Tag: systemic evil

Victory Over the Power of Evil (Luke 4:31-37)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee. He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and impressed—his teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not the quibbling and quoting they were used to.

In the meeting place that day there was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, “Stop! What business do you have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you’re up to. You’re the Holy One of God and you’ve come to destroy us!”

Jesus shut him up: “Quiet! Get out of him!” The demonic spirit threw the man down in front of them all and left. The demon didn’t hurt him.

That knocked the wind out of everyone and got them whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?” Jesus was the talk of the town. (The Message)

During his earthly life and ministry, Jesus was a Deliverer and a Liberator; he came to save people from their guilt and shame, and to free the world from the clutches of evil.

And so, it was inevitable that Jesus would come into conflict with the forces of darkness.

In today’s story, Jesus had a confrontation with an unclean spirit, that is, a demon who is an ally of the devil. The particular demon was not only speaking for himself, but also for his fellow band of wicked spirits.

Christ’s ministry put him in direct opposition to the hosts of Satan. The nub of the issue for the demon was whether Jesus had come for their immediate destruction. Jesus, however, wasn’t in the habit of answering questions from demons.

So, Christ rebuked the demon, told him to get out of the person he was influencing. And that is exactly what happened. The writer, Luke, pointed out that this demonstrated Christ’s authority, that it even includes the power to command unclean spirits, and out they go.

And that is how the liberating and saving ministry of Jesus began.

In the Gospel of Luke, this account of Jesus being confronted by a demon happens just after Christ’s 40 days of being tempted in the desert, even by Satan himself. So, the entire demonic realm was alert to beginning ministry of Christ. They went after Jesus right away, perhaps trying to trip him up before he could get any ministerial momentum.

Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in the town of Capernaum. We ought not to be surprised that a demonized man was among those observing the Sabbath. The wise believer will be savvy to this reality.

Furthermore, we aren’t told who the man was or of any symptoms he may have had. Apparently, he presented himself as a normal Jewish villager. So, we ought not to think that anyone being demonized will necessarily demonstrate madness or illness of some sort.

The demon was perhaps more aware of who Jesus was than anyone else there on that Sabbath Day in Capernaum. He acknowledged Christ’s power and mission. Jesus indeed came to destroy the power and influence of evil in the world.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

James 2:19, NIV

Since Jesus Christ is the rightful authority over all, that means Satan and his wicked spirits are not; and they must submit to that true and real power.

Truth and doctrine are not only about objective facts and right belief. Even though our thinking is important and critical, there is more to it than that: Orthodoxy (right belief) requires orthopraxy (right actions).

A right truth that is only described is not the whole truth. In reality, a false witness and a liar may state the truth, but not entirely, withholding important information; thus, impairing any sort of right action from taking place.

Gaslighting relatives, oppressive bosses, and tyrannical rulers who tell some truth, and even support some good things, are still gaslighting and oppressing others with their narcissistic brand of leadership.

Truly, believers in and followers of Jesus can sometimes be duped into supporting evil leaders who use all sorts of unjust tactics, just because that leader tells the part of truth I want upheld.

Jesus saves; he is Savior of the world – but that is only part of the truth. We must also ask: What has Christ come to save us from? Not just our mistakes, mess-ups, and sins. Christ came to deliver us from the very power of evil that supports injustice and unrighteous behavior to begin with.

If we merely view Jesus as our personal Savior from hell after we die, then we will likely focus almost exclusively on heaven. But if we see all the freedom we need from unhealthy behaviors and unjust ways, then we view Christ as so much more than a fire insurance policy.

We need a more expansive understanding of Christ’s cross. Yes, Jesus died for our sins. Yet, he also died to conquer evil; Christ made it possible for us to become liberated from the shackles of systemic sin and structural evil, as well as personal guilt. In other words, Christ came to topple all evil, and not just human foibles.

And this was why the dark powers of Satan, and his demons, were so afraid of Jesus. They knew their time was short. There is yet another power that has a hold on us today – and that is the reality that many people no longer believe in demons and devils and dark forces.

Since we are a technically advanced people with great understanding of medical science, we now know all sorts of things which cause physical and mental illness. Ancient people did not know about human hormones and chemicals, and the impact of genetic codes on our health. They had no idea about bacteria and viruses, microbes and hygiene.

Therefore, we can jettison all this mumbo-jumbo about demons, right?… Not so much.

Even with all of our modern (and postmodern) explanations for the body and brain, we are still finding ourselves having to contend with the mystery of evil, and the malevolent suffering it causes us.

We modern folk can certainly provide a lot of insight into the cause and effect of particular symptoms a person has according to their biology. And yet, that doesn’t take away the presence of malevolent forces on this earth.

Even with all of our understanding, evil still resides within organizations, institutions, and even faith communities. The meanness and malevolence, the injustice and the ingratitude, and the profound violence (both verbal and physical) which one human being can exact on another is still here – and some would argue that it’s worse than ever.

Knowing something isn’t the same as doing it. If that were true, then education ought to deliver us from evil. Even some intelligent and objective people, who are fluent in facts and figures, still use their calculations for evil.

No matter our creeds or convictions, whether we are religious or not, all of us seem to have a collective sense that this old world of ours is profoundly broken.

All the research dollars in the world has not produced a solution to fix evil. And even if we could completely understand evil, that isn’t the same as ridding ourselves of it.

What’s more, those who put all their trust in changing things through modern means (which means without God) have been some of the worst offenders of producing wars, political tyranny, and gross injustice.

To put all of this perhaps more succinctly in the form of question: We know and understand a lot in combating disease, disaster, and death; but does all of that insight do away with the evil of it? Are things less tragic now?

I argue that is has not. Evil is still evil. Chronic pain, homelessness, poverty, injustice, and health inequities are still wreaking their evil on people.

I believe that evil really does exist, even if it has different language today than it did in the ancient world.

There is real opposition, conflict, and confrontation from evil today. The victory Christ has achieved over the forces of evil has a 2,000 year track record of helping people experience renewed lives, even when their bodies are wasting away.

In the end, the victory of Jesus Christ shall become evident to all the world. Overcoming evil doesn’t come from us, but from God. We can and we must deal with evil in this world. But we are not the Savior or the Liberator.

We need faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen.

How It’s Built Matters (1 Kings 6:1-4, 21-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Artist depiction of Solomon’s Temple

Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple. Inside it was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The entrance room was 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself. The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside….

The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance of the inner room, which was also covered with gold. The whole interior of the Temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Most Holy Place. (Good News Translation)

The first major accomplishment – and the crowning achievement – of King Solomon’s reign was building the Temple in Jerusalem. His father, King David, had it in his heart to erect a great Temple for God as both a place of worship, and a permanent place for the Ark of the Covenant to rest. However, the Lord clearly instructed David not to build the Temple, but stated that his son would do so. (1 Chronicles 28:1-21)

Solomon spared no expense for building the Temple. He ordered vast quantities of cedar wood from King Hiram of Tyre, and had huge blocks of stone quarried for the building’s foundation. In order to complete the massive project, Solomon imposed forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts that sometimes lasted a month at a time. (1 Kings 5:1-18)

And there was the gold – lots of it! The inside of the Temple was completely covered with gold. Gold is physically and metaphorically one of the most malleable metals on the planet: one gram of gold can be beaten into a 1-square meter sheet, and gold has been used as a symbol for everything from religious devotion to great wealth and immense power.

As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, the most important room was perhaps the greatest theological statement of all; it contained almost no furniture. Known as the Holy of Holies, it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments inside of the Ark of the Covenant. The unseen and almighty God of the universe doesn’t really need a house, and most certainly cannot be contained within one.

Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the High Priest entered the most sacred Holy of Holies and pray to God on behalf of the Israelite nation. God’s world and God’s word are holy. It was understood that the Ten Commandments are very holy words, with the name of God being the holiest word of all. The Temple – by its sheer architecture – communicated what was most important about God.

Model of the Tabernacle in Timna Valley Park, Israel

Yet, the way in which the Temple was constructed was very different from how the earlier Tabernacle was built. The Tabernacle was a sort of mobile temple for the wilderness journey. The entire community worked together in giving their possessions and services in order to make the Tabernacle a reality.

Without the contributions of the people, the project probably would not have happened at all. But the chance to help out in all the myriad ways of making things for the sanctuary, pulled everyone together in a high degree of compliance. (Exodus 36:1-6)

Indeed, the building of the Tabernacle was a consensual enterprise; the people’s faith was the wellspring of their philanthropy. Yet, in contrast, the mode by which Solomon carried out the construction of the permanent Temple was by sheer wealth, forced labor, and strong administrative business deals.

There was no community participation in the form of voluntarism in Solomon’s financing of the Temple build. To pay for the cedar and cypress wood provided by the King of Tyre and to quarry and transport the building materials, Solomon issued a massive levy. In other words, there wasn’t any free labor and no robust public spirit animating the construction.

The Tabernacle for which the people volunteered wholeheartedly never fell victim to evil. The Temple, however, eventually and certainly did – in large part due to the evil of the kings who presided over the theocracy.  

The fate of any institution is determined by how it is created in the first place. No matter what the polity and organizational structure is, it cannot long survive without popular support. Solomon’s Temple, despite all of its grandeur and gold, rested on a shaky foundation and sandy soil.

After the Temple was constructed, the sacrificial system was authorized only in Jerusalem and at the Temple. Everything was centralized under the behemoth of Solomon’s system. What’s more, practices like volunteerism and community participation were largely replaced with systems of heavy taxation and a large debt. That’s one reason the kingdom immediately split apart after Solomon’s death.

Perhaps if the selfless ethos that went into building the Tabernacle was utilized by Solomon in the building of the Temple, maybe the fate of king after king in Israel would have been quite different. For it is in the spirit of volunteerism and a concern for the public welfare that governments attentive to the common good of all persons are built. How something is built matters.

Almighty and gracious God of all, we humbly offer our gratitude for the blessing of selfless volunteers and those who participate freely in ministries of justice and service. Thank you for their tireless dedication and benevolence.

May your Spirit bless them with continual guidance as they faithfully serve others. Give them resilience, daring, and fortitude. Let joy, peace, and satisfaction be upon the good work that they do. Inspire and motivate them to persist through trying circumstances, steadfast in their dedication to aiding those around them.

Help us all to reflect the profound beauty and compassion of your divine love. Amen.

The Day of the Lord (Zechariah 14:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year B1 Comment
Art by Larissa Lando

A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.

I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.

On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. (New International Version)

Even though people are polarized politically, not on the same page spiritually, and with as many diverse opinions as the grains of sand on a beach, we all seem to agree on one thing: The world is a messed up place.

Indeed, our world in fundamentally broken. There is injustice everywhere. You don’t have to go very far to find corruption. Selfishness abounds. Wars and violence and death proliferate in every corner of the globe. Just watching the evening news can give a person secondary trauma.

The Bible is not aloof to the injustice and human suffering of this old fallen world. Ancient peoples saw their share of hard circumstances and horror. We have difficult passages in Holy Scripture, like today’s Old Testament lesson, because we live in a difficult world.

There is, however, an end to it all. The prophet Zechariah communicated that God shall intervene and personally hold to account the world’s systems, institutions, organizations, communities, nations, and individuals. Because God is Love, the Lord will not put up with systemic evil and wicked hearts forever.

We people are both victims and perpetrators. By God’s grace, whenever we perpetrate injustice, we will become aware of it and seek to make it right through spiritual repentance and personal restitution. And if we don’t, may the Lord have mercy on us.

The Day of the Lord is a phrase referring to God’s divine judgment on this world. The Lord will personally come, according to the prophet Zechariah, to judge the world and establish a gracious and benevolent rule forever. On that day, events shall unfold which have never happened before.

Zechariah, of course, is not the only prophet to foresee the great Day of the Lord coming in power and glory. Notice what a few of the other prophets say:

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
Because of this, all hands will go limp,
    every heart will melt with fear.
Terror will seize them,
    pain and anguish will grip them;
    they will writhe like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at each other,
    their faces aflame.

See, the day of the Lord is coming
    —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
    and destroy the sinners within it.
The stars of heaven and their constellations
    will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
    and the moon will not give its light.
I will punish the world for its evil,
    the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
    and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
I will make people scarcer than pure gold,
    more rare than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
    and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,
    in the day of his burning anger. (Isaiah 13:6-13, NIV)

Alas for that day!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty…

The Lord thunders
    at the head of his army;
his forces are beyond number,
    and mighty is the army that obeys his command.
The day of the Lord is great;
    it is dreadful.
    Who can endure it? (Joel 1:15; 2:11, NIV)

“The day of the Lord is near
    for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
    your deeds will return upon your own head.” (Obadiah 15, NIV)

The great day of the Lord is near—
    near and coming quickly.
The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter;
    the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry.
That day will be a day of wrath—
    a day of distress and anguish,
        a day of trouble and ruin,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
        a day of clouds and blackness—
    a day of trumpet and battle cry
against the fortified cities
    and against the corner towers. (Zephaniah 1:14-16, NIV)

The Day of the Lord is the final day of reckoning for those who have stubbornly held to their unjust ways and failed to acknowledge there are better and righteous ways to live and operate in the world. God shall purge the earth of evil.

Just because suffering and wickedness have endured for several millennia, does not mean that God is absent, uncaring, or will do nothing. And just because people (supposedly) get away with being self-centered and calloused toward their fellow humanity, does not mean they won’t have to face the Judge someday.

If you have suffered from a harsh leader, or endured an unjust situation, or seen others you care about crushed by an oppressive system, please understand that God does see it all – and God will vindicate the godly, while holding the ungodly accountable for their wickedness.

It is frustrating, even maddening, to have to put up with injustice day after day. Take heart to neither give up nor give in, because the Lord your God has your back. There is support for today, and justice for tomorrow.

Almighty God, who created humanity in your own image: Grant us grace to fearlessly contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression. Help us to use our freedom, and employ it in the maintenance of justice among individuals and nations, to the glory of your holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Vision of the End (Revelation 14:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Great Day of His Wrath, by John Martin, 1852

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as first-fruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” (New International Version)

Throughout the book of Revelation (The Apocalypse of John) the Apostle John communicates visions of the end, of God’s wrath and human suffering. Yet John also pauses throughout his vision to offer encouragement for the faithful followers of Jesus in the present time who are undergoing suffering, even persecution.

The assurance believers have is that God sees their struggle, their devotion; the Lord will protect them – not from suffering and death – but from the effects of divine judgment and punishment on the earth. The Lord will not abandon the believers. Instead, they will share in God’s new realm.

The Lamb and the Redeemed

The ultimate destiny of Christ’s faithful followers is not in judgment but in triumph – even though many of them had to face extreme circumstances and died the martyr’s death. Christ, the Lamb of God, stands in the center of God’s kingdom with the 144,000, who sing a new song to God.

It could be that these 144,000 persons are representative and symbolic of all redeemed humanity. Or, they may likely be Christian martyrs, the ones who were the victims of evil (Revelation 13). Whoever they actually are, their description is figurative in order to convey that these faithful persons are morally and spiritually pure; they did not defile themselves with the wickedness of the world’s systemic and structural evil.

These redeemed persons are the first fruits, believers who have sacrificed their lives for God and maintained their witness to King Jesus, and not to Ceasar as Lord. In the Old Testament, every firstborn (both human and animal) belonged to the Lord. The first fruits (the initial yield of crops) were set aside specifically as a sacrificial offering to God.

In the New Testament, the concept and practice of first fruits is used as a metaphor for something given to God in advance. So, in the book of Revelation, this refers to the harvest at the end of the age; the first fruits are the 144,000, the ones who are the anticipation of Christian resurrection. In other words, there are many more converts to come – people redeemed by the Lamb and set aside for resurrection and new creation. A great harvest of souls comes; because of Christ’s resurrection, his followers shall also experience resurrection.

The Message of the Three Angels

The Apostle John spoke of three angels, each of whom proclaim a coming judgment of God. The first angel has a call to repentance and a warning of imminent judgment. The second angel announces the fall of Babylon (Rome). And the third angel pronounces judgment upon those who gave themselves to the powers of this fallen world, who participated in organizational wickedness through oppression, abuse, neglect, disrespect, and dishonor of others.

It is with the third angel that the “mark of the beast” upon a person’s forehead is the mark of judgment on them. Although the language and picture of this, and what happens to them, was (and still is for some) used to scare the hell out of people so that they would embrace heaven, we must very much distance ourselves from such disgraceful rhetoric.

Again, the vision is full of symbolism and is not to be taken literally; it is John’s attempt to convey an otherworldly experience he had, in terms which his readers could grasp. The big idea is that those who have become devoted members to the machinations of evil in its various forms on this earth will experience the judgment of God.

As they sought glory in this world by any means possible – including using people to keep and hold power – so, they will face an inglorious end when God holds them accountable for their wrongdoing and for letting their own hearts become shriveled and dry.

This is neither the time to participate in evil, nor to procrastinate in making things right – while you still have time to do so.

For those holding on to bitterness, it is time to forgive.

For the ones giving in to their anger through hating others, it is now time to humble yourself, repent, and turn to right and healthy ways of dealing with that anger.

For the persons allowing themselves to be used by others for perpetuating evil in their workplace, neighborhood, or church, it is high time to find your voice, renounce the damaging practices, and speak truth to power.

We all must suffer. What it is we suffer for, is up to us.

Almighty and everlasting God, the rightful Judge of all things and all people, help us, your people, to be rightly prepared for Christ’s coming, through a right confession and right practices in this life. Enable us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling so that we might cast the bright beams which radiate from the approaching day of glory into those dark days and nights of suffering.

Sovereign God, draw us, we pray, near to Christ and in union with him. May we taste and see the goodness of the Lord; be strengthened in faith for the trials and tribulations which lie before us; bask in the love of Jesus; and hold fast to divine promises, and our confession, especially since the end of all things is at hand. Amen.