Unbinding the Strong Man: Is Peace Possible?

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. (Mk 3:24-25)

Jesus’ critics, witnessing his strange power to bring healing and grace into the most broken of human situations, have accused him of being possessed by an unclean spirit. “By the prince of demons,” they say, “he drives out demons.” Summoning them over, Jesus asks them a straightforward question: “How can Satan drive out Satan?” (Mk 3:22-30)

It is not hard to see the “demons” of division busy at work in society and church. Evidence of their power to pit us against each other is the stuff of daily headlines and the 24-hour cable news cycle. They make war, destroy the earth, splinter families, parishes, governments, and nations, and sell a lot of newspapers.

Yet those same demons, as Mark’s Gospel relentlessly reminds us, occupy every person’s stubborn mind and wounded heart, dividing us against our very selves. Who does not wrestle with the unclean spirits of self-doubt, cynicism, apathy, or creeping despair? Who does not secretly fear and wish to hold at bay a certain category of “other”?

To “blaspheme against the Holy Spirit,” Jesus warns, is to let these dark spirits bind and rule our consciousness and dictate our actions. By contrast, to “unbind the strong man,” in Jesus’ vivid imagery, is to set free the power of God who dwells in each of us, male and female alike – the always unexpected, fiercely undomesticated, Spirit of empathy and kinship, welcoming and pardon.

We all harbor unclean spirits. The enemy taunts us from within and from without, daring us to strike back, to pronounce sentence, to win. But the desire for reconciliation, God’s own freedom to unbind the hardening knot of our most trenchant personal and collective sins, lives stronger and deeper in us. We do not have to let Satan win. The face of Christ is there, hidden in light and shadow, calling us forward into our freedom for liberation, mercy, and love.

Today, Jesus, and in this Holy Week of your Passion, I bring before you those broken and angry places where my heart is bound and divided: against myself; against family members or co-workers; against people “out there” in society and church. Lord, I ask you to help me keep these spirits at bay, and fill me with your Spirit of patience, mercy, and peace. Help me in all things today, beginning with myself, to be a peacemaker.

Open our eyes to truth and galvanize our courage to seek justice for those who are most feared and marginalized. Unbind our freedom for love so that all may be welcomed into the circle of fellowship.

In you, I am strong, without you, I am weak. Come Lord Jesus, come.

Bryan says:

April 1, 2015 at 12:45 am

What a beautiful prayer. Thanks so much man. BC

Rosemary Kearney says:

April 3, 2015 at 5:32 pm

Having been to the Stations of the Cross this morning, I resonated with the unbinding of the ‘strong man’ that you write about Chris. You ask: Is peace possible? From what I experienced this morning I’m sure it is – but it depends on each one of us taking the way of the cross. Jesus went all the way. I’m only willing in fits and starts but all the way is what peace in the face of difference takes. Violence is the voice of the unloved and lonely – Christ is on every street I walk. “I repent with my whole heart for having offended you, Never permit me to separate myself from you again, Grant that I may love you always and then do with me what you will.” The way of the cross is the way of love. The earth belongs to the gentle, the meek, the vulnerable. Those who do not need to settle scores or secure the future:Those who turn the other cheek. We adore you O Christ , and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. And yet, few understand this openness to life better than the women Jesus meets on the road to his death – his mother, Mary Magdalene, Veronica, the women of Jerusalem. When we share each other’s burdens, like Simon, we partake of the mercy of God. The way to compassionate love is downwards. We embrace the earth to fill it will the Divine Presence – there is no place too dark, too empty, too filled with despair to escape that Presence. It is a fierce love that will not let us go. In Jesus nakedness we encounter the disarmament which is at the heart of loving without reserve which is the nature of God. It is unconditional and indiscriminate for all life and gives itself even unto death. Unless a seed falls into the earth and dies it remains unfulfilled but if it dies it brings forth much fruit – the life more abundant. Lord Jesus Christ grant me the willingness to die to all that separates me from Divine love, let me love you always, then do with me what you will.

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