Free At Last
Robyn Black • November 15, 2020
Mark 5:1-20 (The Message)
I’m loving listening to the gospel of Mark as I drive along in the car. As I said last week, sometimes I’ll go for a day or two listening to the same chapter and having something different stand out to me each time. The story today is about a man who has a “tormenting evil spirit” and Jesus restores health and wholeness to him. There’s 3 different parts to this story I want to focus on.
Firstly, Jesus. Our reading says “They arrived on the other side of the sea in the country of the Gerasenes. As Jesus got out of the boat, a madman from the cemetery came up to him. He lived there among the tombs and graves.” (Mark 5:1, MSG). It seems that when Jesus stepped out of the boat the cemetery, tombs, graves and pigs were not far away. This is a very risky place for a Jewish person to be. Jesus was going to places where no other Jewish person was going. A Jewish person simply could not be around pigs because they were deemed unclean animals. And Judaism has strict instructions about the dead – they must be disposed of quickly and then you don’t hang around too long!
Jesus was taking an incredible risk. He was going to places that his Jewish peers would judge him for being near. And this sends a strong signal, long before the disciples caught on to it, that Jesus’ mission was for all – Jewish and non-Jewish. A signal that God was reaching out to everyone.
Jesus was a risk taker. He’s hanging around near a cemetery, near the pigs, and he’s taking a path that leads by a man that everyone has given up on. This man was absolutely tormented, and though he was relegated to live in the cemetery, the community would have heard his howls of anguish every so often. No one went there...except Jesus. No one spoke to him…except Jesus. Everyone was afraid of him…except Jesus. No one but Jesus…Jesus was his last hope.
As I read this, I admired Jesus’ risk taking, his ability to not be inhibited by what others may think. This is how the Salvation Army began – out in the streets whilst other churches were inside the safety of their church walls, out in the pubs and in the East End of London where respectable churches and respectable people would not go. This is in the Salvation Army’s DNA - risk taking, so that those who are in pain, and alone and lost can find healing and transformation and a God who loves them. Where might those places be in our world? Who are those people?
The next part of the story that amazes me is the man. Our reading says “No one could restrain him—he couldn’t be chained, couldn’t be tied down. He had been tied up many times with chains and ropes, but he broke the chains, snapped the ropes. No one was strong enough to tame him. Night and day he roamed through the graves and the hills, screaming out and slashing himself with sharp stones.” (Mark 5:4-5, MSG).
I presume there was a time this man lived in a family, enjoying all the benefits of being part of community. He would have had friendship, purpose, connection, the simple pleasure of sitting at a table and eating with another person occasionally. I’ve been to funerals where there was no-one except myself and the funeral director (pre COVID), and it makes me reflect on a life that had no human connection. No one to check in if you’re still alive. No one to let you know that you matter to someone.
This man was completely isolated, living among the dead, so tortured within himself by a “tormenting evil spirit”. Day and night he roamed through the graves screaming out, and self-harming, cutting himself with sharp stones. Sometimes people cut themselves or harm themselves because it’s a distraction from the inner pain that seems overwhelming, sometimes it’s to feel something if they feel numb, sometimes a way of showing some external sign of the inner pain, sometimes because they don’t know any other way to express the pain. This man was suffering.
People had tried to subdue him in various ways (although the only person he seemed to be harming was himself) but it hadn’t worked. And in the end he was rejected by the village to live in absolute isolation. No clothes, no friend and no peace of mind. Never.
Into this scene comes Jesus, and in a picture of compassion, practicality and authority, he delivers the man of these tormenting spirits. And here’s the outcome “Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man. (Mark 5:14-15, MSG).
One interaction with Jesus and the man is transformed. He’s a different man – a completely new man, transformed spiritually, emotionally, and physically. He’s not tormented, he no longer howls and shrieks, he’s able to have a conversation with people, his thoughts are ordered, his clothes resplendent. I guess such was his gratitude and so great was his encounter with Jesus that we read he asked Jesus if he could join him and the disciples.
”Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.” (Mark 5:19-20). Jesus directed the man back to his community. Maybe Jesus felt that he was best placed there, embedded in a stable community, after all of his trauma. But that would have been hard huh? Hard for the man, who had been rejected by those very people, and hard for the community who would have found it difficult to believe he was truly a new person. That is often the story of transformation. Sometime we find it hard to believe others have truly changed, and we continue to think of them as they were in the past. And sometimes people refuse to believe that we have changed, and that can be incredibly frustrating.
This leads me on to the last part today. The people. The pig owners to be precise.
“Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe—and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.” (Mark 5:16-17).
These people had just witnessed an incredible miracle. Jesus had healed this tormented, tortured, isolated man. And the people were worried about the pigs. OK, it may have been their livelihood, and perhaps I’m being harsh. But the people were witness to the supernatural power of God at work, a supernatural power that had a ripple effect as he told everyone in the surrounding towns about Jesus. And these people completely rejected Jesus and his miracle working power, because of the pigs drowning.
This is a remind that there will always be people in life who major on the minor things of life. God is working in amazing ways, and someone’s leaving the church because the air conditioning is too cold one Sunday. Or they left the church because the flag was in the wrong position…both true stories. Let’s you and I not be that person.
The take aways today are ….Like this man, there’s nothing about you that is TOO MUCH for Jesus. No past too horrific, no family too twisted, no disease too extreme. He welcomed that man – nothing in Jesus took a backward step. He welcomed him…and Jesus welcomes you with all your complications! I also pray for a day when the Salvation Army are risk takers again, bringing hope to those who are suffering and tormented. And I pray that we will see the transforming power of Jesus continue to transform lives in our community in the Northern Illawarra
Sermons For The Moment
New Year - Matthew 2:13-23
Do not be afraid - Matthew 1:18-21
Luke 2: 4- 15
Luke 1: 26-33
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Ruth Chapter 4
Ruth 3
Ruth 2
Commitment from Love, Ruth 1: 1-18
This is an interesting Psalm – another psalm of ascent. We spoke about these Psalms of Ascent a few weeks ago. They were songs the Jewish people sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to go to the temple, through the forest, along the tracks, camping by the roads. And I believe songs like this kept them focussed and kept their spirits up. I can imagine days of walking together, tiring, boring, hot and dusty. And singing some of these Psalms keep them focussed on the faithfulness of God. Much better then eye spy for the kids. Journeys are not all their cracked up to be even if the destination is worth it. As you know, when I was growing up we always holidayed at Bawley Point past Ulladulla, and in those days it was about a 4 hour drive from Sydney. We always left later than we meant to…and the last 20 mins was on a dirt road. One year when I was probably about 4 years old it was dark by the time we got to the dirt road, and half way along the dirt road, was a dodgy wooden bridge over a river. I think part of the bridge had been damaged and we had to wait a bit in the pitch black darkness before we could proceed. Dad was out with a torch ensuring the bridge was safe to drive on and mum and us 4 kids were sitting in the darkness – no street lights, no moonlight. Of course, you might be able to guess what I said to mum in that car, with fearful crying…you’ve probably heard it from kids before. I said ‘I want to go home’. Mum said to me, ‘we can’t go home Robyn, we’re almost there’. In truth, after the bridge we had the last 10 minutes of a 4 hours journey left. We safely crossed the bridge and we were OK. But I remember it. I remember the feeling of being scarred in the darkness. I remember not liking this journey at all. Even though I always loved the destination. Well this psalm celebrates the end of the journey and the arrival at the destination. Psalm 126:1-3, “When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!” Before we can understand the laughter and joy of the Israelites, we have to understand their journey. This Psalm looks back to when they arrived back in Jerusalem after 70 long years in Babylon. The captives had experienced great sorrow and mourning in exile. We read these heartbreaking words in Psalm 137: “Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?” (Psalm 137:1-4). Their tormentors demanded they sing joyfully, but they were like – that’s impossible, it doesn’t come from our heart. So they just sat by the waters of Babylon and wept. But now by an amazing work of God they were suddenly back in Jerusalem. And so their joy came from their heart. The wait was over, the journey was complete. “We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.” The journey is the hard bit though isn’t it? I was reminded of this, this week. An Officer couple I was speaking to, said that their teenager said some very hurtful things to them. Stuff like, ‘you make my life worse’. As they spoke to me, I did very little but listen and pray with them. They do have other supports in their life as well, already seeing a psychologist. But what I was thinking in my head as they were speaking was ‘oh the teenage years, I’d forgotten them’. Though we have 2 wonderful young adults in P and K, they were times when it was more than tense. K wears her heart on her sleeve, and to this day apologises for some of the things she said to me. And P, you wouldn’t know what he was thinking, and then all of a sudden all his thoughts and feelings for the last 3 years would come out like molten lava everywhere. A few days later I checked in to see how the couple and their teenager were going. I mentioned in passing about teenage years and very briefly about our experiences. I didn’t want to make it all about me. But I said teenage years can be painful and those years can really hurt everyone in the family. Teenager included. They know that we have a good relationship with P and K and they said to me, you know, this is helpful. It gives us hope. I was like, yep, this too shall pass. Because when you’re in the midst of the journey of pain and sorrow, you sometimes wonder if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. If you’ll laugh again or experience joy again. You begin to wonder, “Is this all that God has for me? Will I ever be happy again?” And here’s the promise in Psalm 126:4-6, “Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” When you are going through a time of deep sorrow, Psalm 126 is strong medicine for your soul. It carries a powerful message of hope. It tells you that times of trouble and sorrow do not last. It tells you that God will turn your sorrow to joy and your tears to laughter. If you are going through a challenging time right now, I pray that this psalm will speak to your heart this morning. Let me tell you right up front, whatever you’re going through, it will get better. God will change your tears to joy. This week I found something I wrote about 10 years ago. I had written it on a piece of paper and there was a whole reflection about my life. At the time we had my mum living with us, she had dementia, and mostly I remember the good times and the fun times with her. I was also the Corps Officer at Glebe and Bob was the manager at William Booth House. After a page of writing I had written something like this “I’m often anxious, I’m usually stressed, I have eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth. I always feel pressed.” I went out to Bob in the lounge room and I’m like, ‘oh my goodness, eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth’, often anxious, usually stressed. The thing is, my life feels a long way from that now, and I’d forgotten what that part of my journey felt like. I’m sure when I was there I couldn’t look ahead and see a time of joy…but the truth is that “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” This too shall pass. ‘Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!’ says verse 3. God is faithful – he does the healing, the restoring, he brings the streams in the desert that renews and brings fruitfulness. I don’t need to tell you – it takes time. Today, I’m praying for a work of healing in your life, a gradual restoration of joy, of laughter. Like me as a kid, sometimes we don’t like parts of this journey at all. Even though we know our destination is good. And ultimately, we have a destination like no other and that’s the promise of God. A home in heaven made possible through Jesus. May God bless you this week as you look to Him, listen to Him, find your hope in Him and find courage and healing in your journey.