Rebuking τὸ δαιμόνιον

τὸ δαιμόνιον

Onego Power 470x76 arrives in the sunset, from Baltimore, to unload reels. 20160204. 

Private, Keep Out. Nobody Needs to Read This Rambling Nonsense, Please. Go Home.

A Father Pleads With Jesus To Heal His Son Whom The Disciples Could Not Heal (DLNT)

In all three synoptics, this is right after Jesus and three disciples come down from the mountain. It’s still in mind because Luke’s version is in the Sunday lectionary for Last Epiphany Year C.

Mark 9:14 And having come to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and scribes debating with them. 15 And immediately all the multitude, having seen Him, were struck-with-wonder. And running-up, they were greeting Him. 16 And He asked them, “What are you debating with them?” 17 And one from the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought my son having a mute spirit to You. 18 And wherever it overcomes him, it throws-him-to-the-ground, and he foams-at-the-mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes-stiff. And I spoke to Your disciples in order that they might cast it out, and they were not strong-enough ”. 19 And the One, having responded to them, says “O unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I bear-with you? Bring him to Me”. 20 And they brought him to Him. And having seen Him, the spirit immediately convulsed him. And having fallen on the ground, he was rolling-himself while foaming-at-the-mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long is it since this has happened to him?” And the one said, “From childhood. 22 And it often threw him even into fire and into waters in order that it might destroy him. But if You are able to do anything, help us, having felt-deep-feelings [of pity] toward us”. 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You are able?’ All things are possible for the one believing”. 24 Immediately, having cried-out, the father of the child was saying, “I believe. Help my unbelief ”. 25 And Jesus, having seen that a crowd is running-together-upon them, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you— come out of him and enter into him no longer”. 26 And having cried-out, and having convulsed him greatly, it came out. And he became as if dead, so that the majority were saying that “He died”. 27 But Jesus, having taken hold of his hand, raised him. And he stood-up. 28 And He having entered into a house, His disciples were questioning Him privately, “Why is it that we were not able to cast it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing except by prayer”.

Matthew 17:14 And they having come to the crowd, a man came to Him, kneeling-before Him, 15 and saying, “Master, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and is suffering badly. For he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to Your disciples and they were not able to cure him”. 17 But having responded, Jesus said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear-with you? Bring him here to Me”. 18 And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon departed from him, and the boy was cured from that hour. 19 Then the disciples, having come to Jesus privately, said, “For what reason were we not able to cast it out?” 20 And the One says to them, “Because of your little-faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a seed of a mustard-plant, you will say to this mountain, ‘Pass from-here to-there’, and it will pass. And nothing will be impossible for you. 21 But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. 

Luke 9:37 And it came about on the next day, they having come down from the mountain, that a large crowd met Him. 38 And behold— a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look upon my son, because he is an only-born son to me. 39 And behold— a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries-out. And it convulses him, along with foam [at the mouth]. And it departs from him with difficulty, while bruising him. 40 And I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able”. 41 And having responded, Jesus said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long will I be with you, and bear-with you? Bring your son to Me here”. 42 And while he was still approaching, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all astounded at the majesty of God.

Why are you bothering me, God? For reasons that woke me way too early this morning, I continue to be bothered by this story, of which Luke’s version is optional in our gospel reading for Sunday. In all synoptics, it’s the same story, but each evangelist tells it differently, even significant differences though Mark seems to be the source for both Matthew and Luke. No Greek scholar, I looked at Aland’s parallel gospels in English and Greek and the only commonality I see is “Oh unbelieving (faithless) and perverted generation,” and there only Mt/Lk are absolutely identical, which makes me wonder if they found it in Q instead of Mark. But I guess not and who cares anyway (well I do, but nevermind, and I don’t recall ever reading a scholar who thought Luke copied from Matthew). 

The story seems more about the disciples’ lack of empowering faith than about Jesus casting out the demon to heal the boy. Actually, only Matthew calls it daimonion, Mark and Luke call it pneuma, spirit. Mark’s version is much longer in the middle with things that Mt/Lk omit. Why they tell it so differently would be for reasons of agenda (e.g., Mark 9:20a evidencing that the demon recognizes Jesus, a key in Mark, which may be why Mark is so much longer in the middle), and is not what’s bothering me this morning. Nor does it bother me that fellows of the Jesus Seminar credit the story not to received tradition but to Mark using a filler story to go with Jesus chastising the disciples’ lack of faith. I believe this cure happened pretty much as the core story goes, including nobody goes back later to see if the boy had more seizures but that's not part of anyone's story or agenda. Nor am I trying to fool myself as some sophisticated scholar. 

Okay, now I’m rambling, sorry. Not really. 

Rather, my issue is both personal and encountering on two consecutive days, devastating life situations for loved ones whom I don’t know, of people very dear to me who are now in grievous anguish of worry, such that I ask what is a demon, and how does one get shed of it?

I’m not talking about curing physical afflictions that are the province of medics. What I’m worrying is the demonic anguish of, in this story’s case the boy’s father but in 2016 of those who are in agony about a loved one; and answers do not present this morning two thousand years after the Sunday school story. To separate it from the boy and his demon and isolate it to the bystander, the father in his demonic agony, metaphorically, I’ll establish a base that shows myself what I mean. I couldn't care less whether you read me or not.

It’s Tuesday, January 8, 1918, the newspaper St. Andrews Bay News headline reads “Appalling Disaster” over the story that has just now arrived in town, wreck of the Annie & Jennie and loss of three of those aboard including Mom and Pop’s son Alfred Daniel Weller, Jr. From an innocent morning, Pop is now in-an-instant afflicted with a demon that will never go away, whose name is “If Only.” And at this moment of finding-out, he hasn’t even gone across the road to the house to tell Mom. His demon has just arrived.

“How to cast it out?” is the problem that’s worrying me.

In the story, Jesus calls them a bunch of “little faiths” and in Mark (and Matthew in some manuscripts) says “only with prayer.” So I’ll go that way.

Setting aside for a moment the parents of the afflicted ones in the two cases that I found out about yesterday and the day before, I’ll focus on myself. Not to be cute or mysterious, I am naming it “El Daimonion” and mentally rebuking it by humming, from Isaac Watts’ exquisite hymn, Ralph E. Hudson’s crass refrain 

“At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!” 

every time El Daimonion or one of its (a neutral noun) grating tunes enters my mind. Maybe this technique will help someone else who also has a worry that can be named a tormenting demon.

What of the other two situations? I have already assured the parents that they are — as they indeed are — that they are in prayer that God’s Spirit will enfold them now and in the days ahead. I will do my part with the prayer, just as five years ago so many so powerfully and unceasingly held me up. That’s what and all I can do at this point in the fight.

Back from walk. When the contractor finishes repainting the gym downstairs, I must resume faithful use of the facility. 

Thos+ 

Recognizing that rebuking to daimonion properly casts the demon in the accusative when I have it in the nominative, I don't care.