Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

                                                                   The Whole Town *   The hope was to change the world!   And the leader that was expected to accomplish that seemed to be coming into his own.   And now it was starting to look like it all could hit the big time. A whole town was coming out to meet the leader and maybe the opportunity to share the message of change could be multiplied. But (there always seems to be a “but”), the outcome ended up being shaped by what had happened earlier. What happened earlier was mostly centered around a not so ordinary man.  In fact, this man scared the daylights out of people.  At night, he roamed naked among the tombs, screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs.  He frequently cut himself so that his blood flowed freely.  The townspeople had tried to bind him with chains but he just tore them off like they were made of paper.  The reality was that he was demon possessed.  But were not talking just one demon, but multiple ones

Be amazed… Jesus welcomed sinners …The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners… (Luke 15:2) Jesus hung out with sinners …And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7) Jesus ate with sinners …And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matt 9:11) Jesus was a friend of sinners …The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Matt 11:19) With Jesus being so welcoming, what did people do? People came to see Him …They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” (John 12:21) People came to hear Him …Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. (Luke 15:1) People followed Him …While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many ta