"Jesus in the Out-of this-World Series"

 

"Jesus in the Out-of-this-World Series"

      From The Bible, The Book of Luke, Chapter 10

      Verse 18 of Chapter 10 gave me a chuckle not long ago. When I read about Jesus talking with "The Seventy" concerning their casting out demons, I imagined a baseball great like Albert Pujols standing around talking with some prospects from the minor league Memphis Redbirds as they bragged about their hitting:

      Prospect #1(Excited): “Mr. Pujols, I jacked one out in Nashville last week!“

      Prospect #2(overjoyed): “Sir, I flew around the bags in a triple against the Omaha Storm Chasers!"

      Future Hall of Famer Pujols: “Yeah, good job.  It's a wonderful game we all play.  You know, I was once blessed to hit a two-run game winning homer off Justin Verlander of the Tigers in the 2006 World Series, which we won in five games .”

      Background: It seems Jesus had sent out seventy-two disciples to Judea, the area surrounding Jerusalem. He told them they were going out in power but like “lambs among wolves”. They were not to take a wallet or extra shoes and not to say Hi to anyone on the road. They were to pray peace on people and towns, to heal the sick, to overcome the enemy’s power, and to deliver the message that the Kingdom of God is near. These seventy-two minor leaguers came back bragging about how the demons took orders from them in the name of Jesus. In response, the all-time Heavenly Big league MVP -- Jesus -- said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”(Luke 10:18, NIV)

      In my own mix of baseball vernacular and Looneytunes wisecrack, I would paraphrase Him thus, “You all been doing a mighty good job of unstoppering and snuffing out little demons here and there, and I'm proud of you; but I saw The Mighty Serpent himself crash in flames, with afterburners smoking and sputtering ... all the way down: 'Pffft - choke - Pffft - Pffft - Gasp - Pffft - Pffft- wheeze - Pffft - Kthud!'”(like Wile E. Coyote on rocket shoes off a cliff.)

      Jesus went on to say, though, that the most important thing was not that demons obeyed their commands but that they had a home in eternity.  Or in my baseball paraphrase, "Calm down about your hits in the minors; get excited about your future in the majors."
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