An Unsettling Saviour

Caleb wanted to try BMX…It was about the same time I was getting in to Mountain biking and there was a fantastic BMX track where we lived in Colorado. So being excited that he wanted to get into bikes I bought a high end bike for him to be able to BMX.

I can remember how excited he was to get the bike and how excited he was to try it out on the BMX track. (To be honest I was just as excited as he was)

We got to the track and I pushed the bike up the starting hill and Caleb got on his bike nervous and excited to give it a go. Then it happened.

He looked down the starting hill and he froze. The height and length of the steep incline concerned him so much that no matter what I said or did he would not give it a try.

He had my support, the equipment and the ability all he had to do was overcome his hesitancy and push off…but at that time it was just too much.

I wonder how many times we do not experience the fulfillment of a desire, dream or even the power of God in our lives becuase even though we have Support, equipment and opprotunity but we just don’t push off?

Sometimes the fear of how things can or will change our lives is more than we can overcome in a moment.

The people in this passage when faced with the awesome power of Jesus were terrified of what he was doing. Instead of being excited about the possibility of Jesus as messiah the were terrified with the potential cost if Jesus was Messiah.

Mark 5:1-20 NLT

New Living Translation Chapter 5

So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. 4 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. 5 Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.

6 When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. 7 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!” 8 For Jesus had already said to the spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.”

9 Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”

And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.” 10 Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.

11 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. 12 “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”

13 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.

14 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. 15 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. 16 Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demon-possessed man and the pigs. 17 And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone.

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. 19 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.” 20 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.

Jesus changes every thing and most people generally fear Change.

If there was ever a passage that illustrated this truth it is this one. We may not see it because we have either read this passage countless times or we have heard someone preach it countless times. In our familiarity with this passage we miss some key issues right off the bat.

In fact everything Jesus did in this passage was wrong according to Jewish law.

It was considered unclean for Jesus to even engage this demon possessed man not only becuase of the demon spirits but becuase he lived in a cemetery which means he was probably had contact with dead bodies, he engaged in self harm, he was in close proximity to pigs, and he was often if not always naked. All of these things made this man unclean.

Becuase of this the Jews just could not embrace Jesus for who he was. To accept Jesus as Messiah would be to betray everything they had ever been taught. For the Jews in this region to embrace a Messiah that had broken almost every rule in the book would have made them unclean as well.

To embrace uncleaness also would have resulted in loss. Loss of relationships with family and friends, loss of business within the Jewish community, and a loss of superior identity.

The mere existence of such a herd of pigs indicates that this region was predominately gentile. In fact this region is called the drecioplious a group of ten cities joined together in lose alliances mainly gentile in make up. The gentiles rejection of Jesus came out of ordinary fear. Fear of Jesus power and fear of how that could upset their current life.

It could be said that they feared Jesus whom they did not know more than the demons they had become accustom to.

The idea of Jesus as Messiah was more terrifying than the current reality for both the gentiles and the Jews in this passage.

The only person who was not afraid of Jesus reality was the one that knew exactly what he had been saved from. The demon possessed man knew what it was to be transformed from unclean to clean. He understood what it was to be on the outside looking in. He understood what it was to be destined to eternal separation from God.

He understood what it was to be lost…He understood what it was to be found. Becuase of this it was easy for him to accept Jesus as messiah. He understood that his uncleaness did not ruin Jesus’s holiness. Jesus Holiness eradicated his unclean state.

As a result He not only embraced Jesus as Messiah he accepted Jesus mission for him to take the reality of who Jesus was to the ten cities in this important area.(The drecopolis)...

Even though this man wanted to remain in Jesus presence and become a follower Jesus sends him on a mission to tell the world his story and everyone who heard was amazed.

Jesus sent this man to do in this area what Jesus himself was not allowed to do.

There are some people who will not allow anyone but you to disciple them into a relationship with Jesus. They are too scared of what they will lose, what will be thought of them and they have very little context into how a life lived with and for Jesus can be worth the effort.

Personally Overcome worldly focus to see the bigger picture.

Jesus still frees people from their prisons, heals them from their disease, seeks to make right whatever has gone wrong and Jesus still makes those who are unclean clean again with his loving holiness.

Jesus still sends those of us who were considered unclean to preach the gospel…to people in our sphere of influence.

People often ask me why I am a Christian and why I am a Nazarene…Tell the story…We were unclean other side of town people becuase of my dad…The Church saved our life…both physically and spiritually…So I go...

Whatever is trapping us, whatever is keeping us away from wholeness and community, Jesus desires to set us free. But he also desires to set those around us free too.

Share Jesus’s role in your transformation

Are there people that only you may be able to reach? You may think no but if you seek God’s direction God will show you your drecioplious.

God’s people don’t run from those the world despises. Instead, we embrace them because we know that love transforms people in the most powerful and beautiful ways. It restores all of us to community again.

Practice:

Write your story down today…remember your moment and your moments of faith…recover these memories so you can retell them when the opprotunity is given for you to extend a sacred invitation

Communion Liturgy: