GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:13
Only A Little Evil
Only a little evil.
People around the world watched the fire consume much of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15, 2019. King Louis VII started the construction of the cathedral in 1163 and it was completed in 1345—182 years later. The cathedral was damaged during the late 18th-century French Revolution, but it survived World Wars I and II. The 2019 fire, however, destroyed much of the roof and spire. Investigations into the cause of the fire ruled out criminal activity and narrowed the cause to an electrical short, a spark from a worker’s tool, or possibly a worker’s cigarette. In other words, something small wreaked great harm.
Alice and I attended a conference on Maui and were impressed by the cultural richness of the island. There were modern structures located beside traditional island architecture. The people on the island were warm and hospitable. So, with much of the rest of the world, we watched in sadness as a wildfire, driven by strong, fierce winds, destroyed much of Lahaina in August 2023. Investigations have pinpointed the likely ignition of the fire to an electrical power line broken by the high winds. A small spark created great havoc.
In St. Mark’s Gospel, a man with an unclean spirit confronted Jesus and his followers when they stepped ashore on the beach in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus demanded to know the name of the unclean spirit, the man said, “Legion, for we are many.” At the time, the word “legion” was a Roman military term standing for a unit of 6,000 soldiers. There is a debate about whether 6,000 unclean spirits inhabited this man, or one unclean spirit lied to Jesus to try intimidation as protection—there is no reason to think that an unclean spirit would not lie. Whatever the case, Jesus permitted the unclean spirit, or spirits, to leave the man and, as requested, to enter pigs grazing on the nearby hillside. Mark said about 2,000 pigs then stampeded into the lake and drowned. A little evil did great damage.
Jesus is not to be blamed for the damage; it was the unclean spirit that requested a pig habitat. A little evil did great damage. A little spark caused the great fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral, and a little spark ignited a fire that destroyed much of the city of Lahaina. A little evil, a little uncleanness does great damage.
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