I was sat in a lecture on postmodernism of all things. Foucalt was the subject and his ideas about Madness and how in the modern world we confine the mad to institutions. He referred back to a time when the insane were part of society and were respected and sometimes seen as gates of knowledge. Now we lock them away in 'more humane' conditions where they can't bother us.

I started to wonder what Jesus' approach to these people would be...I realised that some of the behaviour described in the scriptures (e.g. a man cutting himself with stones) is exactly the kind of thing we lock people up for. But Jesus didn't lock them up, he cast out their demons, he set them free.

In the modern world where we don't see madmen (apart from news forecasts about leaders of various seperatist groups (e.g. America! hee hee)) there's less of a call for those following Jesus to set people free - "the state handles that problem" is a phrase you might hear. So from there I began wondering if we should make time to visit those considered insane in those institutions to which our society confines them with the hope dishing out some Jesus-love? Who knows, we may even learn to cast out demons!