January 21, 2024

January 21, 2024 — Sanctity of Life Day

David wrote: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…”  Psalm 139:  What powerful thoughts that God moved David to write about how God views life.

According to Psalm 139, God has ordained… or established… or decreed the days of each person.  He has determined a purpose for each of us, and he considers each of us precious.  God’s thoughts about each person are more numerous than the grains of sand at Myrtle Beach.  I think it is safe to say that each life matters to God.

Once, Jesus encountered a demon possessed man (Mark 5).  Mark informs us that this man lived alone in a cemetery.  His behavior was so erratic and destructive that the people of his community had tried to tie and chain him repeatedly, but the evil spirits gave him a super-human strength to break free.  He literally could tear iron with his bare hands.  All day long, and even at night, he would wander through the cemetery crying out in hysteria as he physically harmed himself with cuts.

Can you imagine the life this man lived?  Can you imagine how the local people felt about him?  My how those spirits tortured him!  Would anyone in the community have missed him if he would have just ended his life?  Perhaps, someone maybe… a mother… a

sister… but I would imagine that his death would have brought a relief to that town.  Mothers would not have to lecture their children to stay away from the cemetery.  Community leaders would not have had to listen to complaints with pleas to do something about him.  And just try to imagine… funerals and burials must have been quite the adventure with this guy lurking about.  I doubt that he would have been missed by many.  But he WAS seen by the Savior.

Jesus commanded the evil spirits to come out of that man and Mark informs us that they were very well aware of who was addressing them.  “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” Mark 5:7  But the Master was insistent, and the evil spirits provided a ton of sausage.

Mark tells us when the community leaders heard of what happened they came to see for themselves: “When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind…” (Vs. 15)

Not many people would have missed this demon possessed man… but he mattered to Jesus.  Mark continues in his narrative by writing: “Jesus… said, ‘Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.” (Vs. 19-20)  Wouldn’t it have been a shame if no one had cared if he ever lived?