The Confrontation with Evil
Filed on 18 September 2015 in Food For Thought category. 
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The Confrontation with Evil
Mark 2 and 3
Lord God, Your Word is so wonderful. How is it that we see new insights almost every time we look at it? THANK You Lord.
Mark highlights the evil of the Pharisees (how had they come to this?) in not only ignoring the evidence of the miracle healing of the lame man let down through the roof but then subsequently accusing Jesus of doing miracles through the power of Satan.
So here we have clear evidence of something good, something of God and His righteousness but the “before our eyes evidence” is ignored and the Pharisees react with anger and hostility and make accusations – blasphemy in fact. There is no changing of their minds – they are intent on discrediting and ignoring and destroying “let’s see how we can kill this man”.
(Note also the context of Jesus’ reply regarding the “unforgivable” sin being the judgment of the work of the Holy Spirit as being the work of Satan. We must be so careful. And yet we also know that there will be counterfeits.)
We have today a situation where the “before our eyes evidence” of God’s creation of male and female (and all that hangs from that in terms of marriage and family and children and the right to a mum and dad) is totally ignored and responded to, not by logical argument, but with accusation and name calling.
There is no changing of the minds of these people who respond this way. They are guilty of the desecration of God’s purposes in creation. Logical evidence does not work. (Maybe it works on a few – as in the case of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.)
If we were there with Jesus, how would we respond? Would we attribute the miracle to God or Satan?
Do we now attribute the creation and design of male and female to God? Do we ignore – and trivialise and rail against the clear purpose of the anatomical differences and say we should honour homosexual relationships which are a perversion of design, a desecration – in fact a blasphemy of design and a blasphemy against God?
And if it comes to a vote, who would we vote for? The good Pharisees or the bad? Would we support the bad because they also give to the poor?
Also we must note that Jesus responded not only with condemnation but also with anger. And yes, we must be careful how we direct it but God’s people in particular must not vote for the party of the Pharisees that insist on the desecration of God’s creational design.
Did the party of the Pharisees then persecute those who stood up for Jesus and for kingdom righteousness? They sure did. They were angry. And they wanted to kill them too. And they wanted to kill Paul too after he saw the light. The contrast between their own evil darkness and the light made them react with hatred and seek to wreak vengeance on any who dared to follow Jesus. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18-20; 16:2; 17:14).
Lachlan Dunjey, 18 Sept 2015.
