and gave him back to his son

it is difficult to make assumptions about the intense relationship between God the Father and God the Son, but we know that it is unuterably intense--too powerful for human ears to hear and too marvelous for naked eyes to read: that is why i believe Christ layered his teaching with thick imagery and dynamic repitition. thus, Jesus administered the teaching of he and his Father's kingdom carefully. the father-son relationship in contemporary society is tainted by technology, civility, and sin--as our Mastor said, "because of the hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so". culture affects an understanding of the father-son relationship as well. nevertheless, God doesn't demand a perfect replica of his Father-Son relationship, but he does desire balanced, loving families. here is the struggle. the enemy, the evil one, and the prince of lies wants to destroy the family.

so we see his abject dealings in Luke 9:37-43, but we also see our Mastor at work to do good. an account of the boy with an unclean spirit. Jesus comes down from the mountain and a great crowd meets him (37). next we find out that a father cries out to the Christ for his sons well-being (38). this scene touches me. the people are multitudinous and desperate and a man raises his voice. he singels himself out. the leppers did this; the bleeding woman did this also; the nine who were blind did this; now the healthy father with the possessed son does this (39). how humiliating. "i am not ill, but my son is taken by an evil spirit. my pride and joy is siezed by a spirit. "it makes him vomit." the crowd looks on. "it shatters him." the crowd looks on. "it hardly leaves him." the crowd looks on. "it'll kill him." and still the crowd looks on (i wonder if he isn't bubbling in tears). his desperation is heightened when he says that the disciples couldn't help his son he doesn't wish to truoble the Messiah, but he's forced to seek the help of Christ (40).

Jesus then rebukes not the spirit in the boy but the spirit of the age; not the ill-humored boy but the ill-humored generation. this boy is possessed by a daemon, but more importantly--the root and heart of this sort of activity--people don't believe. after having studdied this passage, i am sure that Jesus wasn't upset at his disciples over lacking a degree of faith but a kind of faith, for he goes on to tell his disciples he wouldn't be here much longer (44). it seems he also addresses the crowd of people. so the "faithless and twisted generation" are those who do not believe the Salvation of God; those who concern themselves with things of this world instead of the things of God; those who love themselves and avoid God (41). Jesus proceeds to heal the boy of possession, "and gave him back to his father. and all were astonished at the majesty of God", as seeds of faith were cast into the crowd and into the home (42-43).

in twenty-first century America, the government has become the father of families; the fathers have become the inmates. you sit and listen carelessly and indifferent. that's because many of you are selfish and other's of you are just selfish. Jesus shows here that he is interested in reconciling son to father and father to son. when there is reconciliatory work in the family you might almost say "and he [being Christ] gave him back to his son]. he makes ammends in families and heals the wounds created by daemonic activity. if you want to be involved in the work of Christ then you must make orison that you might be involved in the harvest of the lost, for Christ came to seek and to save the lost. visit the prisons, the nurserys, and the homeless shelters. the psyche wards, the bars, and the hospitals. it is the administration of the gospel that restores families and makes beautiful once again what has been maligned by the malitious enemy. let us consider non-believers and seek to do wonders for them in the name of Christ, delivering them from eternal anguish and mortal affliction. if you watch deplorable events on the news or watch a man curse at his wife or watch a fight break out in the mall, watch yourself and see how your witnessing is, because it is the gospel that saves--regenerating individuals and society.