He didn't actually drive out snakes we know that.  At least not physical snakes.  When he came to Ireland, lots of the local pagan worship revolved around serpent goddesses.

As Patrick taught people to turn for idols to Jesus he taught them to turn away from these snake images and so he got tagged as Ireland's snake slayer.

So really he drove the spiritual snakes out of Ireland and introduced people to Jesus.  The problem was...

the spiritual snakes weren't ready to give up their home. 

So over the years the snakes have tried to make their way back to Ireland, but they look a bit different now, here are two kinds of skin they wear...

1. Religious Skin

It is Jesus that keeps the snakes away and so when religion starts to have less and less of Jesus, there is more and more room for snakes with a religious skin to sneak back.  It is hard to spot because they blend right in.  We can see that on the News all the time, corruption with our churches because Jesus has been left behind, and the snakes make Ireland their home.

2. Celtic Tiger Skin

Once we get sick of corrupt religion we look somewhere else.  The Celtic Tiger felt like a wonderful friend to make.  But it taught us to find our hope and satisfaction in money and stuff.  Actually this Tiger roared with a hiss, and we are starting to see that it cannot deliver on what it promised.

Once we move Jesus to the side, the spiritual snakes are ready to come home.  Whether that is empty religion or glossy materialism... eventually they cannot deliver and we start to look for something else.

This St Patrick's Day, let's remember the time when the spiritual snakes were told they weren't welcome and Jesus made his home in Ireland.

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