The Impure Spirit? Jared Robinson
The impure spirit?
When Jesus showed up on the scene, people were trying to decipher if he was the Messiah they were expecting. The question of how he was going to redeem was also on the table.
Imagine being at church …WITH the one you came to learn about. But then a commotion breaks out in the third row. Everyone turns around to see who’s yelling, only to see “a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit crying out, “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!” (Mark 1:23-24)
So instead of avoiding the conflict by slipping away for a second cup of coffee in the lobby, perhaps we engage the questions that bubble up.
What exactly is an impure spirit?
Is it an extrinsic ghostlike being trapped inside a human host?Or is it more like that internal part of us that isn’t living into the truth of the spirit of love? Either way, it seems to have been threatened by Jesus here. Perhaps because Jesus was the opposite of what it was. Impure will always be threatened by Pure. Untruth will always be challenged by “Truth,” which is one of the ways Jesus describes Himself as (John 14:6).
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