A good friend has encouraged me to read Derek Flood’s book, “Disarming Scripture.”* I haven’t even started it yet but it has already wrinkled my brain with this one paragraph my friend sent me. May it also wrinkle your brain.

“Jesus, while embracing the prophets’ priority of compassion over ritual, rejects their common tactic of blaming the victim, and instead acts to heal those who are sick, effectively undoing God’s supposed “judgment” on them. Jesus, in fact, does not associate sickness with God’s judgment at all, but with the kingdom of Satan, and thus acts to liberate people from its bondage, rather than upholding it as right and calling for repentance as the prophets do. Jesus therefore rejects the prophets’ claim that such judgment (sickness, suffering, etc.) is God’s work, and instead frames his healing ministry in terms of the kingdom of God advancing against Satan’s kingdom (cf. Luke 11:17–20).” ~Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture.

*This isn’t a wholesale endorsement of this book, rather it’s just a note about why I would bother to check it out.