Readings
Esther 7:1-10
Acts 19:11-20
Luke 4:14-30
Meditation
The writers of the Bible not only believed in a personal God, but they believed (saw) personal evil. Luther often talks of Christ’s victory over Sin, Death and the Devil. The passage from Acts today is an example of what such a victory might look like in these last days. Paul, as the apostle of Jesus had the ability to perform miralces. Just like Jesus in the Gospels where people would line up just to touch his cloak, in Ephesus, handkerchiefs and aprons were taken from Paul to the sick to heal them, and drive out evil spirits. But some took these miracles not as signs and wonders pointing to Jesus and his victory. The Seven Sons of Sceva took them as witchcraft. When we say witchcraft we think of the holloween images and bogus witch trials, but the point of witchcraft is lost in those images. The point is to gain power over God or some other power entity through ritual. Becuase I do/say these things in the correct way, you, the powerful entity, must do what I ask. There is no such thing as witchcraft, because you can’t put God in a box, and the devil only does what he thinks is in his interest. The demons in our story teach Sceva’s sons that lesson as they run naked and beaten out the door.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, a center of the witchcraft, says be sure to put on the full armor of God, becuase we do not fight against flesh and blood but agianst the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world. (Ephesians 6:10-20) Christ has triumphed over these forces. They fight a scorched earth retreat. If they can’t have the world, they are going to burn it all and take as many to hell with them as they can. But we can fight in the armor supplied by God. In Ephesus, fear fell on them all. The name of Jesus was extolled and the people came forward confessing what they had been doing. Those who thought they had practiced magic brought the books together and burned them. They had been valued at 50,000 pieces of silver -100′s of years of wages. When the veil is lifted just a bit, the foolishness of the thoughts are clear.
But this victory over the devil is exactly what our culture today says we can’t do. It says people won’t burn 50,000 silver pieces. It says you can’t turn back the clock. Most of the time it is not a turning back the clock, but a growing in wisdom. Pornagraphy is bad for you, in Christ you can defeat it, put it on the fire. Sloth leads to get rich quick schemes, like flipping houses on bad loans. In Christ you can learn fortitude and patience. The Devil fights his battle of the bulge, but he’s judged, one word can fell him. It is not turning back the clock, but growing in the wisdom of our situation.
