Imagine if you would for a moment that you could be a time traveler; and now you have been transported back hundreds of years to mid-evil times, somewhere in Europe and it’s around 1350 A.D. For the record, no matter how much a movie may romanticize a particular era, I can’t imagine any human living in America today would be fond of living back then. 

 Living conditions were extremely challenging. But the reason I sent you back to this time and region is because there was wide spread suffering as untold numbers of people were dying from the bubonic plague, otherwise known as the ‘Black Death’. To say it had made a significantly adverse impact on the world, especially Europe, would be an understatement. 

 If you remember any of that from your history classes, you will recall that this horrific disease spread rapidly from rats, which carried fleas that were carriers of this bacteria-germ and would bite people. People, I might add, that lived in very crowded communities, especially in cities. Sanitary conditions back in this time period were dismal, at best. One interesting note regarding the spread of this disease that turned the world upside-down is believed to have had its origin in China. (That made me scratch my chin and go ‘hmmm’!) And it spread quickly via the trade routes that led into the Mediterranean area and then eventually all of Europe. 

 So why did I ‘send you back in time’ to this place and location? 

 Knowing what you know now regarding all that and how the deadly disease spread so rapidly, I’d be curious to know -if you were to sit down with maybe some of the leading citizens of one of those small villages or cities who had been ravaged by this illness, how would you explain to them the cause and spread of this ‘unseen enemy’? 

 In other words, how do you explain to them what ‘germs’ are? And you did not get to bring a microscope with you on this errand I sent you. So give it your best shot to describe some unseen enemy that you can’t easily show exist, and would be, for the most part, a foreign concept to the multitudes. 

 I’m waiting…. 

 I’m guessing you could give some lessons on good hygiene practices that might bear some good results. But oh, if you only had that special lens we call a microscope and you could let them see with their own eyes what these ‘invisible’ culprits were doing to their families, their communities, and their world. 

 Anyone see where I am going with this today? 

 So what if one of the early disciples of the church was transported forward to our day and time here in America. And they were faced with trying to explain so much of the suffering and ‘ailments’ that they saw prevalent today in our society. 

 Oh wait, no need to call them forward. They left us a book. It turned out to be a best seller. It’s probably over there on a shelf or next to the TV. For some of you, it might have a layer of dust on it. (and I’m not being snarky, …just keeping it light’ before we change gears here now.) 

 How would a sit down with Paul, or Peter, or even Jesus Himself go as they began to explain to us what demons are and how they operated? 

 Yep, demons. For those reading this who would not classify themselves as ‘believers’ you may be smiling and thankful you are more educated and enlightened today regarding talk like that. What is sad though, is how many church members who Do align themselves with the Christian faith and lean towards your thinking. 

 You see, we have just assigned fancy words and clinical terms and phrases to ‘conditions’ that have been around for centuries. Why we even have made pharmaceutical companies quite wealthy treating these ‘ailments’ with pills, that in many cases, do just that…’treat symptoms’ but never cure the problem. 

 And I would imagine that many reading this today might be smiling, if not even rolling the eyes…sort of like how folks back in 1350 might have responded with you telling them about germs riding atop rodents who carried fleas around with this really bad germ. 

 As always, all I know to do is point you to the word. I hope you will grab a pen and paper pad and write down some verses and look them up today. You might find this enlightening. 

 Mark 9:17-27. A young boy was brought to Jesus by a heartbroken parent explaining how their son was afflicted with seizures and convulsions. He had a demon, a ‘mute spirit’ that restricted him from talking. To make matters worse, he was often thrown into the water or a fire to destroy him. Pay close attention to what Jesus said and did in verse 25. – “He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 

 “Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him.” (26) 

 The young lad was cured, or healed. You could also say he was delivered. Oh, Jesus came to set the captives free, did He not? (Luke 4:18) 

 Speaking of Luke- he himself was a disciple of Jesus. Before that, he was a physician. His gospel that he penned offers up multiple incidents where Jesus cast demons out of people. In fact his assessment of an elderly woman in chapter 13 is interesting. “There was a woman who had a sprit of infirmity eighteen years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.” (11) It didn’t take long for Jesus, who had compassion on this woman, to get her straightened out, literally. 

 Just read on down how He set her free, and in the process offended the religious establishment, again, because He healed her on the Sabbath. And Jesus made no attempt to gloss over what this woman’s affliction was tied to. “This woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound-think of it- for eighteen years…” (16) 

 Such talk, from the Son of God who was a lowly carpenter from Nazareth. A man, whom Peter tells us how ‘God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) 

 Another question for you: When did people stop being afflicted or tormented by demons and unclean spirits? 

 Jesus sure had a lot to say on this subject. He was pretty straightforward with this insight in Matt. 12:43-45, talking about how when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes looking to find another place to rest and when he finds none, he returns hoping to find an opening to re-enter that person. Often times, he does, leaving that person in a much worse condition that he was at first. Why is that, you ask? Just read vs. 45…he brings with him seven other spirits worse than himself. 

 I would submit to you today and may expound on later that this passage alone would offer up a valid reason why many prayers go unanswered, seemingly, by God. We have been in the dark as to what is causing so many of our ‘issues’ and if we don’t know how and why we are suffering, if God answered and removed the sources/root without you understanding how and why, what kind of condition would you eventually end up in? 

 Perhaps that is what Jesus was referring to in Matt. 24:43- “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.” Need I remind you what the ‘thief’ comes to do? (John 10:10) 

 So when Paul warns us to ‘give no place to the devil’ in Eph. 4:27, I wonder how that translates in the Greek? - Probably that we should ‘give no place to the devil’. 

 Did you know that Jesus often spoke in ‘code’? We know them as parables. Look at the one about the man who sowed some seed in Matt. 13. He said some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and snatched it up. Seems legitimate. Later, when asked by His disciples what that meant, He told them. Not the crowd, but His disciples, the ones who had drawn close to Him and were now followers. (vs. 13) He explained that the seed was the word of God and that the Satan comes immediately to snatch the word from people’s hearts who don’t understand it, lest they believe and get saved. (vs 19; and Luke 8:12) 

 See you tomorrow? Watch out for those birds. They won’t like this one today. ;-)