0131 SHUT UP, SATAN!

SHUT UP, SATAN!

Mark 3:10-12

…for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

This moment reminds me of what we read back in chapter one, Mark tells us this: [the demon said], “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 rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” At this, the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and came out with a loud shriek.

Does this strike you as unusual for Jesus to tell someone to be silent? I have lived so long with the image of Jesus saying, “Go and tell” or “Make disciples of all nations,” that I really can’t imagine him saying to someone, “You must not make me known.” In particular, Jesus “strictly ordering” someone not to tell about being changed and healed. But sometimes that’s exactly what Jesus said. Let’s explore who is NOT to go, stand and tell about what God has done.

Children in the temple were singing his praises, and Jesus said it fulfilled the verse, From the lips of children and infants God has ordained praise. They who are too young to know what their song means are encouraged to declare truths about Jesus. But not the demons. What’s the difference between ignorance and evil?

There are times when Jesus gives the order of silence that seems to be strategic for the sake of practical matters of publicity. For example, in chapter one he healed a leper and then tells him not to go around spreading the word. But (of course) how can the man keep quiet about his complete healing and spiritual turnaround? But the result of people spreading the news was that Jesus was no longer able to go into a town, but had to stay out in open areas because he was being so overrun with miracle-seekers.

But I get the sense that in this particular incident in chapter three, and a few others like it, Jesus commands silence as an act of spiritual warfare, not practical publicity. While the unclean spirit is active in the person’s life, Jesus says, “Be silent!” But after the person is delivered of their oppressive spirit, they are free to speak up.

In the book of Acts, Paul is followed by a girl who has a spirit of divination. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!” She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit left her at that very moment.

There was a practical reason for Paul to have put up with this girl’s proclamation for several days before casting it out. Once he freed her of that spirit of divination, she no longer made money for her masters, and they had Paul and the others beaten for it.

But beyond that practical reason, why was her message so disturbing to Paul? It was not because he discerned that she had wrong motives. Elsewhere, Paul says that whether from good motives or bad, he is glad when Christ is preached. No, I think it’s the same matter of spiritual warfare. 

Here is my theory: When the enemy praises, it is in mockery. 

Satan cannot praise Jesus, for he is opposed to him. Satan is the father of lies, so he is always saying the opposite of truth. So, when a demon declares the truth about Jesus, we might consider it sarcasm. “It’s fine,” you say, clearly meaning the opposite.

“You will not surely die,” was the serpent’s claim. But the devil is the father of lies. So even when he says what is partially true (they didn’t die that day), he is convincing Eve to do what leads to death. Similarly, with the temptation to Jesus to throw himself down from a high point of the temple, the devil quoted Scriptures about the relationship between the Father and the Son. But even as he quoted Scripture he was tempting the Lord, using the words of God to do battle against God.

So when a demon begins to speak, Jesus shuts it down. Every time. He says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” He says to the unclean spirit, “Be silent! Come out!” He says to the tempter in the wilderness, “Be gone, Satan!”

The Bible says, Do not be deceived. God is not to be mocked. Or God cannot be mocked. Or God is not mocked.