Pray for blindness that you may see.
Pray for deafness that you may hear.

At "And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.
And when he was come forth upon the land there met him a certain man out of the city
who had devils; and for a long time he had worn no clothes, and abode not in
any house, but in the tombs.
And when he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said,
'What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I beseech thee,
torment me not.' For he commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For ofttimes it had seized him: and he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and
fetters; and breaking the bands asunder, he was driven by the devil into the deserts. And Jesus
asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he said, 'Legion'; for many devils were entered into him. And they
entreated Jesus that he would not command them to depart into the abyss ." - Luke: 8:26 - 31

How many of us disciples would have the courage to stand our ground and confront a mad man?
How many of us would have looked at this wretched human being and not had a sense of revulsion?
How many of us would not have experienced our heart stopping at the first sound of this
wild man's shrieking and hellish sounds?
How many of us would have fled from this possessed creature, instead of staying and giving him
charity and compassion, and not give in to our basic instinctive fears?
How many of us, indeed?

Now, let me present the above situation differently: What if you were a blind disciple of Christ?
Would you help the possessed man in his hour of need? If you were blind, you wouldn't be able
to see him frothing at the mouth, or see his filthy body, or his genitalia. Wouldn't that make things
easier for you to give comfort and aid? And, should you be deaf and not have to hear the lunatic's
bone-chilling ravings, would it not be easier for you to render assistance?
What if you were both blind and deaf? Ha! That would certainly go a long way in eliminating your
natural hesitancy and fear in providing comfort and healing aid.

Please note here and now: there is not one incident in the Gospels where Jesus was confronted by
a lunatic, a physically diseased person, or even a dead body, did he seek to avoid the issue
by offering some sort of excuse, and then leaving the scene. Truthfully, a thorough reading of
the Gospels tells us that Jesus healed more wretchedly sick people than were counted in
those glorious pages. I'm believing that he healed thousands of the sick, the mentally ill,
the possessed, and of course, sinners.

Oh well, there go our dreams and hopes of being a Christian disciple. If we can't stand the sight and
sounds of the 'unwashed', then how are we to render compassion, aid, and preach the Gospel of Christ?
Truth is, most of us don't. Very few of us are born in the same league as Mother Teresa, the Roman
Catholic nun who devoted most of her life caring for the human dregs on the streets of Calcutta, India.
It didn't matter to Mother what the 'slum dog' looked like, or smelled like, or how 'it' acted... it just
didn't matter to her. Why? Because Christ sent Mother Teresa to India to do a job and she did it!
It mattered not whether Mother was sighted and not hearing-impaired, or if she was blind and deaf,
her Christian mission was the wretched of India and it was they who she willingly served.

Let me posit something for modern day disciples to think about. Because of what Jesus represented
to the people of Israel; because of what he proclaimed as his mission on earth - as the one from God
who was sent to heal the sick, both physically and spiritually; because he also proclaimed that his final
act on Golgotha would be the supreme demonstration of God's love for mankind; because of these
declarations, what do you think would have happened had Jesus Christ walked away from, or neglected,
a single hurting soul or a single diseased body?

I will tell you what would have happened. Jesus Christ would have been declared a fraud.

While those are strong words, they are nonetheless true. And what makes it more uncomfortable for
modern Christian disciples is if we do not emulate our Master, and do as he did, it is we
who are the frauds - the phony Christians. All talk, no courage, no action.

"And it came to pass as he was reclining in the house, and behold many tax collectors and
sinners came and reclined at the table with Jesus and his disciples. And seeing this,
the Pharisees said to Jesus' disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?' But Jesus hearing said, 'No need do the strong have of a physician, but the
sick. But go and learn what this means, Mercy I desire, not sacrifice. I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners.'" - Matthew 9: 10 - 13
(Direct translation Novum Testamentum Graece)

Periodically we come across a news story where a church body objects to the nearby opening,
or operation, of a business that caters to the questionable or baser nature of people. Read this as a
place that serves alcohol, or sells services that appeal to the sexual needs of the public. Oh,
there's an uproar from the church even if the various states' laws prohibit such recreational
establishments from drawing nearer than 500 yards to a church or school. Some would say that
the church is justified in its outrage, but what would Jesus say? Would he not take the opposite
point of view and put it to his church: Where else is there a higher need for a disciple's work
than in a house of ill repute, or a tavern? And with the place of adult recreation just down the
street, why not reach out to them and at least tell the patrons of a better alternative? Truth is,
if Jesus, our 'Boss', set the example for the rest of us by associating and eating
with those people who were considered 'tax collectors' and 'sinners' by the Pharisees,
then as disciples of Christ, how can we do any less?

Still... there's the natural instinct in most of us that reflexively springs into action when we first
confront an ugly, dirty, wretched, mentally-ill, diseased, crippled, deformed or just plain odd,
nasty or vile person. (And we're expected to touch them?! Whew!) Our face gives us away. Our body
language gives us away. And our psychological avoidance gives us away. Such reactions on our part
to the grotesque are something we have to learn to control and eventually suppress.

There's a scene in the movie, Elmer Gantry where after she had just preached a sermon at a
tent revival meeting, Sister Sharon Falconer moves down the center aisle and shakes the hands
and touches her adoring fans. Sister Sharon extends her hand to everyone... everyone, that is,
but Elmer Gantry. There's Gantry dressed in an ill-fitting, outlandishly patterned suit, his
hair is wildly scruffy, his face is dirty, his white shirt is dirty, and from the smile on Gantry's face,
Sister Falconer quickly surmises that his mind is dirty. And, she flinches. She pulls back from
having to shake Gantry's hand, but he presses forward even closer to her. The look on the Sister's
face said it all. It was a look of revulsion, and seeing what was taking place, Falconer's business
manager, Mr. Morgan, quickly forced a large collections pail in between Sister and Gantry.
As Mr. Morgan figured, Elmer Gantry was quickly turned off by the unavoidable solicitation for
a donation; Gantry was dead broke at the time.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something
to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or
thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you
in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison
and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry
and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was
a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me,
I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or
needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of
these, you did not do for me.'
- Matthew 25: 34 - 45 -

For many, if what they see makes them uncomfortable, they turn a blind eye.
If what they hear makes them uneasy, then they feign deafness, or resort to dismission.
For the Christian disciple, such behavior is unacceptable. We are not allowed the luxury
of discretionary blindness and deafness. We have to see - are ordered to see - and listen
to those things that are wrong and hurting with the world around us, and to take action.
If what we see and hear bothers us, frightens us, then we must pray to God that we
become blind to the ugly, and deaf to the obscene. Pray that in our blindness to the
unpleasant we are then able to see the good in our fellow human beings, and in our
deafness hear the good things they have to say to us.

One last thing, and this has to deal with the courage it takes on the part of each disciple
to become blind and deaf. Take heart, for our Lord and Master is the power behind
everything and has ultimate power over those evil forces that confront the disciple.
Look again at the last sentence in the first passage from Luke quoted above:

"And they entreated Jesus that he would not command them to depart into the abyss ."
- Luke: 8:26 - 31 -

Now, let's look at how this account ends in the Gospel of Mark:

"... What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God,
torment me not.' For he said unto him, 'Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man."
- Mark 5: 7 - 8 -

And Matthew's 8: 29 version:

"... And behold, they cried out, saying, 'What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou
come hither to torment us before the time?'"

Please do notice that it is absolutely clear from the words of the evil spirits that they are genuinely
in fear of the Son of God, and that he has a power over these spirits that - by their own words - can
result in their terrible punishment. The above Gospel cites use the word "torment". The Greek
testament actually uses the word basanίsai, (basanisai) which translates to 'torture'. Also, do you wish
to speculate what the demon meant when it said: "...torment us before the time?" One gets the feeling
that there's something deeper going on here than we thought we understood. (If there's interest in pursuing
this thinking, I invite you to get a copy of my book, The Sermon Under the Mount. You'll like it.)

Disciples of Christ! Take heart in what you read and learn from these passages. We are
often told that there is an immortal battle between God and Satan, and that it is a struggle every day for
the forces of good and righteousness. I see something different. Based on the demons' words above,
Christ has, without any doubts in my mind, the power to confront, torment, and abolish Satan and his
minions... and can do so at any time God commands it. Satan, though, serves a purpose at our Father's
behest, and as such will be allowed to function in a role that has been defined for him by God.
Yet, we disciples need our Father's protection against the demonic; as Job needed such protection.
We pray to God for protection, as says Paul in Romans 8: 31 - "If God is for us, who can be against us?".
With God's protections in place for us, let each and every one of Christ's disciples pray for the courage
to make ourselves blind and deaf to the socially ostracized ugly, diseased, and deformed of our brethren,
and instead, with our souls see and hear only the good that is in each and every one of us .
"I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13

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©Copyright 2009 - Donald Neal McKay - The MISSION DISCIPLESHIP