Evil Nearby
It doesn’t bear to think of evil’s influence nearby (Faith Unfurled Back Corner Evil: https://wp.me/p89n5f-cN).
And I don’t know the murdered woman found in her basement apartment on Saturday. Reports cite visible signs of trauma to her thirty-year-old body but show little else about the evil that took her life.
Outside my husband notices yellow police tape that cordons the street several doors down and wanders over from our house. 
For the first time he meets neighbours living in the area for as long as our twenty plus years. Gathered in anxious groups they lament the changes in this suburban back-yard community. While milling around casting worried glances at the cluster of police cruisers and forensic trucks they share observations of strange goings-on: half-way houses, Johns being serviced in the local park bushes, certain household children coming out to play only after dark, families moving out in the middle of the night.
“That’s it. We’re really moving now,” is my husband’s comment when agitated he returns home to share the news. Ensconced in our own little world we’d had no idea.
But evil prefers to present nondescript, a seamless blending into the landscape until you are unsure it’s even there. Take, for instance, the alleged serial killer, Bruce MacArthur, accused of doing that (Human remains found in planters identified, say police – Toronto – CBC News).
It doesn’t bear to think of evil’s influence nearby.
Evil Where You Are
Evil has an uncanny sense of direction.
It knows where Jesus is and finds him (Mathew 4:1-13 and Mark 1:21-26). It doesn’t seem to matter his hiding out alone in a desert or teaching in a crowded synagogue. So much for my husband’s: “We’re really moving now.” Evil will test where ever we are.
And that’s what evil does: test our choices. If you’ve ever seen the Netflix series “Breaking Bad” it’s all about choices. With our viewing habits lagging ten years–focus on work and raising kids having prevented earlier enjoyment–the series’ theme remains timeless however late our arrival to a riveting show. Fascinating is the psychology of choices.
Every episode of “Breaking Bad” is a challenge demanding a moral choice. Notable are the small choices. They are as pivotal and simple as a recovering drug addict turning a door handle to walk out of her boyfriend’s house and then hesitating, a decision that cost her life. It’s the small rationalizations and excuses that acclimatize thinking and neutralize emotion leading to deeper and darker choices that seem reasonable.
Unafraid of Evil
Evil doesn’t scare Jesus even when its sting is fierce: betrayal, abandonment, ridicule, malice, envy, brutality, hatred, torture, crucifixion. Jesus grants evil no authority, no power to root in his life and no victory to claim in his death (Mathew 4:1-13 and Luke 23:34 ). He chooses not to be influenced by evil’s lure, but even more he shows power over that lure.
Jesus commands an unclean spirit to silence. His words quell turmoil, quiet chaos, and calm a frantic and hectic mind. A man’s life transforms with two words delivered in authority and power:
“Be quiet!” (Mark 1:21-26)
Of the many competing voices in our heads some drive to dangerous and destructive places. No wonder the man shook upon Jesus’ command.
Jesus scares evil.
To be continued…