The exorcism of the
world
A striking difference between John and the Synoptics is
that John’s Gospel does not include any reference to exorcisms. Satan is not
associated with demons at all here. The author of this Gospel must have known
about Jesus’s reputation as an exorcist. Why does he not mention a single
exorcism? We have noted that there are many other things that the Synoptics
mention that John fails to mention. He may have felt that Jesus’ exorcisms were
so well known they need not be mentioned again. But this is not entirely
convincing—John repeats other miracles found in the Synoptics, such as Jesus
walking on the sea (John 6:16-21; cf. Mark 6:45-52). Why did he include this
account, but not make a single reference to exorcisms? It has been suggested
that exorcisms had become an embarrassment. When focus was put on Jesus’
exorcisms, people began to pose awkward questions and to associate Jesus too
closely with demons or with the wrong kind of exorcists. Yet even though no
exorcisms are described, Jesus himself is still accused of being possessed in
John (7:20; 8:48; 10:20), so John was presumably not too worried about this
charge.
The best explanation for the lack of exorcisms in John is
that they would detract from the main point he was trying to make. John has
carefully decided what material to include in his account. As he explains
toward the end of his work, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of
his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, so
that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and
that through believing you may have life in his name” (20:30-31 NRSV). He
refers to the various miracles that Jesus wrought as signs, and they are all
intended to encourage faith on the part of the reader. Exorcisms are not the
best of signs; Jesus was by no means unique in casting out demons (although he
may have been more effective than the other exorcisms), and exorcisms were
liable to be misinterpreted, as being carried out by the power of a high
ranking demon or the devil himself. Exorcisms distract from John’s central
point: his point is that all people are under Satan’s realm, not just the
demoniacs. John’s story is about how Jesus frees mankind from the devil rather
than on how he frees individual demoniacs from demons.
Although he does not tell of any exorcisms, John still
uses exorcistic imagery. Jesus says that when he is lifted up from the earth,
that is to say when he is crucified and exalted, the ruler of this world is
thrown out (12:31-33). The same verb εκβαλλω is used in the Synoptic Gospels in connection with
casting our demons (e.g., Mark 1:34). Christ’s death, resurrection and
ascension occasion the ultimate exorcism that the synoptic exorcisms
foreshadowed. John refers to the devil as the ruler of the world, suggesting
that he controlled the people of the world. The situation is analogous to how
demons in other Gospels are portrayed as controlling people and speaking
through them. But while possessed persons were thought not to be in their right
mind and were not held accountable for their actions, the people of the world
had contributed to their state of bondage. In John’s understanding, Satan has
power over people because of their sins. Those who sin are slaves to sin (John
8:34) and are children of the devil (8:44), who is the ultimate source of sin
(1 John 3:8). In discussing Mark’s Gospel, I noted that Forsyth compared that
Gospel with the Old Testament histories. He argued that “the general direction
of the Markan gospel . . . is away from the standard story of a war with
external enemies and instead toward a more personal and inward struggle.”
(Forsyth, Old Enemy, 291) The tendency Forsyth described in Mark is
taken a step further in John. The enemy that must be fought in John’s account
is one that has been internalized by humanity. It is not enough to expel demons
from people; their hearts have to be healed (John 12:36-40), and that can only
be done when Satan’s reign over them is broken. (Torsten Löfstedt, The
Devil, Demons, Judas, and “the Jews”: Opponents of Christ in the Gospels [Eugene,
Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2021], 329-31)
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