Luke 8:35-39
Soon a crowd came out to see for themselves what had happened and saw the man who had been demon-possessed sitting quietly at Jesus’ feet, clothed and sane! And the whole crowd was badly frightened. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demon-possessed man had been healed. And everyone begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone (for a deep wave of fear had swept over them). So he returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake.
The man who had been demon-possessed begged to go too, but Jesus said no.
“Go back to your family,” he told him, “and tell them what a wonderful thing God has done for you.”
So he went all through the city telling everyone about Jesus’ mighty miracle.
Jesus will always unsettle the status quo.
When he comes into a life - the change is radical.
Ok, so not many of us are running around naked among the tombstones demon possessed, but Jesus won't leave us as we are. They'll be big changes in our lives as we give ourselves to Him daily.
For the people of the Gerasenes, this was too much.
They'd rather have their herds of pigs, than the healing, transforming Presence of the Son of God who had brought peace to someone who had been in torment for years!
Imagine that - pleading with Jesus to leave them alone!
But isn't that just like today?
We'd rather God was left out of our lives - left out of society, political issues and our laws.
We're comfortable going it alone. We don't want someone disturbing us.
In this passage, Jesus' response isn't to plead with them to give Him another chance to preach the good news. No, He goes away as they requested Him to do.
The man who was healed was given the task of spreading the news of Jesus, but we're not told that it ever had any effect.
The worst state of any nation is "Ichabod" [the Glory has departed].
For the Gerasene folk, the glory of God DID depart and they were left as they were - unchanged and undisturbed in their self satisfied stupor.
(Ichabod is mentioned in 1 Samuel 4:21 She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The Glory has departed from Israel"--because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.)
Is Jesus too radical for you?
Selah
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