Demon Possessed Guy and a BarBQue?
Last week, we left off talking about a man that was described as having an evil spirit from the bible book of Mark chapter 5. How did he get the evil spirit? Choices he made? Random? We are not told, but it gives us pause to consider our Mighty God and also our crafty enemy the devil, who IS real. Let's press on in to the story.
The man ends up on his knees in front of Jesus, which is where ALL GOOD AND ALL EVIL will one day end up. I am praying for us to be on our knees in front of Jesus in a merciful NOW rather than a deathly sad LATER (when eternity in hell could be before us if we are not in relationship with Jesus)! Jesus told the evil spirit to come out of this man (verse 8) and the evil spirit, which is actually many evil spirits (legion he names himself, which means 6000!), is begging for mercy. Interesting. Evil is real, powerful in ability (but not in ultimate authority), crafty and...well, evil....but notice evil begging Jesus for mercy. "Send us into those pigs over there", and for some reason Jesus grants the begging request. The evil spirits enter the pigs and some 2000 pigs rush down a steep bank into a lake and drown. Sad BarBQue.
The folks that were tending the pigs ran into town to tell everyone about the weird BarBQue they had seen and as they run into town to tell their story, they see the man who had been usually demon possessed, bloody, cutting, and screaming.... and he is sitting there, dressed and in his right mind. Silence. What in the world happened to this man?
HE ENCOUNTERED JESUS!
And now I love the honesty of the ending of this story. When the people saw this man radically changed from his bloody, chaotic evil state, what was their response? Jump for joy? Celebrate? Tears of joy? Nope.
They were afraid.
When we truly encounter the one who can CHANGE HEARTS, it can be scary. Why? Because when we finally are able to cut through all the distractions that we line our life with that help us to ignore our hearts, we start to admit that our own heart is a beautiful, scary place. Scariest place I've ever been. I get these people. They see this powerful transformation and they're afraid.
And so what do they do? They are encountering the ONE that changed a man's life from bloody evil to sitting in peace. And their decision of how they will handle what they are encountering?
They plead with Jesus to leave.
Again, I get it. In times of gut "soul" honesty, all that Jesus is about seems like too much. And so they offer Jesus a collective "GET OUT!"
When we are gifted with encountering Jesus, even though we may be scared to death, may we be a people who welcome Jesus as he exerts His power in our midst to cast out sin and evil spirits. God help us!
There's more.