Mark 3:27

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

‘No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.’

Mark 3:27

We have no a priori right to deny the existence of evil spirits. It has been urged that in a world created by a good, and wise, and powerful God, a being like Satan can have no conceivable place. But the argument obviously proves too much. We have not a few bad men, and not a few bad women, around us, who act the part of tempters to others, and labour hard to make them as depraved and as wretched as themselves. How are they to be accounted for? And unless we are prepared to show cause why an unseen and spiritual personage should be an utter impossibility—the very fact of the existence in the world that we do know of such people as I have spoken of may well raise the presumption that there may be something corresponding to them, and even on a larger scale of intelligence and power, in the world that we do not know.

I. Our Lord’s testimony.—In the passage before us, our Lord is quite at one with His accusers in the crowd as to the fact of the existence and the agency of evil spirits. He speaks of Himself and of another person (not impersonation) who is opposed to Him. The latter is strong, and hold his goods and keeps his house; but Jesus is stronger, and enters into the other’s house and binds him and wrests his possessions out of his hand.

II. The opposing forces.—In this great universe, of which we men form apparently so inconsiderable a part, there are two kingdoms—the kingdom of light on the one side, and the kingdom of darkness on the other; or, to express oneself in different words, the kingdoms of good and of evil, or of truth and of falsehood. Each of these kingdoms has a personal Head. On the one side stands Jesus Christ, the God-man, the source of all light and knowledge, of all holiness and purity and goodness, the loving, gentle, kind, sympathising Saviour and Sovereign of mankind. And ranged behind Him, and guided and directed by Him, and working under Him, are the multitudes of the ‘saints,’ the men and the women who believe in His Name and desire to extend His influence over the earth, and with them an innumerable, but invisible, company of the holy angels. These three together (the Captain and his two bands of soldiers) constitute what may be called the ‘army of the living God.’ On the other side stand the dark hosts of Satan. They form (we suppose) a vast organisation. St. Paul’s language seems to intimate as much when he tells us that we ‘wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities; against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ The idea conveyed in this language is, first, that of great numbers. Then, of the formidable power. This huge organisation, bound together not by the tie of love, but by the tie of fierce, consuming hatred against God, is led (as it appears) by one mighty chieftain, whom our Lord denominates ‘Satan.’ Is it fanciful to suppose that this dark potentate and his subordinates, who have now studied our human nature, and the circumstances in which we live, for thousands of years, know all about us, and all about each individual member of the human family; understand our weaknesses, our proclivities; are acquainted with our past and our present; and, like the hunter, who prepares the most tempting bait for the creature he wishes to entrap, are skilful to spread the toils into which we are most likely to fall, to weave the airy, unsubstantial phantoms by the fascinations of which we may be most easily led on to the very verge of the pit of destruction? Such a view, I think, we are justified in taking. It is not fanciful; it is not poetical. It is plain, simple matter of fact.

III. No neutrality.—The conflict between these two kingdoms is even now going on. And the formidable, the almost appalling thought is this, that we are compelled, whether we like it or not, to take our part in it. We might wish to stand aloof as mere spectators; perhaps we do wish to be spared the trouble, the effort, the strain, the risk of it. But that cannot be. We must take one side or the other. We must be for Christ, or against Him. And the veriest trifler, who flits about, butterfly-like, from pleasure to pleasure, in apparent innocence and gaiety of heart, doing no harm (as we say), but also doing no good, is and must be implicated in this great strife, which is going on through the ages, and which, if we had only the faculties to look into the heart of things, we should see to be in deed and in truth shaking both heaven and earth.

Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

Illustration

‘In that terrible scene, when the future Judge of all was brought up to the bar of a human judge, and was accused and condemned by His own creatures, Pilate laboured hard to exonerate himself from responsibility, to lay the burden upon others’ shoulders, to stand aside himself, so as not to be implicated and entangled with one party or the other; and he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, in order to show how completely (as he thought) he had succeeded in the attempt. But he had not succeeded. He was under the necessity of taking his side for or against, as all men have to do when Christ appears before them.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE STRONG MAN ARMED

When Christ cast out an evil spirit from a man, it was in itself a great act. But Christ gave it a far greater importance, by the way in which He taught us to regard it. It was not, He said, a solitary miracle; it was a part of a great undertaking which He was accomplishing.

I. The house.—Every one’s own heart is ‘a house,’ or ‘a palace,’ which Satan, as ‘a strong man armed,’ holds and keeps. So long as ‘the strong man’ holds his ‘palace’ on an undisputed tenure, it is all quiet; ‘his goods’—alas that the man himself is among the chattels!—‘his goods are in peace.’ But when Christ, Who is represented as the stronger One—when ‘the stronger One’ comes, there is warfare, warfare to the death; and this warfare in the breast is the first, and for a long while, the only token for good.

II. The ‘binding.’—See how He ‘binds.’ A little while ago some straitening circumstances happened to you, and you felt strangely circumscribed. You chafed against the restraint which you felt but could not overcome. Or a very heavy trial almost crushed you, or a very deep humiliation visited your heart, or for a while you were utterly shut in to dark and dreary thoughts. The mystery grew very deep. But, unknown to you, ‘the stronger’ was binding ‘the strong one.’ The fire of persecution and shame and suffering that was kindled upon you—it was not to burn you, but the enemies that were spiritually oppressing you; and at the same time, it consumed the bands that encircled you, and set you free, to walk joyfully through the furnace.

III. ‘The spoil.’—‘He will bind the strong man, and then He will spoil his house.’ The habit of sin broken, the power of sin reduced, the love of sin destroyed, the soul is emancipated; and now Christ is free to claim His own property, which His own blood has purchased and His own right hand has rescued. Has not He a right? Are not all ‘the spoils’ His?