Jesus is at a point in his ministry that he is exceedingly busy!
Everywhere he went, thousands of people followed him. Some are hurt, some are tired, many have been looked down on by the church and sent to the fringes of society. They want to ask him questions. They want him to pray for them. They want him to plant a church, teach a bible study, or meet their “urgent” needs in some way.
And among those in the crowd were also critics who opposed him, and wanted to challenge his every move. And this has been going on for a lengthy season . . . so as you can imagine . . . Jesus is exhausted.
He tells the disciples to pull up the boat and to take him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, so that he might actually get a day off because the Sea of Galilee is 12 miles across and they’re in a row boat so it’s gonna take a while.
So Jesus is sleeping in this boat and the disciples are exhausted, taking turns rowing into the complete darkness of the Sea. When without warning, a storm smashes into the little boat with an angry fury.
These guys were freaked out and in fear of their lives, and they rush to the back of the boat - and find Jesus sleeping, unmoved, exhausted, and done! They know he needs some rest but they also know that he’s got to do something so they wake him up and tell him, “Jesus, you need to do something.”
And so Jesus just commands creation to “Be still” and to “shut its mouth” and it obeys him.
And for the first time, the disciples recognize, “This is God. This is God among us” and he’s in our boat, he’s in the midst of our storms and our chaos, and he has authority over this paralyzing fear.
This was a powerful night . . . a life changing encounter with God. For the first time, the disciples began to understand who Jesus was.
Now, you would think that they would row to shore, and there would be a spa with someone ready to give Jesus a drink with an umbrella in it and take him to a private area where he could be away from people in the serenity of calming music and he could get a nice man massage, and a facial and maybe even a pedicure for those nasty toes we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
But instead, he gets out of the boat and is immediately met by a demon possessed man.
That’s Jesus’ big day off! A crazy storm and now a demon possessed man.
But as we begin to look at this story, we have to wonder if maybe Jesus wasn’t going to the other side just to get away from the crowds. Yes, it’s important to pause and rest, when you’re in the busy season of your life in order to rejuvenate your own soul . . . But perhaps Jesus was going to the other side because there was ministry to be done. There were lives to be touched and changed.
You see, the Sea of Galilee wasn’t just a big lake to fish in, or a family vacation destination, or even to take your “someone special” on a dinner cruise . . . it was also a divider of sorts. And the dividing line was the Jordan River.
- On one side, where Jesus has been up to this point of his ministry is where God’s people lived. There are synagogues and Rabbis dedicated to the reading, studying and obeying the Old Testament scriptures.
- And on the other side are the unbelieving gentiles, where those who don’t worship the God of the bible live. And as Jew, you just don’t go there. You don’t go to the other side of the tracks because these people were considered unclean and you don’t want to get any of that on you
- And as we talked about last week the Sea of Galilee represented evil and chaos, something that separates people from God.
- So, God’s people are on one side and the gentile Pagans are on the other and Jesus crosses over and in doing so calms the chaos that separates the two . . . almost as if he sees the two as equal, like he’s leveling the playing field . . . both sides desperately in need of a savior.
And the place Jesus is having the disciples take him is the region of the Gerasenes, deep in gentile territory. They worship other gods. They are sexually immoral. They are offensive and disgusting. I suppose the area might have had reputation akin to Las Vegas. This is sin city.
And as we learn from this story, these people are pig herders. And in the Old Covenant, pigs were considered unclean . . . a symbol of paganism. The fact that they’re making their living off of sin, and rebellion, and false worship indicates that God’s people are not there . . . and should not be there.
Of all the places that the disciples could have put their boats ashore, Jesus directed them to put the boats ashore near an area used primarily as a burial place.
Now OT Law declared that anyone who came into contact with the dead was defiled and was made unclean for seven days. And that anyone who failed to purify themselves after being in and among the tombs was to be cut off from the nation of Israel.
So Jesus is going into an unclean region, unclean place and he meets a man who has been hanging out with dead people so he has an unclean spirit. Jesus is going where no one else would go.
Well, he gets out of the boat. He’s absolutely exhausted and the first thing he sees is this man who is possessed with demons. He's covered with dried blood and scars. He’s naked. He’s not shaved. He’s not bathed. He’s violent. The city has given up on him and the people didn’t know what to do with him and so they stuck in the tombs and tried to tie him down but down without success because he’s got massive superhuman strength and he could break chains.
This is a scary dude. You don't want to mess with this guy. You don't want to go near him. All the kids knew not to go to the tombs because there was this crazy, naked demonized man running around.
But Jesus goes where no one else would go . . . not to preach a sermon, not to share with him the 10 principles to help him deal with his mind or to encourage him to get involved in a 12 step program—that's not what he needed.
Jesus goes where no one else would go do . . . to show mercy. And he’s gone out of his way to do it.
Well, the man comes running toward Jesus and falls down before him and shouts, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!"
Remember who we're talking about here; a crazy, naked demonized man falls down before Jesus. As repulsive as this man may look at first appearance, it only begins to hint at the storm going on inside this man. This man's life is out of control. He is self-destructive. He doesn't have any say in his own fate. He is helpless and unable to even speak for himself.
When Jesus asks, "What is your name?"
It is the host of demons who answer . . . not the man, "We are legion”.
Legion is a term for a military fighting unit in the Roman empire of about six thousand soldiers. It seems there is very little humanity left in him.
But this guy wasn’t like this his whole life. He had a mother and a father who cared for him. He maybe had brothers and sisters and friends he played with. But somehow, someway, on some day, he began opening himself up to demons and darkness.
The names of some of these demons could have been Cynicism, Bitterness, Unforgiveness, Anger, Apathy, and Addiction . . . I don’t know what his demons were but everyday it got a little worse until who this man was . . . and image bearer of God. . . completely disappeared. And this new person started to emerge, this spirit being, and this team of spirits destroying him.
But just as Jesus had stilled a storm on the lake . . . Just as Jesus had commanded the chaos of the storm to “shut its mouth” . . . Jesus stills the storm in this man.
He commands the unclean spirits out of this man and he sends the demons into a herd of pigs, which go rushing down into the lake, into the abyss, which means “a place for the imprisonment and punishment of demons.”
Now this wasn’t just a couple of pigs were talking about here . . . there are 2 thousand pigs. So what this means is that someone or a group of people are losing lots of money. It’s like Jesus showing up to a car dealership and sending the demons into two thousand cars and they all go driving off a cliff . . . except that these pig farmers don’t have insurance.
This is a big financial loss
I think Jesus sent the unclean spirits into these pigs for two reasons
- In this gentile culture, Pigs were a part of their pagan practices and false Gods. Pigs were one of those things that symbolically separated God from his creation. By sending the unclean spirits into the pigs, he is showing his authority over false religion and symbolically removing the thing that is separating people from God.
- And, this town loved their pigs more than they loved this man. Although God wants us to love all of his creation . . . when his image bearers are suffering, then healing, and hope and help to them is a priority.
When the herdsmen saw what had happened they fled and told everyone about it. There’s a great buzz. The shops are shutting down. The schools are closing. Everybody’s walking around trying to figure out what’s happening and who this man Jesus is.
By the time the townspeople show up, the man is sitting there clothed and calm and in his right mind. What happened to this guy? Last time they saw him he was naked and had a ZZ top beard and was running around scaring kids but now look at him, he’s just sitting there shaved, clean, bathed, dressed, notebook, pen, taking notes.
What happened to this guy? He met Jesus. Jesus changes people . . . that’s just what he does.
See, no one is beyond the grace of God. And it doesn’t matter where someone is. As long as they’re alive, there’s hope because Jesus could change them. He just does. Jesus changes, sometimes in an instant, the most unbelievable people who are seemingly beyond any hope.
Jesus had restored this man’s humanity. The image of God in this man was once more visible. His life transformed, forever changed. Jesus had given him his life back.
And this totally freaked out the townspeople. They had never seen anything like this before and so they ask, “Jesus, could you please leave? You’ve got more power that we don’t have and you have a lot of authority that we don’t enjoy and we don’t know who you are, and we’re scared. Could you please leave?”
Jesus prepares to once more embark across the Sea of Galilee. The man follows Jesus and begs to go with him. From the same lips that begged Jesus not to torture him, the man—now healed and restored—begs to follow him.
He says, “Jesus I want to go with you. I don’t want to stay here Jesus. These people all know who I am. They know the worst of me. They know the horrible things that I’ve done. They know the ways I’ve gotten myself into trouble. They know what kind of man I am. So, Jesus, can I just go with you?
Can I just hang with you? Can I just be with all the believers? Can I just have a never ending bible study with you and the guys? Can I go to another town where nobody knows me, and I can walk around in my redeemed cleaned up condition? And don’t have to talk about my past because it’s embarrassing and shameful?
Jesus says, “Nope. You stay here and tell everybody who you were, who you are, and what I’ve done because see, they’re scared of me, they don’t understand me and you’ve got a powerful story that will help them find me.”
And he does have a powerful story . . . doesn’t he?
I don't know if the word "unclean" resonates with many of you or not. But I think for a few of us feeling dirty is an appropriate description. Maybe shame is a better word. Or maybe, simply we wish we were better people.
Maybe we find ourselves a slave to addiction or a worshiper of our jobs. Maybe its lust or envy, or jealousy, or anger, or gossip that gets us. I must admit, I don't think about my sin very often. But that doesn't mean I don't do it.
We all do it.
I don’t know what your demons are . . . I don’t know what’s made you feel unclean . . . I don’t know all the chaos that your are struggling with.
But Jesus goes where no one else would go and he reaches out to unclean people.
A few chapters later in Mark, Jesus himself will be covered in dried blood, with his own scars, naked, outside of town among the tombs.
Jesus goes where no one else would go: to the cross, to atone for all our sin, to make us clean, and to make us the holy. His Spirit enters those places inside ourselves that even we don't want to face in order to purify us.
And Jesus goes where no one else would go: to defeat the powers that wreak havoc on our lives—those powers that storm inside and around us. He walks straight into the storm to set us free. To empower us to go on. To give us our lives back.
And it is a great day when God does work in your life. And it’s a great invitation to just be honest. Here’s is who I am. Here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what I’ve done to others. Here’s the darkness. Here’s the devastation. Here’s the destruction. Here’s the deception. It’s shameful and I’m embarrassed to tell you, but guess what? Jesus saved me. He has come into the storms and chaos of my life to liberate me and set me free.
Jesus invites us today as he did this man. Don’t just huddle up with believers. Don’t just have good bible study and worship with those who already know me. There are still lots of people that are held captive, that don’t know me, don’t understand me, that have misconceptions about me that are afraid of me.
“Go into the city, go into South Tampa, go to MacDill Air Force Base, hang out with people at the YMCA, open up your home for your neighbors and friends and tell the story of what I’ve done for you because it’s a good story . . . it’s a story of grace and redemption and hope”