February 4, 2015--Transformative Healing

Mark 5:1-20

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ²And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ³He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; ⁴for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. ⁶When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; ⁷and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” ¹⁰He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; ¹²and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” ¹³So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. ¹⁶Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. ¹⁷Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. ¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” ²⁰And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Jesus has just calmed the storm while he and the disciples were in the boat.  I can’t imagine what the disciples thought when they saw this man come from the tombs to meet them as they got out of the boat.  He must have had some sort of illness that caused him to be violent, and he was so strong that chains could no longer contain him.  He was clearly a man in great turmoil.  

When this man saw Jesus he runs to him and falls to his knees.  Jesus exorcises this “demon” out of the man and he is healed.  When Jesus asks the spirit what his name is the man says Legion—for we are many.  Interestingly enough, Legion is also a term used to refer to a Roman military unit of about 6000 soldiers.  The demon begged Jesus not to send them away from the area, but to send them into a herd of pigs. 

Imagine then seeing the man who had been cast away, who you were afraid of, now sitting dressed and in his right mind.  What was behind the people wanting Jesus to leave their region?  Can you imagine what the man’s family thought when he returned?

It is hard to return home without people thinking about who you used to be.  When I returned home as an adult, it wasn’t uncommon for my parents and I to resume old roles.  When in seminary, people changed over their internship year.  However, it was hard for classmates to accept or expect anything to be different.

Jesus’ healing is about wholeness.  Living a Jesus life will change us, and not everyone will be open to those changes in us.  We may also struggle when someone we know and love makes a change and we just simply don’t expect it.  

As we open our lives up to the transforming power of Jesus, I pray we are changed to be people more like Christ.  I pray we are strong, confident in this “new me” and ready to see that others really can and are transformed.  I trust that no one is beyond God’s transformation!