“….He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.  And demons also came out, crying out and saying: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!'”  Luke 4:40,41

“…there met Him, two demon-possessed men….And suddenly they cried out:  ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?  Have You come here to torment us before the time'”  Matthew 8:28, 29

If this post is to have any value, to not be a complete waste of time, you the reader need to understand that there are a couple of premises on which the post is based.  First, that scripture is true.  That is to say, what it depicts in the above instances actually happened.  That, these are not just metaphoric or allegorical figures of speech.  Thus additionally, that means that demons actually exist.  Demons are the agents of the devil and they attempt to act against the will of Our Heavenly Father.

Just to digress a moment, I find it interesting that there is a segment of society and even some within the faith, who see the discussion of the devil and even more so demons as some questionably fringe or fanatical aspect of faith, to be avoided or shunned.  In some ways I can understand this because of how demons and dealing with the concept of demons has been handled by the entertainment industry as well as, indeed, some unique sects and individuals within the Christian Faith.  Yet it is interesting that few within the faith would argue against the existence of angels; curious.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  Demons, being real, plagued the lives of people.  As agents of Satan, their mission was and is to drive a wedge between the Creator; God and His creation, us.  They have various means and tools to achieve their aim.  On the one hand it could be an aspect of physical distress.  Here, understand that I am not saying that all illness is some sort of demonic possession.  Demons, also can vex and attack the mind.  Again, not all mental illness is demonic possession.  Demons, as well can fill a person with all forms of wicked, horrible tendencies and desires and then set about having the person carry them out.  But enough about demons and their processes of which I am not an expert.  This is just to stress and drive the point home that, in every aspect, the existence of demons and all their actions are diametrically opposed to the existence, the mission, the Love of our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

So here’s the fascinating point (at least to me).  According to scripture, the demons had absolutely no trouble recognizing Jesus as the Christ; the One True Son of God Almighty.  Second, they were exceedingly fearful of Jesus.  The demons seemed to have understood the omnipotent nature of Jesus Christ and their complete and utter powerlessness against Him.  Thus, all they could do was scream, cry out, wale against Jesus Christ and the impending doom they felt for themselves at His presence and power.

It is interesting in a sad sort of way, how hard it was for so many back then, as well as so many of us today; to be able to recognize Jesus Christ in the same way.  There will be some who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ ever existed.  There are some who will say that Jesus was a historical figure; but just a human leader of a particular sect.  Still others will acknowledge that Jesus lived and even proclaim that He was a good man, for some even a prophet, but with no divinity associated with Him.  Sadly, among the faith, there is a portion who will proclaim Him, Son of God, yet define that proclamation by stating that Jesus was not virgin born, but rose by His own righteousness to a level where He attained the title of Son of God; man first, God second.

Why is so difficult for us to see Jesus Christ; the true way that He is, even though our declared enemy, who is quite literally hell bent on our destruction, seems to have no trouble seeing the true Christ?  Why are we partially and in some cases totally blind to that vision?  One reason, one challenge we have is how worldly, how physical and secular our society has become.  We gravitate to those things which we feel we can prove through our human methods and understand with our human intellect.  That may seem to fly in the face of what seems to be the “New Age” movement toward all things spiritual.  Yet even here, what I’ve found, is that the spiritual nature that they talk about is all things that are knowable and understandable and to a great extent even controllable by human kind.  That there is an unseen spiritual realm, populated by entities who are beyond our understanding, much less our control and in fact are able to exert control over us which we are not able to defeat on our own; is a vision, a reality, many choose to stay blind to.  However, close your eyes and walk toward the wall in your room.  Being blind to the wall will not keep you from running smack dab into it and hurting your nose (that was only for example purposes – please don’t go walking into a wall).

Dear Sisters and Brothers take heart, for we are not destined to be left blind in this existence.  Who is the Great Physician who has come to restore our sight and defeat our enemies?  Who is it who proclaims to us “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”?  Jesus Christ.  How can we truly see Him?  We must humble ourselves, knowing we have no earthly process that will bring us to the accurate vision of Christ.  It is by the Grace of our Father in Heaven, by the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can come to the true realization of Jesus Christ.  Fortunately, we don’t have some arduous test we must pass first, come up with some exorbitant sum to pay first, sacrifice our first born child to bring about this miraculous transformation in our sight.  For Jesus Christ, passed the test, paid the price, made the sacrifice for us.  What we need do is believe in Jesus Christ and ask and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us; to not only see, but also experience the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we humbly confess that we at times have our vision clouded or even become blinded to the true nature, power and purpose of Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son.  Forgive us, Most Merciful Father, when we accept some lesser vision of our own making versus the true vision which You have provided for us.  We call on You to pour out Your Holy Spirit, that through the Spirit; we may see and experience Jesus Christ in all His Glory.  That in having the true vision of Jesus Christ and through His power, we would lead lives triumphant over all spiritual and earthly enemies to the praise of Your Most Holy Name.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.