The Sons of Sceva #Fiction based on Acts 19 [Part 2]

Part Two: fan #fiction based in part on Acts 19: 13-17 (the Sons of Sceva)

Though shocking, a stark reality hit the Sons of Sceva: for once, their fakery brought out the evil spirit! (it worked?)

The room suddenly turned a purplish hue, and the swirling wind normally felt in the arid lands outside Ephesus blew their robes and threw sand in their eyes.

Regaining their vision, confused and fearful, they heard a voice; high-pitched but sonorant, with a demonic richness not quite ear-splitting yet resoundingly clear. It was the evil spirit speaking directly to them, breathing fire like a dragon.

As the air of life sucked out of the room, all seven brothers froze in attention looking at the man they were trying to heal. Restored and vigorous, but trance-like, the man’s lips didn’t move; although he was definitely the source of the sound. In their lives together on the road as a merry band of grifters, never had they focused so realistically, so fearfully, on a single voice such as that which roared from this demon.

Unfortunately, their father the Jewish high priest did not convince them of the prohibition in the Torah about using false gods for evil purposes, as they had done often around the major coastal city of Ephesus [see Part 1—posted 09/23/2012]. During these alarming few moments, to their dread, an evil spirit addressed them with a mysterious and omnipotent capacity that made these experienced hustlers rapt like little bare-bottomed toddlers.

“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15)

There were no “eyes” fixed upon them but it seemed as if the evil spirit was looking right through the Sons of Sceva. After dancing around a serious spiritual war for which they were not prepared, now they found themselves in the middle of the battle. One of the ghostly warriors took notice of them in a very condescending way: “And, who the hell are you?” Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job, goes the saying; even more, don’t claim heavenly authority against evil forces as a scheme to take innocent, desperate people’s money. Bad choices make bad outcomes.

Many in Ephesus marveled at Paul’s ministry, even tried to replicate the miracles he (and Jesus) worked in their midst, but the power and sovereignty of God will not be mocked or counterfeited. Indeed, without the blessing of God’s grace on our work, we are impostors. Without God’s divine intervention in our lives, we are rudderless boats adrift on a hostile ocean.

Eyes like saucers, confounded and silent, the pitiful brothers made no reaction or even a whimper; yet they reaped the whirlwind of the evil justice they were due. Breaking through into the realm of spiritual warfare is difficult. Ignorance suggests they would not have started down this road knowing what they had joined.

In an instant the man inhabited by the evil spirit leaped upon them, seemingly with enough arms to wrangle all seven brothers. This “being” was an entity not quite human, with an ephemeral quality, translucent and sparkling as it whirled around like a tornado. The storm overcame the room, as it was powerful enough to carry the whole house away from its foundation. The fight lasted but a couple of minutes, although it inflicted significant damage on the Sons of Sceva.

The men fled out of the house without skill or strength, escaping with their lives alone, by grace alone. Cut, bruised and beaten, they ran blindly through the streets as fast as their legs would carry them. The ignoble defeat included the fact that they fled naked, the height of embarrassment in this culture. Far from being an incident of humor or derision, the whole city heard about what happened with the evil spirit and these "honorable" criminals, and Jews and Greeks alike were aghast. It says in Acts 19: 17 that because of this provocative incident in Ephesus, the name of Jesus Christ was celebrated, or “extolled.”

Common in biblical literature, especially in Luke's book of Acts, God tells His story in an unconventional way. Ironically, the typical exorcism reversed here; turned upside down in the surreal context of spiritual warfare. In what appears to be an interlude in the constant spiritual battle about which we know so little; the evil spirit purged the exorcists, and not the other way around.

©Mark H. Pillsbury