On Theme

Out of curiosity this morning, I read Mark Chapter 5 to see what comes just before our hometown gospel.

Chapter 5 is a fascinating juxtaposition of stories.  There's the time the demons are terrified that Jesus will order them out of a poor soul living in a cave with literally Legion of devils inside him and ask to be sent into pigs (2,000 pigs -- has that always been the number? I was never picturing a full 2,000 pigs, that's a whole industry in first century Judea, right?) who run off a cliff -- making everyone but the poor soul who's been freed politely ask Jesus to get OUT please.

Despite knowing him for a power, just as surely as the demons did, they just want this person messing with their bottom line to leave, even if He clearly has a direct line to God.

Then there are the two outsiders in town who believe entirely that Jesus can heal her or his daughter's ailment.  Yes, the companion in Mark's 5th chapter to the people who value the pigs over a tormented soul are the hemorraghing woman who grabs for his cloak and Japheth's daughter being brought back to life.

(Do we really not get a name for her?  Shouldn't see be even bigger than Lazarus, having been resurrected first?)

And then we jerk back to Nazareth, which is offended just by Jesus's teachings, much less his swine-destroying miracles.  And so the only people Jesus can help are the equivalent of the woman and Jephath, healing a few sick.

We talk about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners.  But the people at the low end of the social or economic totem pole...maybe the reason they are the children of God is that they're better able to see that a small industry's worth of pigs IS a small price to pay for the salvation of a tortured soul.  That an ordinary man with a childhood and a past is where prophets ALWAYS come from.

They're so much less afraid of breaking the status quo with the Truth.

I keep being shocked at how people see and believe yet don't change their lives.  I think I really shouldn't be shocked.