We
all will, from time to time experience the pain of loss grief, and even
despair. Very often we put them into a secret corner of our own heart. In a
sense is it a place of death, sometimes literally and more often
metaphorically. It’s a place we go to when hopes go unrealized and when dreams
remain unfulfilled, when reality disappoints, the loss of a loved one, loss of
employment, loss of a pet, loss of a relationship, loss of dignity, loss of
respect. And throughout our lives we will break ground in this corner and in
this corner we sew in reminders, knotted pieces of thread that remind us of
regret, betrayal, lost health and disillusionment. They make up the ‘unusual’
patterns on the patchwork quilt of our lives. In this corner holds many of our
most treasured memories. And we are often tempted to live in there, but God
wants us to explore the rest of our patchwork quilts, and sent Jesus to enable
us to do that.
When
we bury what’s lost, a vacuum is created and demons can enter in. The names of
some of these demons are Cynicism, Bitterness, Unforgiveness, Anger, Apathy,
and Addiction. Demons are more than
psychological problems.
And
if these demons take over our lives, we find ourselves living in this corner—all
alone, surrounded by vestiges of life but not life itself. We are accompanied
only by a “Legion” of demons. We are like the man in in the Bible passage. The
demons had given him superhuman strength but had left him a human wreak: naked,
isolated, self-destructive, and alone, with no income or family. The man had
abandoned himself from all that life could give him.
Many
of us try to liberate ourselves by binding the demons, trying to limit the
control they have over us. We put our efforts into work, exercise, or hobbies.
We take up a new cause or enter a new relationship. Some of us try to escape in
fantasy through the internet, identifying with a sports team, or reading
fiction. Some of us attempt to use positive thinking to bind the demons and
gain control back of our lives.
But
all of these strategies eventually fail, because the Strong Man hasn’t been
bound. In Mark 3 Jesus tells a little
wisdom parable. Unless the Strong Man is first bound, one can’t plunder the
Strong Man’s house. One of the central messages of the Gospel of Mark is that
Jesus Christ—especially in his death and resurrection—has bound the Strong Man,
and has come to plunder his house. We are the reward of Jesus’ liberating
mission. He came, in the words of Luke 4:18, to provide “release to captives;
to let the oppressed go free.”
And
so if we hope to be free from the demons in the secret corner of our patchwork
quilt, Jesus himself must enter in. He is like the Sheriff in an old Western
movie who says to the Outlaw, “There isn’t enough room in this town for the
both of us.” This is why Legion says to Jesus, “What have you to do with us?
Don’t torment us! Send us into the pigs.” In Jesus’ eyes (Gods) we are more
important than animals.
There
isn’t enough room in the Demoniac of Mark 5 for both Legion and Jesus, and so
Jesus casts out the demons, heals the man, and thereby saves him. Jesus’
binding of the Strong Man allows him to plunder the Strong Man’s house, to set
the captive free. And so Jesus fulfills another of his wisdom parables: unless a seed enters
the ground and dies, it cannot bring forth life in other seeds. And unless
Jesus enters our secret hidden places of our hearts, we cannot hope to move
from death to life.
Bringing
life out of death is costly, and Mark depicts it through the image of Legion
driving 2000 pigs to their deaths. The townspeople didn’t want to pay the cost.
Hearing of these events, they come to Jesus and the Liberated Man. But instead
of rejoicing in his freedom, they calculate the economic consequence those 2000
pigs. They decide it’s too expensive and ask Jesus to leave. But Jesus is the shepherd who is willing to
risk ninety-nine secure sheep in order to find only one who is lost. One dysfunctional, demon-possessed man was more
important than a thousand animals. He’s willing to pay the price for our liberation. People are more important than animals.
Are
we willing to pay the cost—individually and as the church? Are we willing to
invite Jesus into our individual secret hidden corners of our hearts and let
him heal us—even if it costs us letting go of demons like Cynicism and
Unforgiveness? And are we willing, as a church, to pay for even one sheep to be
found, one captive to be set free—even if it costs us 2000 pigs? Because at
stake is not just our own freedom, but that of the entire world. In a startling
departure, Mark tells us that Jesus doesn’t forbid the Liberated Man from
speaking of his liberation. Rather, Jesus sends him back into his community to
testify of what God has done for him. Releasing him back to be the person God
wanted him to be in the first place. He was able to be reunited with his family
again, able to do a work to support his family, able to speak of the love of
God.
Jesus took a naked,
wild man out of his mind, and healed him and now we see him sitting, fully
clothed and coherent. God can do this for anyone today. We are never too far
gone for God's saving power. That man didn't have to have a psychiatrist. Thank
God for psychiatrists, but he didn’t need one. That man did didn't have to have
a medical doctor. Thank God for medical doctors, but that man didn’t need one.
He didn’t have to have Prozac. I won’t thank God for Prozac. All he had to have
was Jesus. And they came out. The people saw this man, this maniac who would
strip off all of his clothes and run naked through the streets. This man who no
man could tame, who cried night and day, who cut himself and mutilated his own
body, this man who was deranged and driven by demons, allowed Jesus to deal
with him. When Jesus got through with him, the people saw this man sitting
quietly at the feet of Jesus. He was clothed and in his right mind. The people
did not like what they saw and hear and they asked Jesus to leave so Jesus told
the man to go home and tell his folk what had happened to him. I want you to
know there's nobody anywhere--there is no one who is beyond the touch of Jesus!
Let’s allow Him to bind the things that impede our progress in our journey of
faith. For we cannot tell what we have not experienced and when we allow Jesus
to heal us – not only are we “free”, we are able to shall what God has done!
Questions
- How are you
trying to battle demons instead of letting Jesus the Plunderer liberate
you?
·
Do you fully
appreciate Christ's Lordship in your life? Have you fully appropriated His
enabling power in your life? Do you share with others what great things He has
done in your life?
·
Are there times when
you doubt God's sovereign power? Is He really in control over death, disease
and demons?
·
What do you do when
people want to be left in their sin? When they reject the salvation that Christ
has offered to them?
- Pray Psalm 30, asking to be
one who has been liberated to live beyond the secret hidden place in the
patchwork quilt of your life.
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