Mark 5 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

641the tombs; and not even with a chain was anyone being able any longer to bind him. 5.4640(...continued)the puzzling comparison. And he says to them, ‘Are you also likewise withoutunderstanding? Don’t you understand that everything that enters into the person from theoutside is not able to make him common [or unclean]? Because it does not enter into hisheart, but rather, into the stomach, and goes out into the toilet.’ (He is making all foodsclean.)“And he was saying that ‘that which comes out of the person, that is what makes theperson common [or unclean]. For from within, out of the heart of the people the evils planscome out–sexual misconduct, thefts, murders, violations of marriage covenants, desires toalways have more, malicious acts, deception, lack of self-control, stinginess, abusivespeech, haughty pride, lack of moral judgment–all these evil things come out from within,and make the person common [or unclean].”In spite, then, of using descriptive language that can be understood as meaning thatthe source of moral impurity is “external,” coming into a person from the outside, fromunclean, demonic forces, Jesus taught his followers specifically and pointedly that thesource of moral impurity is internal, not external; that the origin of defilement in humancharacter is “the heart,” the internal “spirit”–not something outside the human being.What an important teaching this is for our understanding of Jesus. We must alwaysevaluate whatever the New Testament says concerning “demons” or “unclean spirits” inthe light of this teaching. But however we may describe such phenomena, and howeverinexact, inadequate, and culturally conditioned both the biblical and our own description ofthese phenomena may be, this matter of people “having an unclean spirit” is dreadfully,painfully real.Human history is not the simple story of the always upward and onward march ofhumanity from simple, backward, low moral beginnings, to much higher, purer, intellectualgoals of sweetness and light. No, there is evil–real, destructive, powerful evil that canovertake our inner beings, and overwhelm every impulse for goodness and truth andpurity. There is a “spirit of uncleanness” that can take over our inner lives and pervertour characters.And, as we realize this discouraging fact, and contemplate the meaning of Markabout Jesus and the unclean spirits, we will begin to hear the Good News. It is that all thechaotic powers of evil and moral impurity–in whatever way we may choose to describethem–have met their match in Jesus of Nazareth. The fact of human experience inrelationship to Jesus is nothing less than this: any person who “turns around” and “placesdeep-seated confidence” in Jesus and his authoritative teaching, can find deliverance fromall those evil forces and unclean spirits that inhabit and control their inner beings, and thatthereby thwart and threaten and destroy their lives.641The implication of this statement is that at one time, people had been able to bind him(continued...)408