For Sunday
Epiphany 5B
Collect
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Things escalated quickly.
Last week, we read about Jesus walking into a synagogue to teach. And it was there that he also exorcized a demon. He was there to do both: proclaim the Good News and free people of the demons who are afflicting them.
Next thing we know, Jesus is doing this everywhere.
I think most of us are drawn to figuring this out. So we think we have to decide whether we think demons are real. For the latter half of the Twentieth Century, this famously led in the search for the historical Jesus to explanations and responses to believability. Including the idea of seeing these stories as depicting mental illness or physical maladies.
And while I understand this pursuit, I worry that the whole thing is a distraction from what Jesus is doing. And from the Good News itself.
For the second straight week, we’re invited to see forces in the world that are scared of Jesus. They know who he is and what he is about, and they want to be spared of it.
And this thing they want to be spared of? Freedom of the host they are exploiting. And the transformation of the world.
The people can’t see the big picture yet. Only the demons can. The good that Jesus is doing in the world is slowly revealing itself. And the people are clamoring for it while evil fears it.
We mustn’t lose sight of the Good News—and Jesus’s transformational message of love.