Time to clean some spirits

And Jesus with his disciples withdrew to the sea:
and a great multitude from Galilee followed:
and from Judaea,
and from Jerusalem,
and from Idumaea,
and beyond Jordan,
and about Tyre and Sidon,
a great multitude,
hearing what great things he did,
came unto him.
And he spake to his disciples,
that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd,
lest they should throng him:
for he had healed many;
insomuch that as many as had plagues pressed upon him that they might touch him.
And the unclean spirits,
whensoever they beheld him,
fell down before him,
and cried,
saying,
Thou art the Son of God.
And he charged them much that they should not make him known.
Mark 3:7-12 RV

This is a fascinating aspect of Jesus' ministry: that of ridding people of demons. It is very interesting that this aspect is something that is not regarded within a priest's workload these days. I suppose we can say that depression, insanity, and other "mental" illnesses are cured by doctors etc, and that these days we would say that these ailments are what Jesus was actually healing.

But it striles me, that Mark is saying something different. These "ailments" speak to Jesus. They tell him that He is the Son of God. He speaks to them. Are we to accept that "depression"leapt out of these people and spoke to him?

Maybe one way of looking at this is that people who suffer from depression etc are more likely to recognise Jesus in their lives? A very easy and troublefree interpretation, and one that would please many.

And the unclean spirits,
whensoever they beheld him,
fell down before him,
and cried,
saying,
Thou art the Son of God.
And he charged them much that they should not make him known.
Mark 3:11-12 RV

I think we are supposed to understand this as written. I do believe in "unclean spirits". I think the idea that they don't exist is far easier to digest for most, but is it not just another part of the whole antichrist thing? Surely we are to take this more seriously.

The Church of England currently employs two full-time exorcists. I was very happy when I found this out. I hope I get taught how to do this!

Anyway, we need to recognise that unclean spirits exist. If we believe Jesus exists, we should believe that negative spirits exist. How we see them , or how we recognise them is always going to be a tricky job: one may see them as depression, or as monsters. The point here is that they are real in the sense that Jesus is real.

The above picture was chosen because I used to have a t-shirt with it on it. I used to wear it all the time. I used to think I was so cool.