O Come All Ye Faith-FULL. . .

Mark 9:14-29, CEB - When Jesus, Peter, James, and John approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them and legal experts arguing with them.  Suddenly the whole crowd caught sight of Jesus. They ran to greet him, overcome with excitement.  Jesus asked them, “What are you arguing about?”

Someone from the crowd responded, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, since he has a spirit that doesn’t allow him to speak. Wherever it overpowers him, it throws him into a fit. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and stiffens up. So I spoke to your disciples to see if they could throw it out, but they couldn’t.”

Jesus answered them, “You faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”

They brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a fit. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.  Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been going on?”

He said, “Since he was a child. It has often thrown him into a fire or into water trying to kill him. If you can do anything, help us! Show us compassion!”

Jesus said to him, “‘If you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”

At that the boy’s father cried out, “I have faith; help my lack of faith!”

Noticing that the crowd had surged together, Jesus spoke harshly to the unclean spirit, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you to come out of him and never enter him again.”  After screaming and shaking the boy horribly, the spirit came out. The boy seemed to be dead; in fact, several people said that he had died.  But Jesus took his hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

After Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we throw this spirit out?”

Jesus answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.”

 

                Of the three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) that include this story, Mark’s is the longest account.  That can create the temptation to get bogged down in the details (which is actually kinda fun for me).  The danger in that is to miss the forest for the trees.  The thread that runs through the entire story is faith vs. unbelief.  The story opens with Jesus and his inner circle of three (Peter, James, and John) returning to the other disciples who are arguing with the experts in the law.  The argument seems to concern the disciples inability to cast out a demon in a boy brought to them.  When Jesus finds this out, he is obviously frustrated and He says exactly why.  They are faithless.  Let me say this another way to be clear.  The boy’s demon was not exorcised because they didn’t have the correct interpretation of the law (which is what they were arguing about).  The demon continued to torture the boy because they lacked faith. 

                The next conversation takes place between Jesus and the boy’s father.  This conversation also leads to the issue of faith.  The father is pleading to help his boy, “if you can.”  Jesus is much more compassionate in His response here, for the father here has not been witness to the hundreds of miracles that Jesus’s disciples have.

                “‘If you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”

The father’s response is one of my favorite statements in the entire bible.

                “I have faith; help my lack of faith!”

                The father did have some measure of faith.  After all, he took the time to bring the boy to Jesus’s disciples and then to Jesus, even after Jesus’s disciples were unable to help.  What is particularly striking about the father’s faith is that it is faith that recognizes that more faith is needed.  It is faith seeking more faith.  It is after this faith is expressed by the father that Jesus commands the demon to leave the boy never come back. 

                This leads us to the closing conversation in this story – the private conversation later between Jesus and His disciples about why they could not cast out the boy’s demon:

                Jesus answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.”

The word “prayer” here, in the larger context of the story, means much more than uttering some words in God’s direction.  It is a way to talk about the same “faith looking for more faith.”  We pray, not simply to get God to do something, but more to intentionally express our dependence on God for all that is beyond our power and/or control.  We pray to connect with the God is already doing something about the situations for which we pray.   

                There was a saying that was used quite often when I was growing up to describe the deeply spiritual saints among us.  We would say something like, “Oh Dan, he’s a man of great prayer” or “Judy is certainly a prayerful woman.”  We didn’t say this to describe the beauty of their public prayers.  We said to speak to their deep dependence on God that was evident in how they approached everything in their life.  It is this kind of living that demons flee from, for they know they are outmatched.  It is this kind of faith that sees miraculous things happen.  May we all aim for that.  We believe. . .help our unbelief!

 

Question:  Can you point to tangible ways that you are working to grow your dependence on God right now?

 

Prayer:  Lord we believe! Help our unbelief! Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for political prisoners held in prisons all over the world right now.

 

Song:  O Come All Ye Faithful – Third Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsqNCWOycNw

Let the Healing Begin

Mark 1: 29-34 - As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.  So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.  The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. 

 

After having a promising start to his public ministry, Jesus and his new disciples go to the home of Simon (Peter) and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed sick, so Jesus went in to see her.  He heals her sickness and evidently the word spreads quickly.  Soon the entire town is at the door with all the sick and demon-afflicted.  Jesus graciously heals them all.  He drives out all the demons.  The authority Jesus publicly established at the synagogue is demonstrated in a more private setting.  The point made here is that Jesus heals not because it shows His authority (though it definitely does that?); he heals because is moved with compassion for those sick and tormented.

 

In the New Testament, it is fairly common to come across those afflicted by demons.  Unless you consider all the the horror-genre films of our present culture, this “demon talk” causes a disconnect with us in the twenty-first century.  But that need not be the case.  Mental illness was not a term used in the first century.  The fields of psychology and psychiatry will not be founded for another fifteen-hundred years.  Mental illness is the term that we generally use to describe the same people in those New Testament stories.  Though I do not deny the existence of evil spirits that torment humans, this is not the norm.  That is why I use the term heal above to address both the sick and tormented that Jesus encountered in this passage. 

 

Truth be told, most of us human beings have our “demons.”  We find ourselves mentally tormented by thoughts and feelings that we can’t seem to control, much less cast out ourselves.  The bridge between these kinds of passages and our own time is that in Jesus’s compassion, He wants to heal us as well. 

 

Question:  How would describe the “demons” that torment you?  Do you believe that Jesus can deliver you?

 

Prayer:  Jesus cast out  and silence our demons – all that torments us spiritually, mentally, and emotionally  - all that keeps us from the life that is truly life that you want for us.  Heal us and those we love by Your authority.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those you know that struggle with mental illness.

 

Song:  Heal – Tom Odell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prsRiVTKqYg

“As One w/ Authority”

Mark 1:21-28 - They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.  The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.  Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried 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!”

“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!”  The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”  News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

 

This is Jesus’s public synagogue teaching debut in the book of Mark and he makes a big splash.  Like the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, people immediately realize they are experiencing something brand new.  They describe their surprise because Jesus teaches “as one with authority.”  You see, before Jesus, the Rabbi’s, scribes, and other spiritual leaders speak from the authority of what has been written by others, namely what we now call the Old testament and the many Rabbinical Writings written about the Old Testament scriptures.  Jesus may reference those documents, but He speaks as one who has His own innate authority that matches and even exceeds those of the scriptures.   He then demonstrates this unique authority by commanding demons to “hush” and come out of the man they had possessed.  Shockingly, the demons obey.  The people are amazed by this because they have never encountered it before.  It is as if God is speaking directly to them and commanding demons in that very room.  It seems like that because that is exactly what is happening. 

 

This text raises a monumental issue for the Judeo-Christian tradition that is still being wrestled with today.  Do the teachings of Jesus have more authority than that of the Old Testament?  Hundreds of very long books have been written that attempt to answer that question.  I have read several of them over the years, but I do not aspire to answer the question definitely.  I have a personal conviction and I simply share it with you here.  I believe Jesus’s teachings do deserve primary consideration within the scriptures contained in the Old and New Testaments. 

 

I believe this for at least a couple of pretty unscholarly reasons.  Nevertheless, they are reasons.  First, Jesus Himself seems to think that His authority is greater than what was written before.  In several places within the Gospels, Jesus quotes scripture and then personally supplants it.  Often, it goes something like this; “You have heard it said …,” (fill in the blank with a known scriptural quotation), “but I say . . ..”  Jesus goes on to introduce a new teaching that supercedes or changes the previous scriptural teaching.  My second reason is that if I believe Jesus to be God in the flesh, than it makes sense that what He says carries more authority than what someone else wrote about their experience of what God said.  If I hear my brother relay something to me that my Dad said, but then I personally hear my Dad say something different on the same issue, I tend to trust the first person experience over the hearsay. 

 

I like the illustration that Adam Hamilton uses to support the same idea.  He says that the teachings and commands of Jesus serve as a filter or “colander” to sift through the whole of the scriptural writings.  This by no means invalidates the Old Testament or the other New testament authors, but all of that should be interpreted in the light of the revelation of Jesus.  As Hamilton himself states, "It is Jesus who serves as the final Word by which other words of scripture are to be judged."  (p. 177, Making Sense of the Bible)

 

Jesus is my scriptural colander.  You don’t have to agree with me, but I do invite you to think about it. 

 

Question:  We all pick and choose “our favorite scriptures.” On what basis do you decide what your favorite scriptures are?

 

Prayer:  God, I thank you for becoming a human being and speaking your Word directly to us.  May your teachings guide all that we do and how we live. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to bless people you have a hard time agreeing with today.  I know it’s hard, but do it anyway. 

 

Song:  The B-I-B-L-E – Kids Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8qgSZsL6k0

Matthew 12:30-37 - The Unforgivable Sin?

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 25, 2021

The Unforgivable Sin?

 

Matthew 12:30-37, NIV - “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 

As a pastor, I’ve gotten more questions about the “unforgivable sin” than anything else.  Of course, we would naturally worry about something we could do to cause God to “write us off” permanently.  So it is important to gain some clarity about what Jesus is suggesting here is unforgivable.

  The first thing we need to note is who Jesus is talking to here – the murderous pharisees.  As we talked about last time, the pharisees are so angry at Jesus that they have begun to look at everything He says and does as a possible reason to have Him killed.  He has just cast out a demon and healed a man and the pharisees make the ridiculous accusation that Jesus has cast out a demon by the power of demons.  Jesus rightly points out that the pharisees have witnessed demon exorcisms before and they never attributed such miracles to demonic power before – He is exposing their accusations as being motivated by something other than truth.  And then he utters a very pointed warning that has caused untold millions to wonder about the unforgivable sin:

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (v. 32)

It is crucial to note here that Jesus is issuing a warning here, not an indictment.  Jesus doesn’t say that the religious teachers have committed the unpardonable sin, but he is alerting Holy Spirtiuthem that they are right on the edge.  They can hate on Jesus all they want, but when they let their anger carry them away so far that they begin attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to the Prince of Demons, they will have gone too far.  It not so much that God has turned away from such offenders as the offenders have permanently turned their back on God.  To receive God’s forgiveness, one has to want it in the first place.  Jesus is teaching us here that people who attribute God’s power to the Devil don’t want forgiveness and further, God will not forgive someone against their wishes.  

                If you are one who even cares in the slightest that there is something God will not forgive, you are, by definition, NOT someone who could commit that which is unforgiveable.  What I would suggest we take away from this exchange between Jesus and the pharisees is not the unforgivable sin, but the larger point that Jesus is making.  Jesus states this point plainly at the end of the exchange:

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (v. 33-35)

When you focus your life on bad things (like looking for a pretext to kill someone), the eventual result of such a focus makes you a “bad tree.”  When you focus on producing good things, the opposite happens; a “good tree” is the result.  When you store up anger and rage, you literally ruin yourself from the inside out; the resulting toxicity can’t help but come out.  When you store away goodness in your soul, it too will be borne out in your actions. 

Question:  When you “take inventory” of your soul, what have you been storing up?

 

Prayer:  Show us the true motivations of my heart O, God.  Shine light into my darkness that I might turn and focus on your light.  Plant in me the things that make for a “good tree” that produces good fruit.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:   Pray for God to show you one new source of goodness today from which you could begin to focus on. 

 

Song:   Whatever is True – Vineyard Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgC1hWKMBUo

Matthew 11:16-19 - Seeing the World As We Are

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 15, 2021

Seeing the World as We Are

 

Matthew 11:16-19, The Voice - What is this generation like? You are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out, “When we played the flute, you did not dance; and when we sang a dirge, you did not mourn.”  What I mean is this: When John came, he dressed in the clothes of a prophet, and he did not eat and drink like others but lived on honey and wild locusts. And people wondered if he was crazy, if he had been possessed by a demon.  Then the Son of Man appeared—He didn’t fast, as John had, but ate with sinners and drank wine. And the people said, “This man is a glutton! He’s a drunk! And He hangs around with tax collectors and sinners, to boot.” Well, Wisdom will be vindicated by her actions—not by your opinions.

 

In the passage for today, Jesus is lamenting the resistance to God’s kingdom that he mentioned in his defense of John that we read yesterday.  John was labeled demon-possessed because he didn’t do what the people expected.  Jesus Himself was labeled a glutton and a drunk for eating and drinking with the wrong sorts of people.  This may sound like nothing more than Jesus venting about the hard time he and John have had as they have pursued their mission, but I invite us to see the deeper principle that he is describing because it is still being played out two thousand years later as God’s kingdom continues to unfold. 

                People naturally struggle with being called to a new way of living.  John called people to repent because the Kingdom of God was coming.  Some people did, but most continued as if nothing had happened.  Jesus announces that the Kingdom has arrived and the people repeatedly ran Him out of town.  As we’ll see in tomorrow’s passage, he performed miraculous works in multiple towns with barely any response.  Ultimately, we know that Jesus and His Kingdom were rejected forcefully when He was nailed to a cross.  When you call people to change the way they are living, even when embracing that change can help them, they often respond drastically to keep doing what they have been doing.

                I point this out as if it is only others that act this way; it is not.  I act this way too.  I often react badly when others, however lovingly, tried to point out an error in my thinking and/or doing.  When God first called me to be a pastor, I pursued at least three other vocations before I became open to what God was offering.  Almost always, when I am confronted with a truth that requires me to change my thinking or behavior, my first instinct is to fight it or go in the other direction.   Over the years, I’ve gotten better at recognizing when this instinctive reaction has been triggered and I sometimes am able to override it with some clear thinking and engaged faith.  But that first instinct to resist has never gone away in me.  And in my decades of observation of others, I know I’m not the only one with this issue.

                The Kingdom of God is still unfolding; the revolution that John announced and Jesus catalyzed is still calling us to live differently than we are now.  We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but for today consider this question.

 

Question:  What is something you know God wants you to do differently but, as of this moment, the resistance instinct in you has won out?

 

Prayer:  Have mercy on us, Savior.  Help us confront the resistance to Your kingdom that persists in our spirit so that we may embrace the life that truly is life.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time confessing your own personal struggles with doing what you know is right to God today.

 

Song:  Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps&t=23s

Matthew 9:27-34 - Becoming What We Believe

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric September 30, 2021

Becoming What We Believe

 

Matthew 9:27-34, The Message - As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!” He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. “Don’t let a soul know how this happened.” But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met.

Right after that, as the blind men were leaving, a man who had been struck speechless by an evil spirit was brought to Jesus. As soon as Jesus threw the evil tormenting spirit out, the man talked away just as if he’d been talking all his life. The people were up on their feet applauding: “There’s never been anything like this in Israel!”

The Pharisees were left sputtering, “Smoke and mirrors. It’s nothing but smoke and mirrors. He’s probably made a pact with the Devil.”

 

“Become what you believe.”  I love Eugene Peterson’s translation here.  Jesus asks the two blind men if they believe they can see by Jesus’s power.  They do and so Jesus allows them to become what they believe – men who can see.  It begs the question, “what do you believe you can be with the touch of Jesus?”

                Jesus tells the newly sighted men sternly not to tell anyone, having to know that they were going to tell everyone they met.  I wish I knew exactly why Jesus gave this instruction.  I have heard many scholars float many theories on the reason for the instructed secrecy, but none of them are compelling to me.  My best guess is that Jesus didn’t want to become known as simply a healer.  He wasn’t interested in becoming a spectacle for thousands who wanted to see the next miracle rather than hear the announcement that the Kingdom of God has arrived.  The healing Jesus wants to be known for is the ”healing” of the entire world. 

                Immediately after this, Jesus casts out another demon from a man who could not speak because of the hold the demon had on him.  The people’s reaction is that, “there’s never been anything like this in Israel!” They can’t be referring to the healings for there were plenty of documented healings in the Jewish scriptures (i.e…the Old Testament).  It seems more likely that the people were talking about the authority of Jesus.  It seems that nothing, not even demons can defy Jesus’s authority.  The people are noting that a human being seems to have Divine authority.  Certainly, as we have discussed in other passages, Matthew wants us to come to the same conclusion as the people.  There has never been anything on the earth like Jesus.  Have you, my friend, come to that conclusion?

                Finally, if the Pharisees were impressed by these events (and I believe that they were), they are even more concerned about the fact that crowds are coming to the conclusion that Jesus represents a brand new, never-seen-before revelation of God’s authority.  This is an Authority which challenges the Pharisees own authority. Lest we think we’re better than that, we would do well to consider the times in our lives when the next big thing overshadows that old thing that we have.  It’s hard to embrace Something, however wonderful it is, when that Something is personally threatening.  Make no mistake;  if we truly embrace Jesus, it WILL require us to let go of our own authority and power. 

                This brings us back to Jesus’s question to the two blind men, “do you really believe that I [Jesus] can do this [bring you sight]?” Jesus is asking the two men if they believe that Jesus has the authority to command their eyes to see.  The message here is that we can indeed “become what we believe,” but not by hard work and positive thinking.  We become what we believe when place ourselves fully under the authority of Jesus.  Tomorrow, we’ll explore some the implications of this.  But for now, consider again the questions above.

 

Questions:  What do you believe you can become with the touch of Jesus? Have you come to the conclusion that there is no one in history with the authority that Jesus has?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, demons believe in your authority and shudder. Storms obey your every command.  Diseases and afflictions fall away at your touch and/or word.   Yet, we confess that we sometimes struggle to trust your authority.  “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”  Help us become what we believe by fully submitting to your Lordship.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to give you a vision and faith for what you can become by Jesus’s authority.

 

Song:  So Will I – Hillsong Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfVd5x9W1Xc  

Matthew 8:28-34 - Jesus and the Demons

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric September 23, 2021

Jesus and the Demons

 

Matthew 8:28-34, NRSV - When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way.  Suddenly they shouted, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”  Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them.  The demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”  And he said to them, “Go!” So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water.  The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs.  Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.

 

                This is a story that seems very strange to 21^st century folks for many reasons.  First, other than in the horror genre of tv/movies, we don’t talk much about demons anymore.  When most scholars do so, they often downplay them as mental illness and misunderstood afflictions that are better explained by modern science.  And of course, even over the last century as medical science and psychology have made enormous strides in explaining bizarre behavior that people used to describe as demonic.  However, I would caution us to listen to this story from the perspective of first-century folks, who were more convinced that there were real evil powers at work in the world than we moderns often are.  To the extent we can do that, we will be able to see the power of this story. So let’s pay attention to some of the details here.

                First, immediately upon getting out of the boat, the demons recognize Jesus.  This is very significant.  The people following Jesus around are still trying to wrap their mind around who Jesus is.  This is evident in yesterday’s story when they ask, “who is this that the wind and waves obey him?”  However, the demons know without question that Jesus is the Son of God and they address him as such.  Furthermore, they know that Jesus has complete authority over them.  Let’s not gloss over that.  The demons have completely taken control of the two men and are reeking havoc.  They have caused so much violence and destruction that the people of the region deemed the road where they lingered as unsafe for travel.  Yet, the demons readily concede that their fate is in Jesus’s hands.  They assume they will no longer be able to torment the men they inhabit, so they plead with Jesus to allow them to inhabit the nearby herd of pigs.  Jesus obliges with a simple command, Go!.” 

                Throughout the last few stories, Matthew is trying to help us see clearly that Jesus is the Son of God who holds complete authority.  Diseases like leprosy, violent storms, and demons obey His command.  He doesn’t even have to be physically present to heal (ie… the Roman Captain’s servant).  His word (Go!) and His touch (Peter’s mother-in-law) make things right again.  In Jesus, the God of the Universe walks among mortals and all are under his authority.  Matthew wants you to hear that above everything else.  There is nothing in your life outside the authority of Jesus.  Matthew wants you to acknowledge that at least as much as the demons do.  Take a few moments to ponder that before continuing to read.

                Back to the pigs.  Upon being inhabited by the demons, they are destroyed.  We need to note here that Jews hearing this story would not have worried about the loss of the pigs at all.  They were considered unclean animals and Jews were forbidden from eating them and raising them.  The very presence of the pigs tells us Jesus is in non-Jewish/gentile country, for only gentiles raise pigs.  This sheds some light on why the townspeople were upset about the affair because the pigs WERE valuable to them for eating and livelihood.

I have to admit that I see their point.  Matthew doesn’t say how many pigs there were, but Mark, who tells the same story in his Gospel (Mark 5:13), says there were two thousand pigs.  I hear that and I think, “that’s a lot of expensive bacon and pork chops!”  I’m not upset with Jesus about it, but I do wonder why Jesus allows them to possess the herd of pigs knowing that the pigs will be lost.  Perhaps it was to prevent them from torturing other people.  Maybe being cast into the sea accomplishes something we are not aware of that Jesus is.  The bottom line is that we don’t know and also, Matthew doesn’t tell us.  Rather, Matthew wraps up the story with Jesus being driven out of town after He has driven out demons.  The town folk don’t want miracle-worker around if He’s going to mess with their economy.  The town folk are more okay with two men being eternally tortured by demons outside of town than they are with losing precious bacon and pork chops.

They are not the only folk to prioritize commodities over the suffering of human beings.  Sadly, the same priority is seen even today.  Matthew would have us see that.  Jesus would have us see that.  We should ask ourselves, “do we see that?”  And even more than that, we should always ask ourselves, are we those folks with ill-conceived priorities?

 

Questions:  Two different questions today:  (1) Do we have the at least the same level of confidence in Jesus’s authority over the demons that plague us that the demons in today’s story have?  (2)  Where do you see wealth being prioritized over the alleviation of suffering even today?

 

Prayer:  God, deliver us from the demons that torture us, even if that deliverance is costly.  Help us never place wealth over people.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who seem mired in and tortured by real evil forces in this world.

 

Song:  Zach Williams – Song of Deliverance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZNXii1gzhk