Category: Mark (Page 4 of 6)

  A sellfie is “an image of oneself taken by oneself using oneself’s digital camera especially for posting on oneself’s social network.”  Okay, I inserted the last two oneself’s, not Merriam-Webster, to show (as if needed) the self nature of selfies.

How counter to culture Jesus spoke!
“If anyone would come after me,
let him DENY HIMSELF . . . ” (Mark 8:34b). 

* * * * *

 It was a rough conversation for the disciples.  First, after Peter acknowledged Jesus as Messiah,  Jesus told them Messiah must suffer, be rejected and killed, then rise again.  Shocked, Peter rebuked Jesus.  Which leads to the second bump in the road—Jesus rebuked Peter, called him Satan, and chastised him for thinking like a mere man and not God.  Now comes the third bump in the conversation . . .

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them,
“If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself
and take up his cross
and follow me” (8:34).

That’s death language.  “Cross” isn’t shining jewelry; it’s a rough, bloody frame for crucifying criminals.  Jesus will deny himself and take up his cross.  Therefore, anyone who would come after him must follow him by being willing to do the same.

Did Jesus mean anyone who would come after him?  It’s a critical question.  Was this requirement meant only for those first disciples and that crowd?  Look at the broad sweep of Jesus’ words . . .

“if ANYONE  would come after me . . .
For WHOEVER would save his life will lose it,
but WHOEVER loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it . . .
For WHOEVER is ashamed of me and my word
in this adulterous and sinful generation . . . “

“Anyone” and “whoever” mean “anyone” and “whoever”.  The apostles’ martyr-deaths help confirm it.  So do the martyr-deaths of persecuted Jesus-followers in the world today.  Here’s an example of a woman named Asmita on the 8thirty8 Facebook website (https://www.facebook.com/8thirty8) . . .

A Hindu mob forced her husband, Pastor Digal, to convert to Hinduism or die. When he refused, they buried him in a muddy pit up to his neck for two full days, leaving only his head exposed. At one point Digal asked for water, and one of his captors urinated into his mouth. On the third day, they took him out and asked ‘Are you willing to convert?’ and every time he said no. In response, they cut off each of his limbs, one by one.

“My husband gave his life for the Lord. It’s caused me great problems for my earthly life, but in spite of everything, I won’t deny Jesus Christ, and my children will grow up knowing him!”

And Jesus meant ANYONE.

What does that imply about how we invite people to “accept Jesus”?  You’ve heard it.  “Bow your heads.  Close your eyes.  No one looking around.  If you want to accept Jesus, just slip your hand up.  No one’s looking.  I see those hands.  Now, if you raised your hand, repeat this prayer after me.  In fact, let’s have everyone repeat it (so no one gets embarrassed). ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name.  Amen.'”

Not even a hint of “let him deny himself and take up his cross” in that prayer.  Will someone who became a believer so comfortably be ready to die for Jesus?  Some will argue that Jesus didn’t “spring” this dying thing on his disciples until they’d followed him about two years.  (I guess, timing is everything.)  Most of us have followed Jesus for years.  So how about these questions now?

Am I willing to suffer for Jesus?  Am I willing to die for Jesus?  Tom Doyle climaxes his inspirational, soul-stirring book, Killing Christians–Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to Believe (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512aJsLGS1L._AA160_.jpg), with these words:

 “Did I think just because I live in America that I would never be faced with the possibility of dying for my faith?  Because we have the strongest military in the world, that that option was off the table?  No, friend, that option has always been on the table—whether we knew it or not.  So . . . it’s probably time to settle this in your soul, once and for all.  Take some time to let God search your heart.  Then answer:

• Am I willing to suffer for Jesus?
• Am I willing to die for Jesus?

Why are those such hard questions to answer honestly?  (1) Because we are blessed to live in a country where violent persecution doesn’t exist.  But Islamic terrorists are here!  Whether they’re merely ISIS-influenced or ISIS-trained makes no difference when bullets fly.  If they’re killing Christians in the Middle East, how long before they do it here?  And how well-prepared do you think our federal government will be to defend us?

(2) Because we’ve been taught a Christianity of cheap grace (to borrow Bonhoeffer’s phrase).  Salvation is God’s free gift.  If they’ve repeated the sinner’s prayer (above), we’ve told people they’re  on their way to heaven.  In his classic,  The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer challenges us . . .

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession . . . Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

(3) Because we don’t want to suffer or die.  I don’t.  I want a comfortable Christianity, with every pain healed, every table full, every prayer answered, and a parking space suddenly open just for me.  How different the attitude of five young men on the Gaza Strip!  Ali, a long-time Christian, was discipling Abdul, Isam, Jamal and Mahmoud.  One day Jamal spoke up.  “I want you to baptize me, Ali.  I want to be baptized in the Mediterranean—tonight!  If we get killed, we get killed” (Killing Christians).  That night all four followers showed up and were baptized.

In our “selfie” society, Jesus calls to us as he did his first disciples . . . “If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (8:34).

Here, again are the sobering questions that confront us in “selfie-land” . . .

• Am I willing to suffer for Jesus?
  
• Am I willing to die for Jesus?

*Note:  Some weeks after the baptism, Mahmoud went to be with Jesus.  His friends aren’t certain about the source of the explosion that killed him.  An Israeli strike?  A Hamas rocket exploding before launch?  Whichever it was, Mahmoud was walking into one of the refugee camps on his last day to share Jesus among Muslims.

A brief, unexpected conversation can change your life.  It did the disciples’.  It does ours also. Here’s the first part of Mark’s report about the exchange . . .

And Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”  They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”  Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him (8:29,30).

Caesarea Philippi lay 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.  A city populated by Syrians and Greeks, it had long been a center for idolatry and was now dominated by the Roman empire and Caesar-worship. 

“Who do people say I am?” was a natural, perhaps unexpected question.  For two years Jesus’ fame had spread through Galilee.  His miracles made people think he might be John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets raised back to life.  God’s power was obviously at work in him as it had been in them.

Today opinions have shifted a bit.  Jesus was a prophet (Islam).  Jesus was a god (one of the deities of the Hindu pantheon, for example, or a created supernatural being according to Arians/Jehovah’s Witnesses).  Jesus was a great moral teacher (generally held by secularists).  Jesus was/is the Son of God.  (Do they understand what they’re saying?)  For a look at how some famous and infamous answered,  go to http://powerpointparadise.com/blog/2010/08/what-famous-people-said-about-jesus/. 

On this subject, I can’t ignore what C. S. Lewis famously wrote in response to the “great moral teacher” answer:  “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of Hell. . . . You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

“Who do you say I am?”  Awkward silence?  Disciples fascinated with their feet?  Or did Peter blurt it right out?  “You are the Christ.”  “Christ” is Greek for the Hebrew “Messiah.”  If this were a movie scene, a golden glow backed with heavenly harp music would surround the men.  For us, familiarity takes the edge off.  For Peter—did he really understand what he said?—it was breathtaking.  Centuries.  Pages of sacred prophecies.  Endless longings.  Desperate hope for downtrodden people.  “You are the Messiah.”

Mark, sparing words, records no reactions.  Did other disciples say, “I was just going to say that!”?  Or did their jaws drop?  Did Jesus nod, smile?  All we know is he charged them to keep it a secret.  He didn’t want more crowds and it wasn’t time to die.  After Peter spoke, did he cover his mouth and wonder, “Did I really say that?” 

Wait:  they’re all in for a greater shock.  He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (8:31-33).

Messiah suffer, be rejected and killed?  No wonder Peter rebuked Jesus!  Months of miracles.  Pages of prophecies of Messiah’s reign.  Jesus himself announced he was bringing God’s kingdom near.  No way the King could suffer!  The Jewish authorities wouldn’t reject their Messiah!  Messiah killed was insane!

We  live later.  We understand he had to die and be raised.  Prophecies like Isaiah 53 are familiar.  In Jesus’ day the people were so oppressed by Rome and their lackeys and so desperate for Messiah’s David-like kingdom, Conqueror-prophecies drowned out Sufferer-prophecies.

Jesus’ didn’t mince words.  When Peter pulled him aside and rebuked him, Jesus rebuked him more harshly.  He called Peter Satan.  Accused Peter of thinking like a man not like God. 

 The conversation continued.  We won’t follow it now.  We’ll stop to highlight this point . . .

Here is the Great Divide of the Gospel.  Mark 1:1-8:26 reports the Son of God’s kingdom coming with power.  Jesus invaded Galilee with authority that sent demons screaming, cripples walking and the dead living.  From here on, Mark reports the Son of God’s kingdom coming with suffering.  A dizzying turn-around, with heavy implications for us.

Jesus’ question here is also the Great Divide of the Gospel for everyone.  “But what about you?  Who do you say I am?”  Earlier I said this conversation changed the disciples’ lives and changes ours.  And that change depends on how we answer Jesus’ question.

We know the right answer, right?  “You are the Christ.”  But this isn’t a school test—you know, parrot back the answer the teacher wants.  This isn’t about information; it’s about devotion.  It’s not about getting a grade; it’s about getting a life.

So here’s how we should do this . . . It’s just Jesus and you.  Not the church or your family or your friends.  You’re not at a concert or ball game.  You’re outside in God’s creation.  Just you and Jesus.  It’s unlike standing alone with anyone else—sacred because he’s there.  You can’t “spin” your answer because he sees your heart.  Looking you straight in the eyes, he asks, “Who do you say that I am?”

How do you answer?
Tell him!

How blind we can be!  How slow to believe!  Especially regarding Jesus.

Jesus feeds 4000 (Mark 8:1-10).  During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said,  “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.  If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”  His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”  “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied.  He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so.  They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them.  The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.  About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away,  he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

First thing to say here is Mark didn’t get his news-notes jumbled.  This isn’t a rerun of 6:30-44.   It’s now six months later.  Number of people is different.  So is the food amount.  Not surprisingly, knowing Jesus, his compassion is the same (6:34; 8:2).  So why this “second helping” miracle?  We’ll see shortly.  Hint:  it has to do with slow learners (which, of course, can’t apply to you or me, right?).

The Pharisees test Jesus (Mark 8:11-13).  The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.  He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”  Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

Back on the west side of Galilee Sea, Jesus gets questioned by Pharisees,  the strict, fundamentalist Jewish party. The “test” is fixed from the first.  These Pharisees are searching for evidence to support their already-made verdict—Jesus is demonic (3:22).  A miraculous sign, in their minds, will  prove Jesus a false prophet (see Deuteronomy 13:1-5).  Jesus refuses the test.  No sign on demand.  Jesus doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone.  So away he boats.

About these Pharisees:  are they slow learners?  No.  Their learning problem is more serious.  They’re unwilling learners.   And slow learning gets Jesus’ patience; unwilling learning gets Jesus gone.

Jesus drills his disciples (Mark 8:14-21).  The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.  “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”  They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”  Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.  “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”  He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

It’s the Comedy Cruise.  Jesus and the Twelve Bozos.  Sorry.  Not showing respect for apostles.  But, you have to admit these guys don’t sound like the  sharpest minds in the Middle East.  Jesus warns them against being influenced  by the Pharisees inflating evil (using the common Jewish metaphor of yeast as evil) and they think they’re in trouble for forgetting to bring bread!

Imagine Jesus’ reaction.  Scratching his head in amazement?  Smiling toward heaven while shaking his head and throwing up his hands?  Wondering how dim a few fishermen could possibly be?  But notice he doesn’t climb out of the boat and walk off.  Patience, Jesus.

Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.  “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”  He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

According to Mark’s report (from Peter), dead silence.   Only the sound of waves lapping the boat.  And twelve guys looking at each other, desperately hoping somebody will answer.

You get it?  No bread, even in the desert?  No problem.  Jesus can multiply it.  Or make it from nothing.   You’ll be satisfied.  And have more leftover than when you started.  You’ve got bigger fish to fry.

In 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled African-Americans were not U.S. citizens.  This encouraged whites to treat blacks as inferior and segregate them to the back of the bus and to their own schools, hospitals, cemeteries and churches.

In the 1st century, Jews considered Gentiles unclean “dogs” and avoided them.  But in today’s text, Mark reports Jesus intentionally going to Gentile cities.  Good for us!  If Jesus had been a Jewish supremacist, he’d have had nothing to do with us.

Jesus and the Dirty Woman (7:24-30). 

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.  In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet.  The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.  “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”  She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus retreated 30 miles west to Tyre on the east coast of the Mediterranean (today’s Lebanon).  He couldn’t keep his whereabouts unknown.   Tyre people knew him, because months earlier they had crowded the sea to hear him teach and see him work miracles (3:8).

A Syrian-born Greek woman heard he was near, found him and on her knees begged him to drive a demon out of her daughter.  Jesus answered rudely:  “The children have to be fed first.  It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to dogs” (CEV).   In other words, “Israel first.  It’d be wrong to give to dogs like you!”

The woman’s reply sounds as humble as Jesus’ sounded arrogant:   “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (CEV).

I suspect a moment’s silence hung in the air as Jesus looked into that mother’s heart.  Then:  “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”  And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”

Three lessons.   

First, Jesus wasn’t (and isn’t) bound by national, racial, gender or traditional barriers.  He goes to anyone at anytime, sometimes in the most startling ways.

Second, Jesus isn’t tame.  He called a needy mother a “dog”!  Commentators do mental gymnastics to soften the blow.  But Jesus—to test her faith?—hit the desperate woman full force.   Aren’t some responses we receive from Jesus hurtful at first?

Three, faith is a humble virtue.  So-called faith preachers “sell” faith like a reward to the highest bidder.  But this Syrian woman shines with true faith:  “You are the Lord.  If I’m a dog, so be it.  And if all you’ll give me is a crumb of your blessing, I’ll take it.”  Faith is admitting we have nothing to bring to Jesus but our need—and simply trusting him to love us well.

Jesus and the Dumb Man (7:31-37).

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.  There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.  After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.  He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”).  At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.  Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.  People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

The Decapolis, a league of ten cities east of Galilee, was mostly Gentile.  Jesus’ reputation preceded him: for many months the delivered Gerasene demonic had gossiped what Jesus had done for him (5:20a).  Unsurprisingly then, when Jesus shows up, people bring him a deaf and dumb man.  One wonders if they wanted entertainment or really cared about the poor guy.  No matter.  He wins in the end.

Jesus’ healing technique sounds like  a “faith healer’s” show (except for taking the man apart from the crowd!)  Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears.  Spits on his finger and touches the man’s tongue.  Looks up to heaven, sighs and says, “Be opened!”

At once the deaf man hears the crowd praising Jesus.  Immediately he praises Jesus to every person who’ll listen.

Three Lessons.  First, Jesus had (has) emotions.  He “sighed.”  The Greek can mean “complained” or “grumbled”.  Or it can mean “groan” out of deep concern.  The first would have Jesus complaining, “Not another one!  Let’s get it over with!”  The second, “I care so much for you, man of my creation.  Let me make you well!”  I suspect the second.   How could the Son of God’s love not love?

Second, Jesus touched the “ugly.”  One can imagine this man a big, dumb, silent ox.  Easily a butt of bad jokes.  Often ignored because he didn’t “work” right.  Jesus came.  He didn’t (doesn’t) heal from an ivory tower.  He touched.  Maybe that’s why we lay hands on the sick when we pray for them.

Three, Jesus’s kingdom authority reaches to all peoples.  Not just the healthy, the sick.  Not just the religious, the sinner.  Not just the valuable, the seemingly good for nothing.  “God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27a, CEV). 

We who follow Jesus have a King who loves the dirty and the dumb who are humble enough to confess that they are!

Virtually all world religions rest on rules.

Islam.  For example, according to the Islamic Supreme Council of America, “Islam . . . is firmly founded on the concept of ‘rule of law’ . . . Muslim citizens must adhere to Islamic law—Shariah. If a Muslim citizen commits a religious violation, he is judged according to Islamic law . . . The intent of Islamic law is not punitive, as much as corrective and reformative ”  (http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/legal-rulings/52-understanding-islamic-law.html).

According to Pew Research (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/07/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/) , Islam is the world’s second largest religion (23% of world population) behind Christianity (33% of world population).  By contrast, Judaism, also based on Law (Torah), accounts for 0.22% of the world’s population (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_ Adherents.html ). Hinduism (14%) and Buddhism (6%) both have their own distinctions, but also function according to rules and laws.  Even without mentioning smaller groups, that’s a lot of people caught up in rules-religions.  The Gospel is acutely different.

Gospel.That brings us to today’s Gospel report from Mark  chapter 7:1-23.

Jesus’ fame in Galilee now brings Pharisees with their scribes from Jerusalem to investigate him more closely (7:1).  They catch his disciples eating with ceremonially defiled hands.  This violates traditional Pharisaic rules of washing everything possibly made “unclean” by sinners, tax-collectors or encroaching  Gentiles (7:2-4).  Why, they want to know, does Jesus allow this (7:5)?  His answer is unexpected prosecution . . .

“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),  then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that” (7:6-13).

Two critical points.  One, Jesus was not anti-law.  He condemned the Jewish Pharisees for letting go the commands of God.  Two, Jesus charged the Pharisees with vain worship of God, which he defined as replacing God’s commands with men’s traditions.  The Law allowed people to devote certain property to the LORD.  (“But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD–Leviticus 27:28).  But the Pharisees used it to keep someone else (in this case needy parents) from having it.   Men’s traditions over God’s commands equaled vain worship.

Four deficiencies.  Here, then, are four deficiencies of rules-religions we can deduce from Jesus words . . .

1. We humans can easily manipulate the rules to serve our self-centered purposes.
2. Rule-manipulation often results in our hurting someone else.
3. Religious rule-keeping has no power to change our character.
4. The root of human moral corruption isn’t outside us, but inside.

Gospel again.  To those last two deficiencies Jesus now turns . . .

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.  Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.'” After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.  “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?  For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)  He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’  For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,  greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean'” (7:14-23).

Two further critical points.  One, Jesus’ answer to  the Pharisees implies that being “clean” or “unclean” before God isn’t a secondary issue.  He could have said, “Ceremonial defilement means nothing.  I won’t even talk about it.”  Rather, Jesus implicitly regarded the “cleanness” of our standing before God as critical.

Two, we are “unclean” before God because of what’s in us, not what touches us from outside—“evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”  Who of us can claim we’ve never been “dirtied” inside by some of these “evils”?

So what is Mark, inspired by the Holy Spirit, telling us about the Gospel here?  That the kingdom of God Jesus proclaimed as near (1:15) is wholly “other” from our rules-religions, however commendable their aim.  Jesus, as John the Baptist announced, will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (1:8b).  As yet in Mark’s report and Jesus’ revelation, we have no details—no means, no methods—as to precisely how that kingdom comes nor what “baptize with the Spirit” means.

What we do know is that our defilement before God is serious . . . that rules-religions can’t resolve it because the dirt is inside not out . . . and that somehow the Gospel of the kingdom with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is good news about getting “clean.”

Islam isn’t the answer.

Judaism isn’t the answer.

Christian rules aren’t the answer.

Jesus is the answer.

What a confusing juxtaposition Mark 1:15 and today’s text Mark 6:14-29 is!  In 1:15 Jesus proclaims “the gospel of God” . . .

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the good news.”

Affirming that proclamation’s truth, Mark reports Jesus’ kingdom authority and power over unclean spirits, disability, illnesses, nature, and even death (1:16-6:6).  Unexpectedly, though, in 6:14-29 Mark reports how King Herod beheaded John the Baptist.  John was Jesus’ cousin and unique messenger.  Where was the demonstration of Jesus’ kingdom power when John was slaughtered by a crazed king?

This King Herod was Herod Antipas, son of  Herod the Great, infamous for the slaughter of young children in Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth.  Antipas was appointed by the Roman emperor Augustus to rule over a quarter of his father’s kingdom (Galilee) from 4 B.C.-39 A.D.  Here’s Mark’s report of John’s death . . .

Herod Antipas, the king, soon heard about Jesus, because people everywhere were talking about him. Some were saying, “This must be John the Baptist come back to life again. That is why he can do such miracles.”  Others thought Jesus was the ancient prophet Elijah. Still others thought he was a prophet like the other great prophets of the past.  When Herod heard about Jesus, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has come back from the dead.” For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herodias. She had been his brother Philip’s wife, but Herod had married her.  John kept telling Herod, “It is illegal for you to marry your brother’s wife.”  Herodias was enraged and wanted John killed in revenge, but without Herod’s approval she was powerless.  And Herod respected John, knowing that he was a good and holy man, so he kept him under his protection. Herod was disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.  Herodias’ chance finally came. It was Herod’s birthday, and he gave a party for his palace aides, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee.  Then her daughter, also named Herodias, came in and performed a dance that greatly pleased them all. “Ask me for anything you like,” the king said to the girl, “and I will give it to you.”  Then he promised, “I will give you whatever you ask, up to half of my kingdom!”  She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?”Her mother told her, “Ask for John the Baptist’s head!”  So the girl hurried back to the king and told him, “I want the head of John the Baptist, right now, on a tray!”  Then the king was very sorry, but he was embarrassed to break his oath in front of his guests.  So he sent an executioner to the prison to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier beheaded John in the prison,  brought his head on a tray, and gave it to the girl, who took it to her mother.  When John’s disciples heard what had happened, they came for his body and buried it in a tomb.

Herod Conflicted (6:14-16).  Obviously.  Herod knew John to be righteous and holy, so feared him.  He  happily listened to John, but could never really understand him.  With news of miracles spreading through Galilee, Herod thought John had been raised from the dead.  I’m guessing that terrified him.

Herodias’ Grudge (6:17-20).  Herodias was not a happy king’s wife.  John the Baptist publicly condemned her marriage to Herod Antipas, because he was her brother-in-law.  But Herod (who still held final word despite his wife’s charms) would make John a dead man.

Herod’s Birthday Banquet (6:21-28).  Herodias’ opportunity came party night.  She had her daughter, probably from her “previous” marriage, dance for the crowd of nobles, military commanders and leading men of Galilee.  The teenager’s dancing got the men’s juices flowing.  Herod was so overcome he dramatically promised the girl anything she wanted up to half his kingdom.  (Can you see the sweaty, lustful smile on his face?)  She ran to Mommy for advice.  Mommy didn’t hesitate:  “The head of John the Baptist.”  One would think the girl would turn squeamish.  But either she knew better than to disobey Mommy or was, like everybody else, caught up in the sensuality of the moment.  She strolled back in and seductively said, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”  Herod was hoping she’d want a Corvette carriage.  But what was a king to do?  The offer was out there and his step-daughter grabbed it.  And so the deed was done.  The executioner carried John’s head to Herod on a platter and he handed it to the girl, who slithered offstage  with it to Mommy.

John’s Burial (6:29).  His disciples heard the news and came and laid his body in a tomb.  What did they think?  Their master had announced the arrival of Messiah!  Yet, when the executioner flashed his sword, Messiah was absent.  John, who fearlessly challenged King Herod and announced the nearness of God’s kingdom, met a dead end.

Our Dead Ends.  Not as violent and antiChrist as John’s.  Ours are mini-dead ends (until our body actually dies).  No need to list examples.  Who of us hasn’t been there when we expected Jesus to make a way where there was no way—and instead we ran smack into a dead end and got pretty banged up?  And given the state of the world, who knows how much like John’s our death may be?

Right about here I could cite Romans 8:28.  Instead, I’ll quote 1 Peter 4:12,13 (NLT), because this too is the Gospel.  And this too is reality for Jesus’ followers in this fallen world.

 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through,
as if something strange were happening to you.
Instead, be very glad–
because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering,
and afterward you will have the wonderful joy
of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world.

(If you haven’t listened to the video, do it now.
Even if you have, listen again—
and rejoice that His kingdom overcomes . . . all . . . forever!)

Radical Islamic ISIS and Christianity are both proselytizing faiths.  ISIS reportedly proselytizes by giving non-Muslims three choices:  convert, pay a fine or die.

In today’s section of Mark’s Gospel (6:7-13), Mark reports how Jesus sent his disciples on a short-term mission.  His means and message were radically different.

Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two
and gave them authority over evil spirits.
These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff
— no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.
Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 
And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you,
shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” 
They went out and preached that people should repent. 
They drove out many demons
and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Jesus sent them out  two by two.  The Jewish historian Josephus counts 204 towns and villages in Galilee in the first half of the first century A.D.  It might have taken six pairs of disciples six months to go to each town.   We don’t know if they did.

Jesus likely sent them in pairs because in Old Testament Israel a testimony was corroborated by two or three witnesses.  Jesus sent them (Greek apostellayn) to represent and bear witness of him–his words and his deeds.

Dr. Derek Thomas (the Robert Strong Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta and Minister of Preaching and Teaching at First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina) observes that the 5,000 whom Jesus fed (6:30-44)—ten or twelve thousand counting women and children—may very well have followed after Jesus because these teams of disciples had visited their villages.

ISIS sends out an army.  Jesus sent out six groups of two men each—not outwardly impressive, but by his grace ultimately effective.

Jesus gave them authority over evil spirits.  Jesus had authority over evil spirits.  He ordered an evil spirit from a man in the Capernaum synagogue (1:21-28).  He cast out many demons in the same town that evening (1:29-34).  He commanded a legion of demons to leave a Gerasene madman and enter a herd of pigs (5:1-20).  And he himself resisted Satan’s temptations for forty days in the wilderness (1:12,13).  Jesus’ coming to bring God’s kingdom stirred up a hornets’ nest of demons, because the coming of God’s reign marked the beginning of the end of the devil’s—a hornets’ nest over which he had authority and power.

ISIS’ authority is the power of the gun, sword and knife inspired by demons.  The disciples’ authority comes from Jesus’ word empowering them to free people from demons.

Jesus told them to travel lightly and stay wherever welcomed and shake the dust off their feet to those who wouldn’t welcome them.  “Take nothing for the journey except a staff— no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.  Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.  And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” 

Why travel lightly?  So they would learn to trust God for their needs—a lesson they needed to learn for their long-term mission to come.

Why stay wherever welcomed?  So as not to compromise their mission and message by finding “better” homes in which to stay, but to validate their mission by humbly accepting whatever was offered.  (What does this reveal about “faith teachers”, who represent the crucified Christ while flying their million-dollar jets and sleeping in luxurious hotels?)

Why shake the dust off their feet at those who wouldn’t welcome them?  When Jews returned home after visiting a Gentile country, law required them to shake the dust off their feet so as not to pollute the Holy Land.  Disciples were to dust-shake as a testimony that those folks were no better than Gentile unbelievers because they had rejected the Gospel of the Kingdom.

ISIS travels with heavy weapons, violently forces their way into towns and murders those who refuse to adopt their belief.  Jesus’ disciples travel lightly, humbly stay only where welcomed, and gently warn of judgment to come by their Lord.

The disciples preached repentance and worked miracles.  They went out and preached that people should repent.  They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

“Repent” is probably Mark’s typical sound-bite version.  We can assume Mark emphasized repentance (turn around to follow Jesus in faith)  while not recording the whole message Jesus preached:  “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel” (1:15).  They also worked Jesus-like miracles that confirmed their message.

 ISIS preaches repentance (convert to follow Islam) or die.  ISIS has no miracles; only weapons to destroy.  Jesus’ disciples preach repentance (convert to follow Jesus) and live.  Jesus’ disciples have miracles—“weapons” of divine power that heal from sickness and liberate from devils.

 Jesus sends us.  We’re not apostles.  We may go in pairs or singly.   We have authority to represent Jesus against evil forces in this fallen world.  We usually don’t have to worry much about traveling or lodging and we probably won’t be shaking much dust off our feet.  But we should preach repentance as a key response to the Gospel and believe that our Lord will miraculously change lives through us.

We are a force to be reckoned with,
because Jesus sends us
and goes with us.

Amazed at what?  The people’s unbelief.  Given today’s world, is Jesus still amazed?  Or given how I sometimes react to disability, is Jesus amazed at my unbelief?  That unbelief especially strikes us in this next portion of Mark’s Gospel (6:1-6 below),  when contrasted with the faith of Jairus and of the bleeding woman in the preceding portion (5:21-43).

 1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples.
2 When the Sabbath came,
he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked.
“What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!
3 Isn’t this the carpenter?
Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?
Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown,
among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
5 He could not do any miracles there,
except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.

Nazareth.  According to archaeologists, Nazareth was an inconsequential village of maybe 500 people.  It had been Jesus’ hometown since the family’s escape to Egypt after the slaughter at Bethlehem (Matthew 2:19-23).  No one expected anything good to come from  nondescript Nazareth (John 1:48a).

Synagogue.  On Sabbath Jesus  went to synagogue.  The hometown boy back for a visit was invited to read Scripture.  According to Luke 4:18,19 it was Isaiah 61:1,2.  Mark, in his usual bare-bones style, omits the Scripture content in order to focus on the congregation’s reaction.  They were “amazed”.  In this context, the Greek (ekplayso) is probably best translated “shocked”— shocked at his wisdom and shocked at his miracles.  But not good shocked!  This was Jesus of Nazareth.  The carpenter.  Mary’s boy.  James’, Joseph’s and Simon’s brother.  There were his sisters right there.

Scandal.“And they took offense at him.”  The Greek word is skandalizo.  They were scandalized.  It was shameful, unseemly, outrageous to claim what he did about himself!  (See Luke 4:18-21 for those claims.)  Who does he think he is?

Nobody’s scandalized by Jesus these days.   When Franklin Graham is interviewed on TV and (as he always does) squeezes in a word about Jesus dying for our sins, no one says, “How shameful, how outrageous that Graham should claim that about Jesus!”  Only by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit does an unbeliever even give it a thought.   Like the trodden-down path in Jesus’ parable, we’ve become so hardened that the seed of the Word doesn’t sink in at all.  So Satan steals it without breaking a sweat (Mark 4:14,15).

Rebuke.  The synagogue congregation certainly verbalized (probably shouted) their skandalizo.   But Jesus didn’t turn the other cheek.  Instead he turned the heat higher by answering his critics with a familiar proverb:  “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household” (6:4).  Just as Israel historically had rejected God’s prophets, so now the people of Nazareth were rejecting him whom God had sent.

Results.  That service didn’t end well.  Mark observes:  “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And he marveled because of their unbelief.”  And he went about among the villages teaching (6:5-7).

What should we make of “And he could do no mighty work there . . . “?  Obviously “their unbelief” was why.  But are Jesus’ mighty works limited by our unbelief?  We’re afraid to say “yes”, because we don’t want to imply that we contribute to Jesus’ miracles.  We hesitate to give so-called “faith-teachers” more ammunition:  “Let me teach you how to have the kind of faith that Jesus must answer!”  But, to be true to the text,  we have to say “yes”, their unbelief stopped Jesus in his tracks.  But “yes” with this amendment:  This is how the sovereign God “set things up.”  ” . . . without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6).  Sure, Jesus drove the demons from the Gerasene graveyard-dweller without any faith from him—although the demons believed (5:1-8).  But normally Jesus responds to faith, even faith as simple as, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (4:38).

Mark’s funny, isn’t he!  “And [Jesus] could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.”  I’d count a meeting where a few sick people were healed one of my crowning ministry moments.  For Jesus, healing just a few was the exception. 

But overall, Jesus was “amazed because of their unbelief” (6:6).  The tense of “amazed” (or, “marveled”) implies a sudden, overwhelming emotion:  Jesus was “slapped in the face by amazement because of their unbelief.”  We’re apt to say, “Jesus knows everything.  How could he be stunned by their unbelief?”  But Jesus was the God-Man.  Where deity stops and humanity starts, who can say?  But clearly here, the man Jesus was “blown away” by their unbelief.

Sad! How sad that he could do only a few healings there!  How sad that he then left to go to other villages, leaving the people of Nazareth stuck in the hardened cement of their faith-lessness!

When we reject Jesus
—when we don’t even trust him enough to go to him and say, “Don’t you care?”—
we close the door to the One with whom all things are possible!

Miracles seem common at this point.  Half the pages of Mark’s Gospel  we’ve read so far contain them. (Remember those few pages do cover a year or more.)  In today’s section (5:21-43) Mark reports two more miracles.  Let’s see a summary of the narrative. (It’s too long to quote here, but why not take a few minutes to read it?)Then we’ll note a few unusual twists.

Jesus has boated with his disciples from the country of the Gerasenes (5:1-20).  Landing near Capernaum in the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, he’s mobbed by another crowd.  One man, Jairus, leader of the Capernaum synagogue, frantically pushes through, falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him to come heal his 12-year-old dying daughter.  Jesus goes.

But not alone.  The jostling mass follows.  A woman is swept along, but not unwillingly.  For 12 years she’s hemorrhaged.  Although she’s spent everything on doctors, she’s grown worse.  But, she tells herself, if I can even just touch Jesus’ clothes, I’ll be made well.  Determined to reach him, she bumps between the pack and finally gets close.  She thrusts her hand through and touches his tunic.  Immediately the bleeding stops and she feels healed.

Jesus feels something too—“that power had gone out from him” (5:30).  He stops.  The crowd jostles to a halt.  As Jesus’ eyes search the faces, the woman knows she’s been found out.  She comes trembling to him and tells her story.  “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease” (5:34).

At that moment, a messenger arrives from Jairus’ home.  His daughter has died; no need to trouble the Teacher now. Jesus assures him, “Do not fear; only believe” (5:36).  With that, Jesus allows only Peter, James and John to go with him.

Jairus’ house is filled with wailing mourners—until Jesus puts them all out.  Then he takes the girls’ parents and his three disciples to where the dead girl lay.  Like a father lightly lifting his daughter’s hand, he says in Aramaic, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”  And immediately the girl got up and began walking around” (5:41,42).

Now for a few unusual twists.  (As if those miracles aren’t unusual enough!)

Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet.  The Gospel doesn’t tell us what this synagogue ruler thought of Jesus.  But even if he thought Jesus to be a charlatan, the crisis of his daughter dying drove this ruler to publicly prostrate himself before Jesus and beg for him to heal her.  How many today, I wonder, who never believed in Jesus, humbly beg him when in dire need?  Note that Jesus doesn’t condemn or interrogate Jairus–he graciously goes with him right away.

Some in the crowd were just curious.  I’m just guessing.  I base my guess on a Billy Graham meeting in Tampa maybe 20 years ago.  The football stadium was packed.  Graham gave the invitation.  I was among dozens of counselors on the field.  More than once I approached someone for prayer and was told, “I’m just here to get close to Billy.”  How sad that curiosity-seekers get so close, yet remain so far from Jesus!

Jesus was interrupted.  I believe God is sovereign.  Nevertheless, this interruption looks like sloppy scheduling.  Can you imagine how Jairus felt?  I doubt he cared about the woman.  If it weren’t so serious, the scene would have been comedic:  the anxious father wondering if he should tap Jesus on the shoulder and say, “Uh, Jesus, remember me?”  How he must have grieved when the messenger arrived with the death- news!  It’s a reminder that God’s time and ours aren’t always (often?) synchronized.

Jesus treated the woman with dignity.  Society was patriarch.  Shameful for a woman to touch a man in public like that.  If women weren’t second class, they were at least of secondary importance.  But Jesus cared about that unknown woman as much as he did the male synagogue ruler.  Jesus dignified women as God’s image-bearers.  No need to make God female or the Bible’s pronouns genderless to elevate women!

Power went out from Jesus.  This doesn’t lead to fear relic-worship!  If Jesus’ clothes had just been preserved . . . No, power went out from him.  That means power to heal was in him. 

Jesus raised the dead.  By “sleeping” (5:39) Jesus probably meant her death was temporary.  He didn’t come to wake her up, but to raise her up!  Death, of course,  marks the end of hope.  Jairus needed Jesus before his daughter died.  But Jesus’ power ruled over death.  And still does today.

Jesus told them to feed the raised-up girl (5:43b).  Was this a funny line for Jesus’ to make a suave exit?  He probably said it with a smile, but only because he cared about this girl’s hunger (and her parents were stunned still).

Jesus encouraged and defined faith.  That is, by his presence, his previous miracles, and his word, Jesus caused people to believe in him.  Certainly that was true of the woman.  And to Jairus, Jesus spoke faith-encouraging words.  “Do not fear; only believe” (5:36).   How did Jesus define faith?  At least here, he implicitly defined it as trusting him.  So called “faith-preachers” complicate faith, make it a code only they–and their true adherents–can know.  But faith was no secret code for the woman.  She simply trusted that touching Jesus would make her well.  And when Jesus urged Jairus, ” . . . only believe”, he simply meant “trust me.”

* * * * *

Perhaps that’s what Jesus encourages us all to do through this portion of the Gospel.  Trust him.  He has power over all diseases and even death itself.  When his timing seems “off”, he’s still got the power.  And he cares about the world’s “little” people (the woman) and about a little girl’s simple hunger whose name we’re not even told.

Are demons real?  Before answering, watch the 2 1/2  minute video below.  Should we attribute the atrocities mentioned to zealous men, immoral men, mentally ill men, or demonized men?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9JuMZ8spFQ

I don’t look for demons around every corner (!), but I do contend they didn’t disappear with the apostles’.  Think of modern history’s most brutal leaders–Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Ida Amin,  Saddam Hussein, and now a terrifying variety of Middle East terror groups.  It’s impossible to prove any were (or are) truly demonized, but it’s hard to argue they weren’t (or aren’t).  And there will be more.  Evil and violence in these “last days” will increase before Jesus comes again.  So both present and future are reasons to pay attention to a familiar, but strange event Mark records in 5:1-20.

THE LANDING.  After a terror-filled night on the Sea of Galilee (4:35-41), the disciples with Jesus “ . . . came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit” (5:1,2).

This country lay in the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee.  It was outside Palestine–Gentile territory under the military rule of Roman legions.  The disciples beached the boat near a graveyard.  As soon as Jesus climbed out a mad man ran toward him, fell at his feet and fearfully cried, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I adjure you by God, do not torment me” (5:6,7).  He pleaded, because already Jesus was saying, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit” (5:8).

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS.  One, Jesus diagnoses the problem as an “unclean spirit”  (another term for “demon” or “evil spirit”).  Two, the “unclean spirit” recognizes who Jesus is (“Son of the Most High God”), even though his disciples haven’t (“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”—4:41b).

THE NAME.  Perhaps in exercising power over this spirit, Jesus asks his name.  “He replied, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many” (5:9).  6,000 soldiers constituted a Roman legion.  This man was demonized by an army!  But,”legion” implies more than evil’s multitude; it implies evil’s victimization.  Here was a man who  ” . . . lived among the tombs.  And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.  No one had the strength to subdue him.  Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones” (5:3-5).

Millions were massacred by history’s brutal rulers, who may have been driven by demons.  Here is a man driven by demons to brutalize himself.  He possesses super-human power, but can’t save himself.  But now the victimizers are about to become the victims.

THE RESCUE.  They feverishly beg Jesus not to send them out of the country (5:10).  Was Gerasene-land the lap of luxury for evil spirits?  I don’t know why they begged to stay.  But let’s not miss the point:  a legion of demons, who have destroyed this man’s life,  are pathetically cringing at Jesus’ feet!

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) officially abhors what happens next.  Frankly, I’m not sure why Jesus picked on poor pigs (although I’m sure commentators have devised all sorts of mysterious meanings).  The demons beg Jesus, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them” (5:12).  Jesus gives them per- mission (note that he doesn’t command them or rebuke them, merely allows them!).  “And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd, numbering about 2000 (in those days pigs were about the size of a small to medium dog), rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea (5:13).

Obviously upset, the pig herders hurry into town, round up a posse and return begging Jesus to “get out of Dodge”.  The rescued-from-demons man begs to go with Jesus.  But Jesus tells him instead to tell his story in the ten towns nearby—which he did and “everyone marveled” (5:17-20).

THE HARD-TO-BELIEVE.  In his book, Why I Am Not a Christian, the 20th century British philosopher Bertrand Russel wrote,  “It is unbelievable…this story of Jesus finding this crazy man in a graveyard supposedly possessed by a countless number of demons who . . . are bidden to be released from this man and enter into these two thousand pigs. And the pigs go running down the mountainside and into the sea and they drown. And there’s this sight of dead pigs everywhere.”

Well, let’s admit (as they used to say when I was teenager), “That’s far-out man!”  Yeah, it is.  And it leaves unanswered questions:  why the pigs?  did the demons drown too?  could Jesus have really held a conversation with evil spirits?  and, if this really happened, so what?

THE SO WHAT.  Love or laugh at the idea of demons, but evil is ravaging this world.  Gun-violence.  Rapes.  Kidnappings.  Vicious murders.  The spread of nuclear weapons.  The Middle East (!) “on fire”.  I’m no demonologist, but I can read what the apostle John wrote:  ” . . . the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19b).  Who’s going to save us from all this?  Washington?  A Republican president and congress?  Believe that and I’ve got a good deal on a bridge to buy!

Only Jesus.  He’s the One whose feet a whole army of demons cringe before!