11 October 2010
Psalm 1, 2, 3; Micah 7:1-7; Acts 26:1-23; Luke 8:26-39

Micah looks for faithfulness in the land and can find no one. What a sad commentary on the state of the nation’s religious life. The time of judgment has come and now the prophet alone stands and waits for the salvation of the Lord. He is not passively waiting, however, he is attempting to draw attention to the situation and is warning any who will listen and he is watching for the salvation of the Lord, he is as one of the wise virgins whose lamp had oil in it as she waited for the bridegroom.

Jesus had only one reason for coming here to the land of the Gerasenes, to save this man from the torment in which he was living. Religious Jews avoided coming to this place yet Jesus got into the boat and deliberately came here to what would have been a nightmare of uncleanness for a Jewish person. He came to one with a demon, living among the tombs, who was bleeding and then pigs get involved, religiously He wouldn’t be able to get the uncleanness off of Himself for weeks. Why did He have such compassion on this solitary man? Whose prayers had reached Him? At the end the man wants to join Jesus but He will not allow it and, unlike His attitude with Jewish people He healed, Jesus tells the man to go and tell all that has been done for him. He won’t be coming back here and the word needs to be spread prior to the apostolic mission that will come later to tell, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”

Paul gives King Agrippa his personal testimony of the encounter with Jesus and then preaches the Gospel to him. His testimony is that he is one of them, the only real difference between Paul and his accusers is that he believes Messiah has come and that now is the time to make the decision about whether indeed Jesus was the one promised through Moses and all the prophets. It is a simple process. When we think about what does it mean to believe in Jesus we should think at least partially through Jewish eyes, is Jesus the one promised in the Old Testament? If so, then, as Paul says, we are to repent, turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. If not, we are caught in the trap of the law we cannot obey and for which we will be judged.

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.