Good morning –  

I’ve spent some time thinking about just how subversive Jesus was in the face of the Roman Legion... by making pigs fly.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, February 14, 2020
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• Just days before early voting begins in the March 3 Republican primary, the crowded open-seat race Texas’ 11th Congressional District is drawing nationwide attention and multiple endorsements from national figures. Matt Stringer reports that President Trump, the House Freedom Caucus leadership, and a popular Freedom Caucus member from Texas are all backing different candidates in the GOP primary, creating an unusual conflict between the strong allies.
      
• After the progressive-run Austin City Council enacted controversial homeless policies last year, new police numbers have revealed more of the consequences. Jacob Asmussen reports violent crime among the homeless intensified during the last year driven by the city council’s decision to allow vagrants to camp, sit, and lie down in public spaces around the city. Almost overnight, Austinites saw their streets, sidewalks, and highways littered with campsites, trash, and tent cities.
     
• Speaking of encouraging criminal behavior... Three Texas Democrats are pushing legislation in Congress that would decriminalize illegally crossing the border. Sarah McConnell of TheTexan.news has the details. U.S. Reps. Al Green (CD-9), Veronica Escobar (CD-16), and Sylvia Garcia (CD-29) are among the House Democrats who have cosponsored the legislation. 
      

• Tarrant County’s district judges have been called to an emergency meeting on February 20 by Judge David Evans, allegedly to remove all cases involving Child Protective Services from the court of Judge Alex Kim. Sources in Tarrant County tell Robert Montoya this action is retribution for Judge Kim making CPS obey the law and also for saving the life of baby Tinslee Lewis.
       

• Let that sink in. Apparently some Tarrant County judges want to take all CPS cases from a particular judge because that judge made the agency follow the law. A judge saving a baby and making a state agency follow the law... Yeah, we need to put a stop to that.
     

• As the fifth-most liberal Republican in the Texas House, State Rep. J.D. Sheffield (Gatesville) has two primary challengers to the west Texas House District 59 seat he currently holds. Cary Cheshire reviews the race, the candidates, and their campaigns.

Friday Reflection

When reading the four New Testament accounts of Jesus, one regularly comes across the phrase “the other side.” This isn’t some mystical reference to the afterlife; it turns out “the other side” is the “other side” of the Sea of Galilee.

The west side of the sea was what the ancients saw as Israel proper. The east... not so much. Yes, some Jews lived there. But it was less prestigious, if you were a Jew, because the land there was given to Roman soldiers as a reward for military service. In the Jewish perspective of the day, it just wasn’t the right neighborhood.

It was in that “wrong neighborhood” where I found myself and companions staring down the steep embankment of a cliff and into the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Because it is one of the few cliffs along the sea in the region, there is a high degree of certainty this is where one of the most subversive New Testament accounts takes place.

In the Gospel of Mark we read Jesus’ ministry took him to the “other side” where He and His disciples came across a man possessed by demons. The demons, speaking through the man, begged not to be “tormented” by Jesus.

Jesus asks the name of the demon who is possessing the man and the response is “Legion, for we are many.” Jesus then lets the demons leave the man and enter a herd of pigs – which then ran down the bank, flew over the cliff, and died in the rocks below.

What makes this subversive is that the Roman Legion was literally set up not far away. This was Rome’s main military outpost in the region to suppress Jewish dissidents. And don’t forget; pork was a mainstay of the Roman military’s diet.

Word that Jesus sent demons named Legion out of a Jewish man and into a herd of unclean beasts, which in turn committed mass suicide, would not have endeared Him to the occupying Romans or their local sycophants.

Tyrannical regimes never have a sense of humor – but our loving God most clearly does. More importantly, He’s willing to come to the “other side” to save us where we are.

As Israel was occupied by the Romans, all of us are held captive by sin. Through Jesus, our sins – like those demon-infested pigs – are dashed on the rocks and washed away.

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