Heart to Heart with the Housewrights
On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes. As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, He was met by a man with an unclean spirit, who was coming from the tombs. This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains. Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him. Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones. When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees before Him. And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!” For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!” “What is your name?” Jesus asked. “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of that region. There on the nearby hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs. And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region. (Mark 5:1-17 NLT)
A rather lengthy portion of scripture this morning. But, it is the last verse that may be the most unsettling verse in the New Testament. “And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region.” Ouch.
Imagine it - someone shows up to where you live and takes care of the impossible. Shows supernatural power and authority. Delivers a dear friend from years of torment, humiliation, ridicule and pain. Even sends the problem away so it will never be a problem again. And, then, you ask the person who did this miracle to leave. You actually beg them: “Go away! Leave!”
What a terrible moment in the Bible. What a terrible moment for the coastal region of the Gadarenes. One cannot help but imagine that this would not be the only miracle he desired to perform in the area. Surely, there were others that needed a touch of the “Master’s hand.”
But, no. After healing the greatest of human maladies - demonic possession - they begged him to depart. To walk away. To leave.
The question is why?
Simple - the very means of their existence, their way of life - had just been threatened. That which had afforded them a decent lifestyle - one that surely had been in their families and community for a great while - had just been crushed and done away with.
There are people today who react as the Gadarenes did. Jesus interrupts their lives. He does a great work in their midst. BUT…they refuse to place their faith in Christ, they refuse to surrender their lives to him. All because Jesus always demands that we leave the old life and embrace the new.
God works grace into their lives but that grace is costly - it demands that we “deny ourselves, take up his cross, and follow him.”
People do not like to be told that what they are doing is wrong. We do not like to be pulled to the side and warned that we are headed for destruction. “There is a way which seems right to a person but the end thereof is death.”
People are often against Christ and Christianity - because it is against them. “I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother.” Christianity is, perhaps, the hardest “thing to do” in all the world. Why? It calls us to put ourselves to death. Our wants, our needs, our desires, everything about us is to be laid down as we rise to go and follow Jesus.
Old Blue Eyes said it best for those who walk away from Christ: “ I did it my way.”
Likewise, when Jesus approaches us - and then we must do something: deny him and walk away or deny ourselves and follow.
And with the region of the Gadarenes, when they told him to leave…he did. Jesus will not stay where he is not welcomed. And, sadly, the ones who are possessed, sick, crippled, hurting, lonely, lost, bitter, hateful…they all stay in their present state with no hope of deliverance. They pass away and die in their sins. “I did it my way.” Yeah, you did…
But, let us ask you this: have you walked away from Jesus? Have you asked him to walk away from you? Repent. Now.
The word repent, μετανοέω in Greek, simply means to change one's mind or purpose. It’s used with the following ideas: I repent, change my mind, change the inner person (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God). Can you imagine what would have happened if the people of Gadarene had welcomed Jesus and the changes he brought? Then imagine what he can do for you.
Don’t ask Jesus to walk away from you. Don’t walk away from him. Turn and walk to him. You’ll be surprised to find out that he has been walking toward you all the time.
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