Mercy Makes Missionaries

Series Big Idea: Good news, Jesus has come! Will you follow him?

Sermon Big Idea: Mercy Creates Missionaries

James Edwards: Jesus meets a man with an unclean spirit living among unclean tombs surrounded by people employed in unclean occupations, all in unclean Gentile territory.

Jesus calls the despairing, the fearful, and the self-destructive.

The demon possessed man lived in the darkness of death, terrorized, and cutting himself.

He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain,

for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

In the presence of the demons’ reign of terror, no human being was able to stop it. Not until the power of God the Son stepped off the boat was there hope for this man of terror.

Ray Ortlund: There is no temperament Jesus cannot control.  There is no madness he cannot soothe.  There is no darkness he cannot illuminate. . . . There is no raving he cannot calm.  There is no shame he cannot dignify.  There is no nakedness he cannot clothe.  There is no legion he cannot command.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Transition: The remainder of this historical account is marked by begging and pleading, and Jesus fulfilling the desire of everyone except the one person who longs for him.

Jesus’ transformation power forces a choice: me or your pigs.

And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,

and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”

So he gave them permission.

Why would Jesus do this?

Some pastors and commentators have gone so far as to call Jesus immoral. He listened to the demons desire to reveal the people’s desire, and I think, to show the chasm between the great worth of one human life versus the life of many animals.

But Mark’s main point shows up in vv. 15 and 16. Jesus was forcing a choice: my transformative power or your pigs.

And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.

And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

Ortlund: And when he proved his power, restoring this dear man who had suffered so much for so long, sending the demons into the nearby herd of pigs, the people “began to beg Jesus to depart from their region” ().

Jesus forced on them a choice — his transformation or their pigs?  They preferred their pigs.  Sure, their world was dysfunctional.  But it was theirs.  It was familiar.  They preferred it undisturbed.

Will you follow me if you lose what’s comfortable? Your economic security? Will you follow me if you lose that which is most precious to you on this earth?

Odd Thomas:

If in one unfortunate moment

You took everything that I own

Everything you've given from heaven above

And everything that I've ever known

If you stripped away my ministry

My influence, my reputation

My health, my happiness

My friends, my pride, and my expectation

If you caused for me to suffer

Or to suffer for the cause of the cross

If the cost of my allegiance is prison

And all my freedoms are lost

If you take the breath from my lungs

And make an end of my life

If you take the most precious part of me

And take my kids and my wife

It would crush me, it would break me

It would suffocate and cause heartache

I would taste the bitter dark providence

But you would still preserve my faith

What's concealed in the heart of having

Is revealed in the losing of things

And I can't even begin to imagine

The sting that kind of pain brings

I would never blame you for evil

Even if you caused me pain

I came into this world with nothing And when I die it'll be the same

I will praise your name In the giving and taking away

If I have you I could lose everything

And still consider it gain

Transition: In the text, what is the difference between the people who begged Jesus away and the man who begged to stay? The powerful experience of Jesus mercy.

The life transformed by mercy longs for Jesus and follows Jesus.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.

And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

In one of the shocking turns of Jesus ministry, as the man to whom he has just shown mercy and who has been sitting at his feet begs, “Let me be with you,” Jesus says “No.” He just said yes to the demons, he’s in the process of saying yes to the people who reject him, but he says “No” to the person who longs for him. How can this be?

From vv. 10-20, everyone is begging. The demons, the people, and the man. And Jesus listens to the demons. Does exactly what they want. He listens to the people, and gets on the boat to leave. But the one guy who longs for Jesus, to him he says, “No.” This historical account is asking us, “if you don’t get what you want, will you still follow Jesus?” And in the bigger story, isn’t that just like God. He can say ‘no’ in the moment because he knowns the ending. Jesus says no to the guy because Jesus knows what’s coming. He knows that the guy’s story on earth ends at the beginning of being with Jesus forever. And because the guy knows Jesus’ mercy he obeys Jesus voice.

Aslan’s tears in C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew:

"Please—Mr. Lion—Aslan, Sir?" said Digory working up the courage to ask. "Could you—may I—please, will you give me some magic fruit of this country to make my mother well?""Up till then the child had been looking at the lion's great front feet and the huge claws on them. Now in his despair he looked up at his face. And what he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and wonder of wonders great shining tears stood in the lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.""My son, my son," said Aslan. "I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another…"

Digory never spoke on the way back, and the others were afraid of speaking to him. He was very sad and he wasn’t even sure all the time he had done the right thing: but whenever he remembered the shining tears in Aslan’s eyes he became sure.

In Aslan’s tears, Digory saw his mercy. And because he saw his mercy, Digory followed the lion at great cost to himself.

The man sitting and Jesus’ feet obediently goes and tells because he knows and trusts Jesus mercy. Man, it’s so easy to want to be like the demons in this passage and have God do what we want when we want how we want or we get mad. But in Jesus’ mercy he gives this man a ministry in the meantime. You see Jesus takes despairing, terrorized, self-harming people and gives them a mission through his mercy. And that mercy sustains his people until we see him face-to-face and all our longing to be with him is fulfilled forever and ever.