Belonging - Day 24

Matthew 8:6 When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. 7 With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had already said to the spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.”

We are reiterating this verse today as it holds so much for us to unpack. Some of scripture is deep upon deep, layer upon layer; like an onion, layers that become more powerful as you unpack them. These demons bowed low to Jesus, but the use of language here is fascinating. We won’t go into a deep word study other than to say it is usually the exorcist that uses an “oath” to bind the demon. In this language, the demon is the first to utter an oath, in what seems like a worthless attempt to somehow get the upper hand on Jesus. There is a great deal of scholarship and evidence around the idea that to declare the name of a person or spirit was to wield power over them, and similar ways of naming people were quite common in the ancient literature. (A book by J.M Hull entitled “Magic” speaks to this.)

Jesus will use a name in V.9 to control the demons, so this is interesting that the demon sought to bind Jesus first. But the title they give Jesus here seems to make it silly that a demon would think it could have authority over Jesus. The use of “Son of the Most High God” shows the demons knew exactly who they were dealing with. Their begging Jesus not to torture them implies that Jesus not only had the authority, but the power to do so, as well.

The language again shows us that Jesus had taken initiative by calling the demon out of the man. V.8 is a parenthetical statement by the author to give us further context. Perhaps as the man walked up to Jesus, Jesus gave the call for the spirit to come out of the man, and so the oath the demon utters is in response to the command Jesus gave to the spirit. We don’t always see evil/unclean spirits talking or dialoguing with Jesus, but we do in this case.  As we will see, this case is not just one evil spirit, but a multitude.

Again, however, we are struck with the deep authority that Jesus wields in both the ordinary and super-ordinary realms of existence. And this plays into the way that we see the authority of Christ in our lives.

How do we follow Christ each and every day? How can we understand what it means to live under the authority of Christ and to submit to Him daily? Paul gives us some suggestions in the book of Romans, particularly in the 12th chapter: 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Message Bible)

We are struck again with the notion that every aspect of our lives is not only worship, but under the authority of Christ. So here are some questions:
 

1. Is there a place where you have failed to submit to Christ in your life? Are you holding a portion of your life back? 
2. When you examine your life, have you figured out why you don’t give it all to Christ? Why do you think you are holding on to a portion that you don’t want to submit to Christ? 
3. What will you have to give up? Is it worth the sacrifice?