Dr. Jesus

Dr. Jesus has created a very simple pattern in these three chapters - teach, heal, love.  (kinda reminds me a bit of Dr. Phil)  So many things stick out to me in these chapters I'm not sure where to go...


To start, somedays I just LOVE the Message.  Reading these chapters brought a smile to my face today how straightforward and abrupt it can be.   Matthew 9.^34"The Pharisees were left sputtering, "Hocus-pocus. It's nothing but hocus-pocus. He's probably made a pact with the Devil.""  Really?  It put an interesting new spin on the passages for me.  Often while reading I have this problem of zoning out, it's a combination of "hey, I've sung that text...and getting lost in the music" and "I've heard this story a million times".  Reading the message helps me get out of that frame of reference.  


Yet while reading the end of chapter 8 I came upon the story about the demons and the pigs.  I don't ever remember hearing this story before!  I was so taken a back I read it in NIV to be sure of what I was reading!  I wonder why we don't talk about this story....?


A real issue I have with these passages.  All this talk about demons and evil spirits.  Jesus heals people from them all the time.  What were they?  Why doesn't the church talk about demons today?  I heard the other day that Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the US.  What does the church say about demons and evil spirits? 


So I asked Jeeves.  I found an essay on biblepages.web on the subject (please forgive my summary of it below).  Interestingly enough it notes that the King James Version (translation) does not use the word "demon" anywhere.  Instead it uses evil spirits and devils.  Then they look into the Greek uses of the word compared to modern understandings - which are quite different.  Greeks seem to refer to demons more as simply a diety or power from the heavens - not always in a bad sense but not always good either.  The essay goes on to say that the bible doesn't really go into a lot of detail about what demons really are probably because we as humans can't really "cope" with them.  They are dangerous and we should avoid them.  Unfortunately I tend to be more curious than that... perhaps not always a good trait.  


We do know however that Jesus (especially in these chapters!) healed broken bodies and illnesses -external and internal.  Some scholars have wondered if the demons that plagued people are what we consider today mental illnesses.  Who knows for sure?  However I know a lot of young people today seem to be interested in knowing more about the power out there in the universe - of God and of other things.  Sometimes I wonder if we as Christians should be more concerned about the hebe jebe things that go bump in the night or not?  


Thoughts?


God Bless you and yours, 
your sister in Christ~Erin