Jesus Bar None

Check your horoscopes, meditate on hidden truths of the universes and clutch your bundles of sage, you might be a wizard Harry!

Sorcery is a hot word! Interpretations of “sorcerer” could indicate Bar-Jesus (“Son of Jesus”) as a mystic, practitioner of magic arts, or even an occultist. Bar-Jesus is labeled a false prophet to boot. Simply put: the man appealed to spiritual forces outside of God, yet spoke as one who knows the will of the Christian God.

Today we may laugh at the idea of sorcery. In the Bible, an interesting subtlety of this sin is that sorcery manifests near places of political power. And what better place? To commune with celestial entities, to leverage divine knowledge, or to control forces of nature gave legitimacy and influence to those who wielded such power. Consider Pharaoh’s magi (Exodus 7-9) working to mimic miracles performed by the hand of the God of Israel, King Saul of Israel appealing to the Witch of Endor and concerning the story of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8), a disciple trying to purchase the Power of the Holy Spirit.

The true gospel places all power on earth and in heaven under Jesus Christ not under mankind.

The true gospel message threatens political and spiritual powers rebelling against the throne of God because its power is in weakness and trust, rather than power and knowledge.

The true gospel message threatened Bar-Jesus’ hold on the proconsul.

While sorcery is not practiced in our western society, the ambition to leverage power over God and to control outcomes is. The prophet Samuel compares the sin of divination as the same as rebellion. The wicked inclination to put ourselves in a place above God is the same evil force motivating us to seek power from entities outside of God.