Evil Eye

Kids nowadays grow up reading fantasies like Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings. And that is the way our worldviews and thought patterns are subtly shaped. But I am sure the little older generations who grew up in the village would have grown up listening to the legendary stories of heroes and heroines like Pou, Proupuzhee, Rohne and others. And many of us take pride in the lesson derived from such folk tales… that we are the descendents of such brave heroes and even today we must maintain our honour and dignity. But there are other stories of one’s own generations and even from other villages that our parents taught us and ultimately influenced the way we live our lives.

One such story that has penetrated our cultural subconscious is the story of evil eyes. The story of ‘hraomai’, if I am allowed to use a Poula. The story is that the power of the evil eyes is passed to the children and spouse, and even to next generation and the next and the next… They can see through human heart, and with a verbal poison they can decapitate even buffaloes and the heroes of the village. They are beautiful and they are rich, so goes the story, and they are intelligent. The story would name people who had ‘victimized’ and been ‘victimized’. And the story lives on demonizing families and clans of the these people.

Stories are powerful tools in communicating and preserving truth and falsehood. No wonder each civilization has produced profound story tellers. Throughout human history we read of story tellers. Homer, Ved Vyasa, Milton, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Camus and scores of others. Luke whom Paul referred to as the beloved physician was a powerful story teller too. Luke weaved into his story the story of Israel and Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection and the birth of the Church. If Luke was a 21^st century story writer I am sure he would have used “…” to close his volume II, the book of Acts, because we people living in 21^st century, and all to come, are also the member of the characters yet to appear on stage. But Luke’s story is a sub-plot within the Story that God is writing.

In the story that Lukes narrates to his reader Theophilus, we read of characters like Mary and Zechariah evoking a sense of God rescuing His people from oppression and injustice, a divine promise of liberation. When Jesus came to Nazareth He declared that he was bringing liberation for the people (ch 4). Luke then picked certain teachings and actions of Jesus to communicate the theological idea that God’s kingdom is already here. And in the story that Luke narrates he used healing, feeding, reconciliation, forgiveness etc as signs of God’s kingdom come.

In his story 5:12-16, Luke tells of a man being of his leprosy. Jesus healed skin disease. In 5:17-26, Luke tells of paralytic being forgiven and healed. Jesus forgave and healed bone defect. In 8:40-56, Lukes tells of healing a bleeding woman, and a girl being raised from the dead. Jesus healed sickness related to blood, and He is, in fact, in able to reverse the human body mechanism. Every degenerated DNA comes to live as he spoke. In 10: 37-45, the tormenting evil spirit is driven out of a boy. Jesus has authority over evil spirit. The evil spirit cannot torment Jesus’ children. These events are historical events that Luke used to weave into his story to tell that God’s kingdom is come. The events that Luke used are not fantasy. Finally then , we read of Luke using another historical event to give a punchline, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Luke was here driving home the lesson that Jesus bore the sin and evil of the whole world upon himself as the climactic part of his project, and his Father vindicated him by raising him from the dead on the third day. And this is not fantasy again, but an event that happened in time and space, in history. However, on the 40^th day Jesus moved into another dimension, to use our phrase, and on the 50^th day after resurrection the Spirit came upon those who believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior. This is the birthday of the Church! God is now not far away, so to speak, just believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior and He will come and live in your heart. That’s a promise He gives to all those who believe in son his Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The story of healing that Luke tells is so different from the story that we tell to demonise and oppress the families and clans of the ‘evil eyes’. Luke tells the story of healing and reconciliation based on factual events, and we tell the story of division and hatred based upon pagan hearsay. ‘Evil eyes’ do not have victims, rather they are our victims. We are the oppressors. Through our stories we victimized, ostracized and demonize them. They cry out to God because society considers them to be unclean, and people in the society do not want to marry them. Luke would have been broken if he hears the story we tell today. Because he believed Jesus healed and still heals, mended and mend gaps, destroyed and destroy barriers.

I believe there are people whom the evil spirits use. Black magic, witchcraft, voodoo etc. are real. But even these practitioners get healed when they believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Because evil spirit cannot possess and use a person who has believed in Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit comes to live in the life of every believer. (Rom 8:23; Eph 1: 14; 2Co 1:22) However, the story we tell about ‘evil eyes’ is little different. Among the story teller there is confusion whether it’s because of evil spirit or because of DNA. If it’s because of evil spirit there is a possibility of people being used to harm others, but the evil spirit cannot be transferred to other people through marriage or childbearing. Transferring of evil spirit to children or spouse is utter nonsense. But if it’s because of DNA (or blood as commonly understood) there is no medical proof to support that words can kill. Medical science has mapped the DNA code of human being and there is no evidence of such kind. We are not mutants. (For those who have seen the movie series X-Men). The entire story is based on pagan myth. There is no empirical evidence to proof that it is not myth.

There are times when people have openly called names. And I wonder what psychological trauma a person would go through when victimized and abused based on unchristian and intellectually stupid story. As Christians we should not let such story shape our conduct, but teach and live to remove all barriers being erected on the basis of caste, class, clans, colour etc. There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all ( Col 3:11). As Christians we are new creation, the old is gone. (2Co 5:17) In our pagan society cases of evil spirit using people might have been there. But it just does not make sense in light of Christ giving us new life. If we have problem it only exposes our biblical illiteracy and intellectual poverty.

Many will say, “I have no problem, it’s the society”. Well, you and I make the society. If not you, who will change the society. Do not let society dictate you, look to Jesus and follow his path. We sang as kids, “though no joins me, still I will follow”. I think we need to sing all the more aloud now.