06/03/2026
Years ago, sainted Professor Deutschlander wrote a series of devotions called, “On Giving Advice to God.” In these devotions he contrasts what we think God should do versus what God actually does. We love to second guess God in so many instances. I may have done that a time or two last week as I was in the hospital, trying to figure it all out. “What’s the purpose in this?” What if God became frustrated and just said, “Fine. You be God for a day.” Years ago, a movie called “Bruce Almighty” comedically portrayed Jim Carrey as having that power for a short time. He would push traffic to the side, making every light green. Life was great, until he started having to answer the prayers of people. His answers caused havoc all over the place. Being God wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Let’s get back to the real world. In today’s Gospel, Jesus actually was and is God. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He doesn’t just have SOME authority. He has ALL authority over heaven and earth. These two realms, heaven and earth, intertwine. Hell has come to earth, when the devil brought the world into sin in the Garden. 1 John 5:19 talks about the ramifications of this. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. That’s quite the statement. It’s not just sinners doing sinful things, which would be bad enough. It’s demonic control over sinful people too.
BUT, but . . . Jesus has authority over these demons too. There were hundreds of demons who possessed a man by the Sea of Genessaret. He couldn’t be held by chains. But when Jesus came, all he could do was to beg to be sent into some local pigs. Jesus did this in His humility - not using all His power. Now He is using all of His power, so there’s nothing that can happen that He doesn’t allow to happen. And if Jesus wants something to happen, nothing can stop it. When He was on trial before Pilate, Pilate wanted to let Him go. His wife was warned in a dream not to have anything to do with Him. But nothing was going to stop it. It was bound to happen, just as Jesus predicted. Even though it was evil, it was going to be used for good. The devil was going to end up as God’s pawn, whether he wanted to or not.
