There is an interesting encounter that we will be studying in 20someone this week from Mark 9. Jesus comes down off a mountain and walks into a bees nest. Well not literally…but you get what I’m saying. While he was gone a guy took his son to some of Jesus’ disciples to have a demon cast out. But when the disciples couldn’t cast the demon out a crowd was attracted. 

I’m sure there were some people there waiting to see what happened. Just watching in the background, wondering if this thing was for real and if this Jesus was for real. But I know there were people there arguing, heckling, attacking, the disciples. For those people, this was a clear instance that what was going on was not from God.

That’s the situation that Jesus walks into. I wonder if he cringed a little bit. I know I cringe when I see Christians talking on TV because usually they make a horrible example about Christianity. When people who don’t believe Christianity encounter people who do believe Christianity but they don’t have the faith/knowledge/life to back it up, damage is done.

Now in this situation, Jesus stepped in, had some teaching moments, and cast the demon out. But what about now? Who are you looking at as the face of Christianity? And is that really the fairest assessment?

And what do people learn about Christianity when they look into your face?