Broken bread and small fish: How Could They Say You Were Possessed?

woods. How could They Say You Were Possessed? - Mark 3:20-30 Post 8

Why possessed? (Mark 3:22)

For them it's no longer a matter of just brushing You off, of saying, "Yes, that's nice, but he's a little crazy and he's not the Messiah."

They can't argue much with what You're doing. They see the fruit. They see people healed and set free.
And yet...
they are looking for excuses to not follow You
to not believe You are who You say You are
to relieve themselves of responsibility for what You are revealing.

"Possessed" means it isn't really You.

I don't think I would ever directly attribute Your work to Satan...

But

Aren't there times when I'd like to discredit certain things You've said? Certain things I don't always care for like:

"whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34) - which is all well and good until we start talking about things I don't want to do or things I don't want to give up or leave behind, things I think I shouldn't HAVE to give up...

or "whoever loses his life for my sake... will find it" (Mark 8:35) but I want to cling to what I want because it's what I want and don't I have a right to it?...

"forgive" (Mark 11:25) - but You're talking about the one I'm sure I've already forgiven -

"ask forgiveness" - but I shouldn't have to because don't You remember that they...

"write that letter"
"pray for that person"

or..."Go"

but I don't want to go anywhere, I'm doing fine right here.

And I look for ways around it, whatever it is You've said that isn't convenient for me.

I'm guilty of choosing to believe it isn't of You, it isn't what You said,
so that I don't have to be responsible
to pray
to act
to speak a word
to forgive
to go
to change something big or small in my life because of what You've shown me.

If I can convince myself it's not really You, that it's a mistake somehow (maybe the translation's wrong?)
then I don't have to respond.

When I don't want to do what You said to do, I find that I'm as clever as they were at relieving myself of the responsibility - of the call - to follow You in certain areas of my life that I'm trying to keep to myself.
I tell myself it's not really what You want, it's not of You, it's a trick or a work of the enemy.

Sometimes it is. There were and still are false Messiah's.

But I know Your voice.

And I know how to ask You.

Sometimes I just don't want to.

Because I prefer to convince myself it isn't really You.

I condemn them: "How could they say You were possessed? How could they say You were doing what You were doing by Satan's power?"

But what I do sometimes is similar enough to what they were doing for me to be alarmed.

Did God really mean...?
"Did God really say...?" (Gen. 3:1)

I know how that ended.

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