Red Letters – Hell No – April 11

RED LETTERS
April 11, 2021

Hell No

Mark 1:23-26, ‘Suddenly, during a meeting, a demon-possessed man screamed out, “Hey! Leave us alone! Jesus, the victorious, I know who You are. You are God’s Holy One and You have come to destroy us!” Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Silence! You are bound! Come out of him!” The man’s body shook violently in spasms, and the demon hurled him to the floor until it finally came out of him with a deafening shriek!’ (TPT)

During the miraculous first days of Jesus’ ministry, while He is traveling from village to village, performing miracles, healing people, making blind eyes see and lame people walk, we also find Him casting out evil spirits from demon-possessed humanity. Mark 1:34 says, ‘Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. But He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew who He really was (TPT).’ I find this significant.

We have visited Jesus at a wedding where the wedding party has run out of wine and His mother begs Him to fix the issue. He does so miraculously but only after He chastises His mom by saying, “My time has not yet come.” News of his popularity is blowing through the crowds like a wildfire on a hot dry day and groups of people are bringing loved ones to Jesus from all over to see them healed by this mysterious man.

But we also catch up with Him in hidden and lonely places where He is tiptoeing beneath the radar of people’s opinions and skepticisms, and outside the circumference of judgy religious theologians. I think in all truthfulness, deep down inside, the religious leaders of that time knew exactly who Jesus was: the promised Messiah, the one true Son of God Almighty, and they couldn’t face that actuality. Perhaps the truth threatened them and their status quo and their nifty little hypocritical views.

But then there are the demons. They know exactly Who Jesus is and why He has come, and, in fact, we find them trembling in horror of Him and what He will do to them and their chosen places of residency. And this is exactly what Jesus does. He encounters people He came to rescue who are bound by demons in enemy territory and He scares the hell out of them as they flee from His presence. It is very comforting to me to learn that even spirits need permission from Jesus to speak because that tells me there is nothing that doesn’t happen in my world that hasn’t been sifted by His hand, promising His full control over anything that goes bump in my night or awry in my day. The demons are fully aware that Jesus is victorious and His mission is to save us and destroy them. In fact, I wonder what it would be like if we were as awestruck of Jesus as the demons are; if that would change our respect of Him and perhaps our obedience and reverence.

I’ve been reading RED LETTERS all my life, but never with my heart.
During the month of April, let’s JOURNEY where JESUS journeyed,
and listen with our hearts to all He came to proclaim.