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readoldthingsLet's read the whole of The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 8:
Healing, Teaching
Notice that there are two basic parts to Jesus's ministry, so far. He teaches a method of spiritual practice, and he heals afflictions. Now, these can be seen as two sides of a unified teaching. Jesus's method of spiritual practice-- which can be summarized with the single word metanoia, the changing of the nous-- is a method by which the soul raises itself to God. His healing ministry is the inverse of this-- now the power of God descends into the individual human being, healing him of disease or demonic possession.
Note that healing requires the active cooperation of the soul. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." The inverse is, of course, true in the work of spiritual practice-- God is not an object, passively waiting for our approach. He draws near to us as we draw near to Him; He calls us to Him as
Now, it's worth noting that Jesus is working miracles-- or what we might call practical magic. But notice the form they take. While he is, one must assume, capable of making his followers rich or getting hot chicks to show up at their apartments or scoring great deals at Target, he doesn't do this. Most of his work consists of healing or exorcism.
Exorcism
It's worth taking a closer look at the casting out of demons. Now, most of the people reading this have an interest in the alternative end of spirituality, and I hardly need to convince anyone here of the existence of demons. Yes, they're real, yes, they're troublesome, and yes, they're common. On a different kind of blog I'd probably spend a bit of time discussing their reality and convincing you to take them seriously. Given the audience, though, I'd actually like to do the opposite.
Real, honest-to-God evil spirits of the kind that receive blood sacrifices, cause murders and wars and pestilence, and so on really are real and you should know that. That said, they aren't especially common-- not even in this day and age.
In another sense, though, evil spirits are extremely common; we encounter them every day, and they are great obstructions on the path.
Remember our basic starting premises. The word "soul" encompasses all of our choices, thoughts, mental and emotional states and mental representations. As for "evil spirits"-- break the words down. Evil is that which is the opposite of the Good, which is God and which is the One; evil therefore is that which moves us toward disunity and away from Oneness and awareness of the presence of God. A spirit is any living entity which does not have a physical body and so exists at the level of soul-- that is, thought, emotion, imagination, behavior pattern. By "living entity" I mean, borrowing an idea from biology, any discrete form which replicates itself.
On this way of looking at things, then, a song which is played once, gets "stuck in the head" (that is, represented by the mind) of its listener, who then plays it or sings it, transmitting it into the mind of another listener, where it replicates itself again and again and again, and so endures for years or generations is a living entity. An idea, a habit, a political theory, a philosophy of life-- all of these are living entities, or spirits. Any habitual behavior which replicates itself over and over in an individual, leading them away from personal unity and awareness of God is an evil spirit.
This way of looking at evil spirits isn't original to me, by the way. It's commonly expressed in Chinese Taoist and Buddhist writings, where the evil spirits are referred to as 鬼, "gui" or "ghosts." Traditional Chinese Medicine, where it hasn't been watered down to placate scientific materialists, includes the idea that ghosts are very often at the root of chronic illness.
The point, though, is this-- Every healing can be seen as an exorcism, and every exorcism a healing. Evil spirits are habits which cause sinful behavior-- that is, behavior which moves us away from Oneness and the presence of God. The forgiveness of sins is an act of exorcism. This is why Confession and Absolution are so important in sacramental churches of every kind. It's not about punishment and condemnation, but exorcism and healing.
Of Pigs and Ships
This chapter contains two very interesting miracle stories. In one, Jesus drives forth a crowd of demons-- but they beg him to be sent into the bodies of pigs. Jesus agrees, and the pigs, driven mad, run into the sea. Modern internet-atheists like to bring up this story to mess with Christians, and it's a good tactic because stories like this don't make very much sense on the kind of Modernity+God pseudo-Christianity that is common on the internet. If you go looking, you can find a thousand ways that people make sense of this story. I don't recommend this, though. Remember that we're in a myth. When we encounter something strange, it's better to read it, re-read it, enter into it in the imagination and let it transform us. It's not a poem with a hidden meaning, it's a myth which means what it is.
The same can be said of Jesus calming the storm with his words.
What kind of people are we if we live in a world where Jesus is present with us, and is the kind of God who drives demons into pigs at their request and commands the winds to be calm?
When we find out, we shouldn't be surprised if the people of the everyday world ask us to depart from their lands, in the same way as the people of the city of the Gergesnes.
1 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.
15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.
16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.
19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.
Healing, Teaching
Notice that there are two basic parts to Jesus's ministry, so far. He teaches a method of spiritual practice, and he heals afflictions. Now, these can be seen as two sides of a unified teaching. Jesus's method of spiritual practice-- which can be summarized with the single word metanoia, the changing of the nous-- is a method by which the soul raises itself to God. His healing ministry is the inverse of this-- now the power of God descends into the individual human being, healing him of disease or demonic possession.
Note that healing requires the active cooperation of the soul. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." The inverse is, of course, true in the work of spiritual practice-- God is not an object, passively waiting for our approach. He draws near to us as we draw near to Him; He calls us to Him as
Now, it's worth noting that Jesus is working miracles-- or what we might call practical magic. But notice the form they take. While he is, one must assume, capable of making his followers rich or getting hot chicks to show up at their apartments or scoring great deals at Target, he doesn't do this. Most of his work consists of healing or exorcism.
Why is that?
As we are in a myth, the actions of every character reveal their essential nature, and the nature of that Eternal Power which they represent.
In English, we have a helpful etymological guide here. The words "healing" and "health" are related to the word "whole" and "wholeness." To heal is to make whole. An exorcism removes a spiritual entity foreign to the soul, and thus restores the soul to wholeness; a physical healing removes disease foreign to the body, and restores the entire body to wholeness.
Part of Jesus's essential nature, then, is to make whole. Remember his name: YHVH saves. Wholeness is derived from Oneness, Oneness is the essential quality of the One, or God. "By the power of He who gives being to all that exists you are restored to wholeness."
This is the essence of Jesus's ministry, and it is also the meaning of the forgiveness of sins.
Exorcism
It's worth taking a closer look at the casting out of demons. Now, most of the people reading this have an interest in the alternative end of spirituality, and I hardly need to convince anyone here of the existence of demons. Yes, they're real, yes, they're troublesome, and yes, they're common. On a different kind of blog I'd probably spend a bit of time discussing their reality and convincing you to take them seriously. Given the audience, though, I'd actually like to do the opposite.
Real, honest-to-God evil spirits of the kind that receive blood sacrifices, cause murders and wars and pestilence, and so on really are real and you should know that. That said, they aren't especially common-- not even in this day and age.
In another sense, though, evil spirits are extremely common; we encounter them every day, and they are great obstructions on the path.
Remember our basic starting premises. The word "soul" encompasses all of our choices, thoughts, mental and emotional states and mental representations. As for "evil spirits"-- break the words down. Evil is that which is the opposite of the Good, which is God and which is the One; evil therefore is that which moves us toward disunity and away from Oneness and awareness of the presence of God. A spirit is any living entity which does not have a physical body and so exists at the level of soul-- that is, thought, emotion, imagination, behavior pattern. By "living entity" I mean, borrowing an idea from biology, any discrete form which replicates itself.
On this way of looking at things, then, a song which is played once, gets "stuck in the head" (that is, represented by the mind) of its listener, who then plays it or sings it, transmitting it into the mind of another listener, where it replicates itself again and again and again, and so endures for years or generations is a living entity. An idea, a habit, a political theory, a philosophy of life-- all of these are living entities, or spirits. Any habitual behavior which replicates itself over and over in an individual, leading them away from personal unity and awareness of God is an evil spirit.
This way of looking at evil spirits isn't original to me, by the way. It's commonly expressed in Chinese Taoist and Buddhist writings, where the evil spirits are referred to as 鬼, "gui" or "ghosts." Traditional Chinese Medicine, where it hasn't been watered down to placate scientific materialists, includes the idea that ghosts are very often at the root of chronic illness.
The point, though, is this-- Every healing can be seen as an exorcism, and every exorcism a healing. Evil spirits are habits which cause sinful behavior-- that is, behavior which moves us away from Oneness and the presence of God. The forgiveness of sins is an act of exorcism. This is why Confession and Absolution are so important in sacramental churches of every kind. It's not about punishment and condemnation, but exorcism and healing.
Of Pigs and Ships
This chapter contains two very interesting miracle stories. In one, Jesus drives forth a crowd of demons-- but they beg him to be sent into the bodies of pigs. Jesus agrees, and the pigs, driven mad, run into the sea. Modern internet-atheists like to bring up this story to mess with Christians, and it's a good tactic because stories like this don't make very much sense on the kind of Modernity+God pseudo-Christianity that is common on the internet. If you go looking, you can find a thousand ways that people make sense of this story. I don't recommend this, though. Remember that we're in a myth. When we encounter something strange, it's better to read it, re-read it, enter into it in the imagination and let it transform us. It's not a poem with a hidden meaning, it's a myth which means what it is.
The same can be said of Jesus calming the storm with his words.
What kind of people are we if we live in a world where Jesus is present with us, and is the kind of God who drives demons into pigs at their request and commands the winds to be calm?
When we find out, we shouldn't be surprised if the people of the everyday world ask us to depart from their lands, in the same way as the people of the city of the Gergesnes.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-31 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-01 06:39 pm (UTC)As for your interpretation-- I don't think that there is one specific meaning that we're supposed to derive from any of these stories. I suspect that it begins with the Gospel writer simply recording what he heard-- or witnessed. If you approach it on that level, you're already in a different world-- one in which an exorcised demon may pray to be sent into the body of a pig, and the request is granted, and all of this is perfectly reasonable. And in fact it's more than reasonable-- it's the sort of thing a divine being would do. If you simply encounter it on that level and allow yourself to live in that world, you'll already have taken an enormous step toward shaking your mind loose from the grip of the spirit of this age.
But the practice of looking for deeper layers of meaning in these stories is ancient, and it goes back to the very beginning. If you see the pigs as representations of a certain type of person you're in good company; others have said the same. The point is to do two things-- First, ask yourself, if you view the pigs as metaphors for pig-ish people (recalling, perhaps, what we've already been told about pearls and swine) how does that shape your view of the world, and your view of Christ and his mission? Second, don't stop there, or assume that you've found "the meaning." "The meaning" is something that high school teachers tell their students that poems have. They're wrong about poems and even more wrong about myths. As in every great myth, every passage in the Gospel admits of many layers of interpretation-- it's a well without a bottom, and the test of a given interpretation isn't whether it's "the right one" according to some particular standard, but in how it shapes the soul of the interpreter.