June 30, 2010
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Seek good and not evil, that you may live; Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts, be with you as you claim! Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate; Then it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will have pity on the remnant of Joseph. Amos 5:14-15
"Understand this, you who forget God, lest I attack you with no one to rescue. Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me; to the obedient I will show the salvation of God." Psalm 50:22-23
When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Matthew 8:28-29
Piety
What have you to do with me, Jesus? What must I do to experience your saving grace? Despite my forgetfulness and sin, you never turn away from me like I turn away from you. Restore me to you so that you may always have a place to dwell with me. Amen.
Study
Why do we do what we do? Why do we do evil and spurn goodness? One answer revealed in today’s readings is because we allow the forces of evil to have greater influence on us than we allow the forces of good or of God.
Today’s readings also reintroduce us to an interesting word: demoniac – someone who has been possessed or controlled by a demon. We have many other forms of insanity that also build off of the root “mania” or “maniac.” The influence of evil not only explains the behavior of the two men coming out of the tombs at Gadarenes but it also explains the behavior that the prophet Amos was trying to change more than 700 years earlier.
As the introduction to the Book of Amos in the New American Bible tells us, Amos was “a prophet of divine judgment, and the sovereignty of Yahweh in nature and history dominates his thought. But he was no innovator; his conservatism was in keeping with the whole prophetic tradition calling the people back to the high moral and religious demands of Yahweh's revelation. In common with the other prophets, Amos knew that divine punishment is never completely destructive; it is part of the hidden plan of God to bring salvation to men.” When we allow the forces of good or of God to prevail, then this compassionate nature of God will rise above any of our transgressions.
Even when we are possessed by forces that lead us into a life of sin, God will prevail over these forces. Jesus shows us that today in the first encounter we study when he releases the two men who were possessed and drives the evil spirits into the herd of swine.
However, the people react in a curious fashion. When they heard about the story from witnesses, they rush out of town to meet Jesus. When the rest of the people have the second encounter with Jesus, they do not know what to make of this change in the nature of the former demoniacs. They have come to fear these possessed men.
Instead of welcoming these men back into the community, they reject Jesus and ask him to leave their town and leave them alone. “When they saw him they begged him to leave their district.” They do not want to accept the change which Jesus has caused. Rather, they want to go back to the behaviors to which they had become accustomed. Jesus, the agent of change, is rejected. Jesus should be getting used to rejection by this point. Rejection will become great training for the time when his hour has come.
Action
The core question for all Christianity arises today. “What have you to do with us, Son of God?” For the demoniacs, when they encounter Jesus, they find out that Jesus has arrived to free them from the forces of evil which have gripped their lives. However, the people from the town never ask the same question.
“What have you to do with us, Son of God?” Are your ready to encounter Jesus and ask the question? Are you ready for the answer? Are you ready to live with the way you must when Jesus changes your life? If not, Jesus might just as well pack up and leave Fairfax or Arlington or Alexandria or Manassas like he left Gadarenes.
Amos preaches that despite our actions, God is a healing God: Yes, days are coming, says the LORD, When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; The juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run with it. I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel; they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, Plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits.
What are you willing to do in exchange for this restoration? Will you accept it like the former demoniacs who become believers or will you reject it like the people from the town?
“What have you to do with us, Son of God?” Is there any more important question in all Christianity? First, we have to recognize that Jesus is the Son of God. But then, we have to accept what this means for our lives.
