News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. – Matthew 4:28

 Today's Scripture Reading (October 23, 2020): Matthew 4

In his novel "11/22/63," Stephen King remarks that "We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why." King's story tells the tale of a time traveler who decides to go back to the fall of 1963 to attempt to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an event that took place on the date indicated in the novel's title. He was going to fix an event that shook the world and caused an untold amount of pain and destruction; he wanted to prevent a death that was entirely the creation of a disturbed human mind.

Looking through the pages of history, much of the pain we have experienced has been solely because of us. As a race, we seem to continually inflict pain on each other, both great and small. But maybe even more disturbing is the fact that we often also seem to enjoy it. If we could somehow just stop the human inflicted pain, we could make this world into a much better place to live. But stopping our penchant to destroy ourselves remains something that is outside of our collective desire to do.

Matthew says that people brought the sick and the hurting to Jesus for him to heal. And the people suffered from many different kinds of sickness. Some hurts were human inflicted, some the result of the natural breakdown of the human body, and some were brought on by supernatural means. We often think that the idea of demon-possession in ancient times was a place holder for sicknesses that they didn't understand. And now, we have a better explanation of illness, which means that we have less need to attribute these sicknesses to demons.  What we miss is that there is a definite and somewhat unexplainable rise in the mention of demon-possession in the New Testament, something that is not often mentioned in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Scholars have struggled with the reason for the increase. But one possibility is that, just as God became incarnate and dwelt among us and ministered to us physically in our midst for a time, so Satan also increased his power in the world, opposing the physical move of God.

If that is true, then we can expect that Satan would continue that strategy in our modern world, active in the places where God is involved. And maybe that is the reason for the opposition that exists, not to stupid Christianity, which is often self-serving and lacking in love, but to Christianity that genuinely seeks to make this world a better place. Where God is on the move, Satan is moving as well. And in those situations, we need to remember that God has the power to heal all of our sicknesses and situations, regardless of the cause. He is in charge of natural disease, pain that results from human actions, and even illness resulting from Satan's activities. God is still on the throne, and God is still in charge. And he still wants to be the positive influence our lives need, regardless of the when or why.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 4