Encountering Evil

Luke 8:28-39

“Christ in you, the hope of glory,” is found in Colossians 1:27b and it is a mystery, but should it be to those who go by the name Christian?  Doctor Luke is sharing an account of Jesus getting off the boat in Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee, and as he stepped on dry land a man met him.  That is nice to have someone greet you in a place you’ve not visited, if that someone is the local mayor, the banker, or even from the welcoming committee of the local community, it’s all good, but if he is a man full of demons, how are you going to react?  

For many a person with the title of Christian, it’s not a problem, and there is a good reason, they are never going to get in the boat, but for you who are followers of Christ, you are in the boat, and it has reached the Gerasenes and it’s dry land, and you are sure it is where you are suppose to be, but back home you never encountered a guy this intimidating.  You can see chains that have been broken hanging from his wrist and being dragged from his ankles he does not have on any clothes, and the smell of his body takes your breath away. 

What actions are you going to take?  A friend tells me that his first two trips to India working in the slums and at the Sister Teresa sisters of charity in Calcutta; the smells and the poverty were more than he had expected, and one or two who came just never got out of the boat, or never got involved.  Now there are good reasons for some of us to jump back into the boat, and first, and foremost is the Father never ask us to get into it, and some of us believe no matter what, we can handle whatever comes our way, but in no way were they prepared for this naked, smelly man with all the chains and once we had encountered him, that become the least of our problems, we were full of fear for we had never encountered someone this evil with this kind of power. 

It’s not that Christ is not living in us, but maybe we have been so busy doing good that we forgot to wait, watch, and listen to the Holy Spirit, to daily come to Him for instruction, to look into His instruction book on living life on planet earth, and wait for His voice.  For it is there we begin to grasp, “I can’t, He never said I could, He can and He promised He would.”  Then it is not our doing but Christ doing it all in and through you, it’s the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Do not be surprised when this one whom all fear see Christ in you, for when this man saw Jesus it was the demons who knew and proclaimed; “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg you, do not torment me.”  Only Christ in you will understand it is the demons speaking, and only Christ in you will ask the right question: “What is your name?”  And we know his answer was “Legion” for he had many demons, and one thing is clear, the man had not spoken to Jesus, only the demons that had control of him.  It was the demons that ask to be put into the herd of pigs, and pigs are very smart, they chose death over the control of demons.

It matters not to the world how much harm the demons do as long as we can push them out of our area.  In fact, the world will never address them by the right title it will come up with work place violence, or any name that seem proper.  But if you cast the demons out no matter if the person is now free, clean, and with clothes, and it affects the business community in anyway that is not for profit, they will do to you what they did to Jesus.  You will be asked to leave, and never come back.

 From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice