Divine Appointments

Mark 5:1-20 is a beautiful picture of God’s larger story with a man’s smaller story woven into it.

The setting: (See the end of Mark chapter 4.)

Jesus has been walking about Galilee at the beginning of His ministry.  As He goes, He is healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching that the kingdom has come.  He has just  recruited His disciples and because of the miraculous deeds he was performing  has developed a huge following of sick, needy, and curious followers.  The pace has been steady and the crowd relentless in their pursuit of this curious man.  Jesus suggests to his disciples that to they get in a boat and go across the lake to the other side, away from the crush of the crowd. (Is this just away or toward a divine appointment?). Remember, it is evening and the other side is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 miles away.  I suspect that Peter noted in a loud voice that the weather didn’t look promising for a moonlight boat ride, and then mutters under his breath to Andrew when no one seems to pick up on his concern, "Nobody ever listens to me."

So they get in the boat and head toward the other side.  Jesus immediately moves to the back of the boat, finds a cushion, and falls sound asleep.  You can almost feel the sense of relief and the descending calm as the boats pull away from the shore and the clamoring crowds, but then, the clouds roll in.  The wind picks up, the lightening flashes, and the white caps begin to break over the sides of the boat.  Peter and John are veteran fishermen on this lake, they have seen storms like this before, maybe even been in similar circumstances.  Those unfamiliar with boats and the lake are terrified, they look to Peter and John for reassurance and see that even Peter and John are afraid. Now they are sure they are all about to die.  In the midst of the confusion and mounting fear someone finally notices that Jesus, exhausted, is still sleeping soundly, oblivious to the danger and their fears.

Frantically they wake Him up, He looks about at the winds, and the waves and in a flash of lightening they see His face, serene and unconcerned with what He sees.  John yells to Him over the howl of the winds, "Teacher, do you not even care that we are about to die?"

Jesus rubs His eyes, sighs, then turning from their anxious gaze, in a firm and authoritative voice rebukes the wind and the waves, ( Sigh) "Peace, be still!"  (Long pause) And the winds and the lightening stopped, the clouds part and the light of the moon breaks through, mirrored now on the glassy sea...and there was a great (Emphasis, the author Mark.) calm.

Jesus looked around at the startled faces now visible in the light if the moon and said, "Why are you so afraid, do you not trust me?"

The disciples were filled with great fear as they looked first at Jesus and then at one another and said,  "Who is this guy that even the winds and the waves obey Him?"  Fear, where Jesus is hoping for trust.

It is in this context that they now, in the early morning light, step out of the boat and are immediately met by a madman from the catacombs.

Jesus has a divine appointment with this man and has apparently already been saying to the spirit from afar, come out of him, because it is the spirit that causes the demoniac to come to Jesus. Jesus can use even the evil ones to bring us to Himself.  So I should not assume that where evil is present, God is ever left without means.  He can and does use what He chooses.  To Him this is no different than being in the boat in the middle of the storm in the last chapter, Jesus is not fazed by the storm, nature run amok. He takes dominion over it. He is unfazed by the demoniac with demons running him wild in a cemetery.  He takes dominion over them.

This is the meaning of His coming, this is the life of the kingdom, Jesus has come and He is retaking what we gave away in the garden, His kingdom.

Jesus, You have said we will do greater things than this in Your name...do I believe this?  Am I full of fear or confidence?  Am I afraid or do I trust? Do I even see what is going on around me in these terms?

So what about the pigs?  The whole pigs thing has always seemed strange and I am still not sure what the meaning is or even if it is really significant in the story or just a distraction.  Funny how what happens to the pigs grabs our attention while Jesus seems focused on what happens to the man. 

In their effort to be free of Jesus the demons compel the man to come to Jesus.  Jesus asks them their name, this is a personal, a real (As in true reality.) confrontation, not a metaphorical or psychologic demon.  When Jesus asks his name, the demons beg not to be sent away to another country.  This request seems to be an attempt to remain close to the man with the possibility of return.  The permission to enter the pigs and their subsequent demise seems to be a permanent removal from the man and from that place.  Maybe the whole purpose of the pigs is merely to highlight the reality of demons.  One does not cast psychological or mental disorders from people into pigs. The pigs did not become bipolar or develop a severe anxiety syndrome and run into the lake.  Something entered them...  As N.T. Wright would say, we may have different interpretations of what happened or why it happened, but something happened!

This way of reading paints a different picture than I have had in the past...I see a man desperate for deliverance, pleading to You, Jesus, for relief and presence, not just as an exercise of Your power over demons.  The story is about the man, not about the demons, and Your compassion is clearly visible, even to this man who was most likely a Gentile.  He is the object of the story, not a prop in a different story.  This is a devine appointment.  You came all the way here from across the lake, through a storm to see Him, then you left. Ten miles there, ten miles back, just to see this man.  I can hear Peter now on the return, “Where are we going, didn’t we just get here? Who brought some bread?”

Jesus heals the demoniac and we immediately  see the responses that fascinate and challenge me.  The village people have rightly been afraid of this madman, much as the disciple had been rightly afraid of the storms of the night before. But when they are miraculously delivered, no more madman to deal with, no more storms, rather than being drawn to this worker of miracles, they step back in fear.  Then, Jesus' words, "Why are you so afraid, don't you trust me?"

Fear is one of those interesting words that can mean opposite things.  Fear can mean, afraid of, or can mean, in awe of.  So why do I say opposite in meaning?  Fear, afraid, causes us to pull back, to pull away.  Fear, to be in awe, is to be overwhelmed, awe draws us in.  Jesus, as usual, puts His finger on the root cause of the different responses, "Do you not Trust me?" Afraid fear is not ready to trust.  Awe fear, moves toward trust.

Jesus was not disappointed in his disciples because they were afraid of the storm, He quickly moved to allay their fears in that respect by calming the storm.  His disappoint was at their response to His care for them, they drew back, they were afraid of Him.  After months of being with Him, seeing His care for them and for others, intimate conversations, and who knows how many miracles, their response is fear, to pull back rather than to lean in?  The people who witnessed the healing of the demonic had the same response, Jesus' demonstration of compassion and power caused them to be "pull back" afraid, and they begged Him to leave them. Not so with the demoniac.

Our normal response when we are in dire straits and it looks like all is lost and the super hero, at the last possible moment, comes to our rescue, is celebration and a mad rush to embrace and shake his hand.  Unless, unless we are not sure if the super hero is here to rescue us or use us for his own ends.  If we do not know if he is for us or against us, the demonstration of power leads us to wonder, what is he up to, I need to understand, hesitation, and the question, is he safe?  If instead as C S Lewis  says we know He is not safe, but He is good and He is for us, then we are more likely to experience wonder, awe, and celebration, and be drawn toward Him.

What is my response when I see the power of the One who breathed life into me?  Do I say, "Who is this guy." Or, "Please go away?"  Maybe a more honest question is where and when has this been my exact response?  What do my responses say about the desires of my heart and my knowledge of the One is whose image I am made?  Yes, and how do I answer Jesus' question, "Do you trust me, Jim?"

I hope that more and more my response is that of the demoniac...I want to be clambering and splashing for all I am worth to get on the boat, grasping and clawing to be with Him.  After the event of the night before and now the early morning the eagerness of the demoniac must have made our Jesus smile.

So how is this a picture of the larger story you ask?  The larger story is about a beautiful creation marred by the very ones to whom it was given as a tool for glory. The mess we find ourselves in mostly seems hopeless in spite of what sometimes feels like a far off promise of rescue ( Saved from disaster.) and redemption. (Restored to original intent.). The scary thing is that it is in fact hopeless, for us and the world we live in...unless, unless there is a super hero who can and is willing to rescue us and even tougher, not just rescue us out of this cosmos in distress but rescue and restore the whole cosmos as well.  Not just a rescue for me out of the mess, but a rescue of the whole mess.  How cool would that be? 

Yes, we know that Jesus is that super hero who for reasons beyond our comprehension not just can, but will rescue and redeem us.  He has come, He has retaken dominion of His kingdom.   He sacrificed Himself for us, defeated death in the grave and and has publicly declared all this belongs to Him and to you and me if we will follow, be with, Him. Is that really true? It is, Wow!

Do you feel yourself wanting to climb on the boat?  The disciples sure did many months later.  They had suffered many times the confusion, "Who is this guy?"  and the fear, "What, die like that?" But Jesus came back and when all looked like it was lost, He won!  He had been executed and came back to life, no question.  Unlike in the boat on that scary night, the display of power had stirred up in them, not "afraid" fear, but "awed" fear.  They are sitting on a mountain top ready to go, asking the question, “Is now the time you are going to restore the kingdom?” (Acts 1:6) And Jesus said, "I am going."  All the disciples started get on the boat.  That is where we are supposed be, right?

Once again Jesus did the last thing they would ever have guessed.  As He had done with the demoniac, He said, "Whoa, whoa, I want you to get out of the boat and go back and tell your neighbors what I have done for you.  You continue what I have begun until my return."  Rats, and I already gotten my feet wet trying to get in.

Sound familiar?

You, may be asking, as I often do, why did He do it like that?  Why did He leave it to us?  Why didn’t He finish the story then and there?

First, I would say, anytime I wonder what Jesus would do, all I need to do is look at my first instinct and then do the opposite.  He certainly does that here.  Think about it, He created us, and the cosmos for His glory, He gave us the keys to the cosmos and said, "Here it is, take it and glorify me with it."  Well, we screwed that one up pretty bad and it cost Him His life to get it back.  So yes, at the moment when it seems He is about to finish the rescue and redemption, we don't seem to be the most likely candidates to be put in charge once again.  But that is exactly what He did!  He handed us the keys again and says, ‘Lets finish the job.”And then he left!  Huh, sometimes the thing that engenders trust is to be trusted.  Always the most growth comes with participation.  Both have everything to do with relationship.  Hmmm...

Secondly, I am reminded of the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man looks across the abyss and pleads with God to miraculously send someone back to warn his friends, because with a new and bigger sign they might believe.  God responds that signs, and prophets, etc. have been tried and didn't work.  So what does work?

The story of the demoniac gives some food for thought.  Jesus had just cast out a powerful contingent of demons, a significant miracle and show of power and the result in the local community was fear and a pulling back.  When Jesus got into the boat to leave and the demoniac tried to leave with him, Jesus' words to him were, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."  I love how the passage ends, "And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled."  Did you catch that?  The witness of the demoniac, in the telling of his own story moved the people from fear to fear.  From afraid to awe, they marveled. Awesome! It took the incarnation of one of their own to begin to see.

So maybe that is the method in His madness.  We get to be the vehicle through which afraid is turned to awe, where hesitation and pull back, is turned to being drawn and leaning in, and ultimately into trust.  Jesus is the incarnation of God who moved into our neighborhood and we are to be the continuation of His incarnation in our own neighborhoods.  It appears that at least for some, direct confrontation with the glory of God is too much to bear and they become afraid, but when the glory is “filtered” through one of His people it somehow is made more accessible.  And so, God asks us to partner with Him in the redemptive process, to join in His suffering so that all the nations and the cosmos might be blessed.

Like the demoniac I think I would prefer to be on the boat, but I guess I'm just going to have to get used to dry feet for a while and learn to tell my piece of the story. Is that a have to or a want to for me...I guess it depends on my answer to the trust question?

Acts 1:8 "You will be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit (The One who writes stories.) comes upon you..."

Witnesses report the facts, what they have seen and know personally.

Attorneys try to interpret the facts.  We are called to be witnesses not attorneys.