Casting Demons
Imagine if you could cast out illness like a demon.
Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” - Luke 11:14–23
In other encounters with Jesus, the illness if cured without exorcising demons. Jesus heals a blind man by touching his eyes with mud, for example. But here, the demon is the cause of the man being mute.
Are there two different types of illness, those one is born with and those that are brought upon by demons?
Perhaps the difference has to do with repairs. The blind man's eyes need to be repaired. He is not blind because a blind demon has power over him. But the mute demon shuts down the man's ability to speak. His ability is not broken but simply suppressed.
Is the delineation between mental illnesses and physical illnesses, then?
The man living in the cave was possessed by demons, while the woman who was hemorrhaging was not. Jesus could repair her, while the man needed his demons cast out.
It could be this was just the way people understood the world back then, but it would be intriguing if people could be made well by casting the foreign influencers out, like viruses and mental illnesses.
Maybe the day will come when we can do what Jesus could do, but for now, we battle diseases differently.
And even if we could cast them out, there would be those who think us evil.
More to come...