Thoughts on Mark 5

Today’s reading: Joel 3; Mark 5

Are you ever afraid that Jesus, if given free rein, might want to change something you’ve already decided you don’t want touched?

Reading Mark 5 this morning, I couldn’t help but marvel a bit at the people’s reaction to the demon possessed man having the Legion cast out of him. This demon possessed man had clearly been a problem and a danger such that they had tried to capture and bind him, only to either be unsuccessful or to have him snap the chains they put on him. On top of that, we know that every culture back then, including the Jews, had various exorcism rituals, so they had very likely already had many exorcists fail to cast out this man’s demon well before the day Jesus shows up. So if this man is a danger and/or nuisance, and they’ve never been able to successfully do anything about it in the past, why, when Jesus shows up and takes care of the problem for them, do they beg Jesus to leave rather than inviting Him to a feast to celebrate?

At first glance you could say that maybe the people were angry about the pigs, and that’s why they wanted Jesus to leave, but Mark specifically tells us that the people were afraid. They didn't show up with the police, angrily demanding Jesus pay back the owners, they came out when they heard what happened, and were afraid when they saw the man sitting calmly before Jesus.

I think they were afraid of what it might mean for Jesus to stick around.

I don’t know if these people knew who Jesus was or not. He was certainly famous enough in the area that they might have known, but either way, Jesus is not someone they can contend with. They have tried and failed to restrain this man, but Jesus, by merely speaking to him, casts the demons out of him. That is serious spiritual power! In the event they didn’t know who Jesus was, what if he started demanding payment for the exorcism from the town? What if, as is still common in animistic religions today, he threatened to curse them if they didn’t do what he said or paid him enough to satisfy him? Or maybe worse, if they did know who Jesus was, what if he was going to force them to follow Jewish law? He was already responsible for killing a herd of pigs, what if he was going to keep going and make them start following dietary laws, performing sacrifices, and keeping the Sabbath? It would be too dangerous to have someone so powerful around that they didn’t specifically invite, because they don’t know why He’s there or what all He might demand, so it’s safer to just ask Him to move on.

This is a pretty common fear for people to have of Jesus today too. On the one hand, freedom from condemnation sounds wonderful, but what might Jesus do if He is invited in? Maybe you like the way you are living your life and you don’t really want that to change. But what if you invite Jesus in and He wants it to change? Or maybe there are some things you would let Him touch, but others that you have already decided you could never let Him touch. That makes it dangerous to let Him get too close. Maybe you “pray to receive Christ” as a bit of “fire insurance,” but that’s as far as you’re willing to go spiritually because you are afraid of giving Jesus too much power in your life. Or maybe you have been trying to follow Him, and there is some area of your life He has tried to get you to hand over to Him time and time again, and you continue to refuse, holding tighter and tighter to it, afraid of what He will do with it if you let go.

The fact of the matter is that Jesus isn’t content to simply leave us as He found us, but we have to come to grips with the fact that He wants so much better for us than we could ever want for ourselves. Jesus doesn’t want to take things away from us because He doesn’t want us to enjoy life, He takes things away so that He can offer us, instead, the things that truly bring life, and joy, and peace. We are children in the backyard, jealously guarding our mud pie, refusing to hand it over to Jesus, and refusing to listen to Him saying that He has a slice of real pie He’s trying to give us instead, convinced that our little slice of mud is the best we could possibly find. 

The more we realize the true goodness, kindness, and love of Jesus, the easier it will be to let Him in deeper and deeper to touch, tweak, and transform the deepest parts of us.