Wednesday, January 31, 2018
So they arrived at the other side of
the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes.
When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit
came out from the tombs to meet him. This
man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a
chain. Whenever he was put into chains
and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed
the shackles. No one was strong enough
to subdue him. Day and night he wandered
among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp
stones. When Jesus was still some
distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you
interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture
me!” For Jesus had already said to the
spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.” Then Jesus demanded, “What is your
name?” And he replied, “My name is
Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.” Then the evil spirits begged him again and
again not to send them to some distant place.
There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside
nearby. “Send us into those pigs,” the
spirits begged. “Let us enter them.” So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and
entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the
steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the
surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they
saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and
perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.
Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the
demon-possessed man and the pigs. And
the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man
who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus said, “No, go home to your
family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he
has been.” So the man started off to
visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things
Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.
Mark 5:1-20(NLT)
The wild man could not be restrained; he broke every chain
and smashed every shackle they tried. He
ran through the countryside, demons within screaming like an animal in pain. He lived with the dead and terrorized the
whole region. Sounds pretty much like
one of those zombie movies!
This man’s family, friends and the whole community had given
up on the wild man. “What a shame” they
would whisper, shaking their heads. “Yeah
– he had such a bright future till all that evil spirit stuff got on him.” “Can’t have him around town; all the children
are scared to death of him; who knows what he’d do to the young women…and when
the tourists get here…forget about business profits.” “I know what you mean; if he can’t be normal it’s
better that he lives out in the graveyard with the other wild animals…nobody
can help him anymore.”
Then Jesus showed up.
The cost of saving this one man’s sanity was a herd of pigs. The only problem with this approach to mental
health care was that it was not his herd of pigs. And when the people saw how Jesus had changed
everything, and the cost of it, they wanted nothing to do with him; they
pleaded: please leave…quickly!
Often, in our churches, living rooms, hospital waiting rooms,
and anywhere pain forces its way into our lives there are prayers lifted for
healing. When the pain hangs around for
a while we pray harder. When the pain
just won’t leave us alone we do what we can to manage the assault. For those who live in chronic pain, that daily
dose of death becomes so familiar we can’t imagine life without it; our painful
normal becomes that cross we must bear, running wild through our landscape,
howling all over the countryside of our inner life. The very thought of living pain-free, like
the young, demon-possessed man who was healed, is a dream.
Cutting to the quick here, let me offer that our world is
stocked with people in pain. And there
is no shortage of people breaking the restraints our Creator intended for His
creation in order to spread the pain around.
Shootings, mass-murder, bombings and in untold other ways the wild
howling demons have their pain-inflicting influence on humanity. We wonder if there is any hope for our world.
For You Today
Resolve that there is hope. Scripture says that one man – Jesus – died for
the sins of all. It was that way with
the wild man that day; Jesus drove out the evil, put him in his right mind, and
the upshot was a lot of people got mad over it.
There is indeed hope for our world…but it’s never without letting go of
the familiar pain we seem to love.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a
blessed day!
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