Devotional 1-30-15

NOW IT BEGINS

 From the Gospel of Mark 1:21-28

(The Living Bible) 23 A man possessed by a demon was present and began shouting,
24”Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth—have you come to destroy us demons?
I know who you are—the holy Son of God!” 25 Jesus curtly commanded the demon to say no more and to come out of the man.   26 At that the evil spirit screamed and convulsed the man violently and left him.

 In this scripture, Jesus comes to the synagogue to begin his first public ministry, and what happens? He’s confronted by a demon (an unclean spirit) and proceeds with exorcism. This won’t be the only time Jesus perform this task.  Throughout the Gospels Jesus is empowered by God to heal and perform miracles never seen before.

Exorcism ?

With the help of Google I was eager to learn more.  As a new student of the Scriptures, I was not aware that Jesus had performed exorcism in his ministry.   www.religioustolerance.org offered this for thought:

“Exorcism is a major theme of the Christian Scriptures, recorded in dozens of passages as performed by both Jesus and his disciples.  Most Fundamental and Evangelical Christians, as well as Roman Catholics, believe God inspired authors of the Bible to write free of error, so if it is written that Jesus performed exorcism, it is true, and it happened.  
Most Christians who are religiously more liberal may be skeptical about the need for exorcism. They generally believe that behavioral changes are not caused by demons, but by familiar diseases such as epilepsy, mental illness, and substance abuse, and should be treated with modern science techniques.”

The important message from this scripture lesson, however, is that Jesus brings knowledge of the Kingdom of God to all people; God is his source of power in what he does; and as his public ministry begins, he is regarded as an authority, bringing a new approach to teaching, totally different than that of the scribes.  And those who hear him speak are in awe of him.

The message is as important for us today as it was for the disciples long ago. As disciples of Christ ourselves, we need only to acknowledge that with the power given to him by God, Jesus did amazing and miraculous things throughout his ministry. With the Holy Spirit, individually and as a church community, we can accomplish some pretty amazing things ourselves. We just need to try.

Holy and awesome God, your Son’s authority is found in integrity and living truth,

not the assertion of power over others. Open our imaginations to new dimensions

of your love, and heal us of all that severs us from you and one another, that we may

grow into the vision you unfold before us.  Amen----Taylor Burton-Edwards

Diane Feaganes