Display (Easter - Day 17)

(Based on Luke 4:31-37)

When I drink alcohol, I say things that I would never say if sober. A friend of mine used to tell me that when I drank to a certain point, he would look into my eyes and it would be like a spirit had taken over me. My whole countenance would change. My eyes would turn bloodshot, and I would become extremely antisocial, yet say things that would pierce the hearts of the people around me. Once, I was partying at a beach house on Bolivar Peninsula, and what people told me the next day was horrifying. At some point in the night, they found me naked in the shower, scratching myself and clawing at the shower curtains. My friends got a good laugh out of the incident, but deep inside I knew something was terribly wrong. How could I be so calm and sociable in one hour, only to be a complete monster a few hours later? This is the effect alcohol has on my body, mind, and spirit. Some alcoholics I know have deemed alcohol "an evil spirit." 

When I read stories about demonic possession, I immediately think of that. And we're told in Luke 4:31-37 that Jesus is teaching in the temple in Capernaum, and there is a man afflicted with demonic possession in the crowd. He screams out at Jesus: "What do you want with us? You're the Son of God and you've come to destroy us!" Upon hearing this, Jesus screams back "Get out of him!" The scriptures say the spirit "throws the man down" and leaves the premises. In another passage out of Mark, the same story goes that the man "went into convulsions." 

Who knows what really happened here. The best I can do to relate to the afflicted man is to remember what it was life under the control of alcohol. Screaming, convulsions, insanity, and affliction all came with my experience over the years of going from a moderate drinker to a hard drinker. 

Yesterday's passage told us that Jesus got in front of another audience and read a scroll from Isaiah which said, "The sprit is one me. I've come to set the captives free . . . to pardon the imprisoned . . .this is the year for the Lord to act!"

So, here Jesus is in another temple, in front of a different audience, and he's doing what he read. He's taking the words of Isaiah and putting them to action. In this case, he frees "an imprisoned, burdened, captive." The crowd is used to arrogant teachers stepping up to the spotlight, spouting off scriptures and quibbling on for hours, but right off the bat they see something different in Jesus. He's confident, authoritative, and impressively smart. He's not just quoting off scriptures, but engaging the audience through his words. 

How many times have we heard good speakers? With Ted Talks and YouTube, and all the other resources we have, we have the ability to be connected with dialogue that engages us to extract the most out of this life we possibly can. 

What Jesus does is twofold: he teaches and he acts, and it's all part of the message. His sermons include word and deed, talking and doing. What a beautiful thing it would be if instead of going to a building Sundays, the pastor decided to teach something while taking the congregation through the streets of inner city Houston! 

Jesus' teachings and his actions are always complementing each other. They aren't isolated from each other. In fact, one could say that his teachings support his actions. Most of the time, he's already situated in a place where he is near to the broken-hearted, and his teaching comes out of his interactions with the poor, crippled, and blind. It's almost as if the verbal teachings come secondary to his interactions with the people. 

We can learn something from this. If we want to have people walk away with an experience and a message they'll never forget, we've got to get outside, get our hands dirty, and support the actions with the verbal message. Support the mission with the message, not the other way around. What we are used to is hearing a message of motivation to go do some good in the world, and we're left scrapping our way around wondering where to start. What we need are spiritual leaders who are interested in teaching us how to do some good in the world, and then extracting the verbal message out of that. 

What does this mean for us? There's an old saying by St. Francis of Assisi that goes something like this: "Preach often, and if necessary, use words." Francis knew that his world didn't need another preacher behind a podium, presenting a pathos-infused message. He thought his world needed a person who would go out and spend time with the poor, and let the verbal message come as a natural outflow from the actions. 

We are not all teachers, but we are all trying to get messages across. What if we started doing the things we wanted people to know, and then put words to it? What if we started doing insanely loving and radical things for people, to the point that they couldn't help but invite us to put words into the actions? We all have a chance to carry the message of hope, forgiveness, compassion, and freedom. The question is, are our actions secondary to our words or are our words merely supporting our actions? Jesus shows us that the greatest impact we can have on the world around us is to choose the former - to do first and speak later. 

Today's Action: Before we go to work or get busy with our daily routine, choose one thing that we would like the world around us to know. Then, think of creative ways throughout the day to put that thing on display without using words.