Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Mark, Week 17 - What Will You Do With Jesus?

How we respond to a situation, especially those situations that happen when we’re in a heighten state of stress, say a lot about the deficiencies in us. Three years ago, Marika and I took a group of teens to Watts, California for a week long missions trip. The last day we were there was a Sunday. The plan was for us to stay for the service and leave around noon. We were then asked to help take some of the teens that had been helping us that week home. Okay, I thought, since we were running a head of schedule. Now picture this: The whole week we had been there, it had been unusually hot. And the only time that the weather changed was about half way through the week on the day we were supposed to go to the beach. On that day it rained. But that was the only day. The rest of the time it was hot. 
Well, guess what happened on the Sunday as Marika and I took these helpers home? It rained. And not just a small rain, a torrent happened. And what should have been a 20 minute drop off, took an extra two hours, because the freeways were packed with traffic. Couple the fact that we were now running late, I received news that a wash located by the little town of Desert Center off of interstate 10, had destroyed a small bridge on the interstate. So now we were looking at an additional 4 hours in rain, going up to 29 Palms and through Parker. So while in the middle of it raining and stand still LA Traffic, I began to have chest pains and an inability to breath. I had never had such a feeling of stress, coupled with physical pain. It quickly past and the next time I talked to a doctor, he brushed it off and said, sometimes stress will do that to you. 
That taught me a lesson, apparently my body can only take so much stress. And it’s in these high stress situations we learn about ourselves.

Last week in the book of Mark we had talked about how Jesus was asleep in a boat when a massive storm came out of nowhere. The disciples, with some being fishermen, understood the storm to be one that could kill them. They even said as much when getting Jesus out of his sleep. They accused Jesus of not caring if they all died. In that high stress situation, they learned something about themselves. They learned that they did not fully understand who Jesus was. This Jesus they had been following around, was not just another Rabbi. He wasn’t even an above average, or even great Rabbi. He was something else. Someone else. And they were terrified of who he was, and their inability to understand him.
And that’s the lessons we took away from it. We too do not fully understand who Jesus is, but instead of being terrified of him, we should seek to know him better. Constantly learning from him, so that we may have deeper and fully trust in him.

As we get into Mark chapter 5 today, we’re going to see another example of a high stress situation, that leads to people revealing something about themselves. So if you have your Bibles, we’ll be in Mark chapter 5 verse 1. Let’s read.

1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

So Jesus and his disciples arrive where a demon possessed man is running a muck. And not just any demon possessed man, because we have seen demon possessed people before in Mark. And they have actually lived among non-demon possessed people. But this guy, this guy is so out of control that the people have tried to chain him. Tried to imprison him. But he has broken loose. This guy physically harms himself. He is cutting himself, and he has made his home around the tombs of the dead.
And this demon possessed man runs to Jesus. Just Jesus’ presence has whipped him into a frenzy of fear. And the two have this interaction. The demon that speaks knows who Jesus is, just like the ones previously in Mark. But, where before Jesus simply called the demon out, this time the demon gets a word in, and asks not to be forced. In Luke 8:31, when this same event happens, we learn that Jesus doesn’t just cast out demons for them to go find someone new, he sends them to the Abyss or the underworld a place the demons greatly fear. Instead they wished to go into a herd of pigs. And Jesus allows them to enter the pigs, which run off a cliff right away.
Why does Jesus allow their request? Who knows. It could have been as a symbol to the man, of the horridness that was inside of him, that was leading him to destruction. It could have been, that no matter what, these demons were headed to the Abyss either way and this was just one way to do it. Whatever the reason was, Jesus allowed it to happen. Which sets the stage for  what happens next. Let’s pick up the story in verse 14.

14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well.

So, the herders run off and tell everyone. They must have ran in terror. Not only was their herd destroyed, but the man who had been uncontrollable was now calm. The demons were gone, and it was by one man’s word that it happened. This man came out of no where, and commanded the demons. These herders must have been terrified, that a person could command such power.
And then people started to come to the tombs to see if it was true. And there was the man. The man who had been chained, who had been out of his mind, sitting, fully clothed and fully coherent. And what does it say? They were afraid.

Here’s a highly stressful situation. A raving lunatic, a powerfully man, a destroyed herd, and an astounded and fearful public. What is going to happen next? Let’s find out in the last few verses.

17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

The public told Jesus, who had set free the demon possessed man, which led to the destruction of the herd, to leave. Just leave. Why? Were they upset with the pigs being killed? Probably, but I don’t think that was it. It seems to me they were more upset over who Jesus was and what he could do, than they were over pigs. They understood the magnitude of what Jesus had done. They understood the power that was at his command, and they wanted nothing to do with it. Just like the disciples. Jesus calmed the storm, and the disciples were terrified of Jesus. These people saw the demon possessed man in his right mind, and they too were afraid of Jesus. 
But you know who wasn’t afraid? The man who had been set free. Instead his desire was to be with Jesus. To learn from him and follow him where ever Jesus went. In that freeing moment, Jesus became everything to this man. 

And what did Jesus tell him? “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
Jesus sent the man away, why? Because the man understood. He no longer needed the training, that the disciples did, that the people rejected. This man was not fearful of Jesus, because he understood what Jesus saved him from. And the man didn’t stop at his family’s house, he went on to tell about Jesus in the Decapolis. That’s the 10 cities in the region. This guy was the first to be sent out from Jesus. One moment is all that it took, for this man to display everything Jesus was teaching the disciples, and everything we have been reading from the last chapter. This man was good soil, and he was willing to share what God had given him.

This man’s high stress moment led him to being a sharer of what God had done for him. While the people around him shrunk back in fear.

We can do this too. We can be fearful of the great works Jesus wants to do around us, or we can be proclaimers of them. We can see and shrink back, or we can experience and tell others. And do you know what God wants? He wants us to be sharers. The disciples are almost a year into their training, and they’re still not ready to be sent out. This man encounters Jesus for a brief moment, and he is ready. Do you know what that means? Our ability and calling to share who God is, is not based on our knowledge of him, but rather our willingness to share what God has done for us. 

I don’t know where you are in your spiritual walk. I don’t know if you’re like the disciples, and have all this knowledge about Jesus, but are not ready. I don’t know if you’re like the people  who wanted Jesus to go, because maybe you’re fearful of how your life will be if you let Jesus in. I don’t know if your like the man possessed in need of God’s work in your life. And I don’t know you have experienced Jesus and are ready to share him. But I do know this, there is one common factor to each of these, and that’s Jesus.
Jesus stands ready for you to do something with him. To be trained, to be rejected, to be accepted, or be shared. What are you going to do with him?
Need more training? Reject him? Let him in? Ready to share? This week the challenge is this, you know what you need even as you read this. What you need to do is seek Jesus. Ask him for what you need, ask him for what you lack. If we do not ask, we will never receive him. If we do not ask, we will never receive his training. If we do not ask, we will never share. And if we never ask, we will never know if he is even there.
So seek him, go after him, until he responds to you.


Now may God reveal himself to you, and to give you all that you need. Not only for your benefit of a deeper relationship with him, but so that others may know the depth of knowing him as well. Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment