Jesus and the Demons

I love Jesus’ authority over the demonic. In an age when the occult is celebrated in popular culture, and when the demonic is portrayed as relentlessly, frightfully, overwhelmingly powerful, it’s great to see Christ’s effortless domination of fallen angels.

Consider how Christ freed the Gerasene demoniac (Luke 8:26-39). What a glorious example of our Savior’s liberating grace! The demonized man must have been as miserable and hopeless as any human being can be. Helplessly under the sway of a horde of demons, he was out of control and out of his mind, a monster who was a danger to himself and to everyone in the community.

The demonic infestation were terrified of Christ, and begged Jesus not to torment them (8:29). They couldn't make a move without Jesus’ permission.

One of the curiosities of the story is when Jesus asked the demons’ name. Some people claim He did this to exercise control over the demons. Get their name and you have power over them. But Jesus already had power over them, had had it since He created them as angels millennia before, and He certainly didn’t need to be told anyone’s name.

Demonic Oppression and the Finger of God

I have a pastor friend from West Africa who is an expert on spiritual warfare. He has told me many stories about demonized people he has helped. A few years ago my friend came to America for a conference, and some of us who knew his expertise asked him to do a workshop to equip us to help people oppressed by demons.

It was a good workshop, but the ministry my friend described seemed incredibly demanding, even frightening. After the training, I didn’t feel a great deal better prepared.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I was reading another of Jesus’ face-offs with His critics in Luke chapter 11. Jesus cast out a demon that was rendering a man mute. Christ’s enemies claimed, blasphemously, that He had cast the demon out by the power of Satan (Luke 11:15).

Jesus showed what a spiritual and logical absurdity it would be to try to wield demonic power against demonic power. But then He made this statement: But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Luke 11:20

The finger of God. That phrase goes all the way back to Exodus 8, where God used Moses to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt. Pharaoh’s fake magicians kept up with Moses’ “signs and wonders” at first. But when Moses struck the earth with his staff and swarms of gnats began to invade the land, the magicians were stymied. Defeated, they told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:19).

God doesn’t even need His whole hand. Just a finger will do. Simply by lifting a finger He can control nature, write His law on stone tablets, heal broken people, and cast out demons. So when our Savior said He cast demons out “by the finger of God,” it was because it’s His finger!

You and I don’t need to be afraid of death or hell or demons or sinful human beings when we are under the protection of such a Savior.