The spirit’s words could apply to almost any prophet. Jesus would, in fact, later disavow any connection to the line of David and this is merely staying consistent with that. For Mark, Jesus’ role extends far beyond any Davidic heritage.
