Today's Gospel

All the Ways to Be Possessed

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where every day we explore the genius of Jesus, his teachings, and the Gospel. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11, verses 15 to 26. But some of them said, "He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." While others detest him, sought from him assigned from Heaven. But he knowing their thoughts said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and housefuls upon house. And if Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? But you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. And when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. He who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none, he says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. And he goes away and finds seven other spirits more evil than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

What jumps out at you today? A lot of talks in the Gospel about demons, about possession. And we don't talk very much about that today. And I think that's interesting because I think we do see people in possessed states. I saw a guy a few days ago yelling at somebody, not sure who the person was in relation to him. But he was like, his eyes were popping out, his vein was out of his neck, and I'm thinking to myself, you're going to give yourself a heart attack for sure. But also thinking this guy sort of looks possessed, you know? And I think we can experience possession in lots of different ways. I think we can be possessed by fear. We can be possessed by ambition. We can be possessed in so many ways. And so for us to think today, maybe you're not possessed like Jesus was experiencing here. Not possessed like we need to call the exorcist. But possessed in a way that you're not fully free. That something does have control over you. And God wants you free, he wants to make you fully free. My wife and I often talk about something, and that is if you're not free to say no, you're not free to say yes. And if you're not free to say yes, you're not free to say no. And there's a lot of situations, okay? You just take that one thing. There are a lot of situations in our lives where we don't feel free to say yes, or we don't feel free to say no. If you're not free to say yes, you're not free to say no. And if you're not free to say no, you're not free to say yes. And that's a form of possession, just obligation can be a form of possession, or expectation, reasonable or unreasonable can be a form of possession. As you go through your day today, think about freedom, think about how free you are. Think about where you're not free, and think about what do you feel free to say yes to. And what don't you free to say yes to or no to, and vice versa? God bless you and remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best-version-of-yourself. All that God created you to be.