Who knows if chicken soup really helps when you’re sick? But as some people point out if challenged, “It couldn’t hurt.” The same was true, no doubt, for early Christians, who wore amulets around their neck or wrist that included a prayer, a scripture or the name of Jesus. Does it help? It couldn’t hurt.

            Thousands of years ago these amulets were considered effective medicine when it came to healing a present sickness or warding off future illness. They were used long before Christianity came on the scene, and new Christians, with their belief in the power of the name of Jesus, saw no reason not to continue the practice after their baptism. Some of the early Church writers opposed the practice, but they seem to have gone unheard. 

            What’s interesting is that as unbelievers began to recognize the power of the name of Jesus, especially after Christianity became legal, they began to include the name of Jesus in their amulets. 

            In today’s scripture, John tells Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” John is alarmed when he sees another person recognizing the power of the name of Jesus and is actually casting out demons and healing people. John wants Jesus to stop him.

            Jesus responds, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”

            That seems clear cut. But the rest of what Jesus has to say in this passage — about stumbling blocks, little ones and millstones — is perhaps less clear.

This has happened before

&nbs

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