"Practically Divine" - Week 3

Read: Mark 5:1-20

This is a fascinating story! I’ve always been drawn to it for several different reasons. I encourage you to read it in a couple of translations. Today, I enjoyed reading The Passion Translation after I read from my personal Bible.

Remember, my yearly Bible plan with Father Mike took me through Mark a couple of weeks ago. I have several notes on this passage that came from his teaching. I think it’s important for us to consider the things he pointed out, because they are as true today as they were back then.

· We must remember that there is more going on in our world than we can see with our eyes. Whether we want to think about it or not, there is an unseen world of evil and darkness. It is in our best interest to acknowledge that truth. Can you even imagine how tortured this man’s life was with a legion of demons living inside of him? I tend to focus on the how scared of him his community must have been, but I don’t often think about how miserable his life was. How helpless and hopeless must he have been! We must live aware of the unseen, evil world AND acknowledge Christ’s victory over it.

· When we read about Jesus encountering a demon in the Gospels, we never see them arguing with Jesus. Not one time in Scripture do you see Jesus order a demonic spirit to leave and that spirit say anything close to, “Nah, I think I’ll stay for a while.” When Jesus says, “Go,” they go. Even 2,000 demonic spirits IMMEDIATELY left when Jesus told them to.

· Ridding our lives of evil will have a cost. My commentary stated that the herd of pigs likely cost around $250,000 in today’s economy. The community sustained a significant loss over the freedom of the one man. Jesus would say that cost was worth it. As a community of believers, we must adjust our value system to Christ’s. To Jesus, people are more important than things. The possessed man’s community valued the pigs more than Jesus, and they asked Him to leave.

Take some time to think about each of those points. There is an unseen, evil world that is active today. Jesus has power over the darkness. But, exercising that power could have a steep cost. As you reflect, ask God how He’d like for you to respond to this Scripture. I will do the same. If a response is needed, I pray we will be bold enough to make it.

One more thing…. Do you get as concerned as I do when I see Jesus’ response to the healed man at the end of the chapter? He just wanted to be with the man who’d given him real and free life. Jesus wouldn’t allow it, though. He told him to return to his community and tell his story.

Jesus asked this poor man to return to the people who’d seen him at his worst and share a story that had caused him pain and turmoil most of his life. Does that seem unkind to anyone else?

I trust Jesus’ heart. I know he loved this man and had great compassion for him. If he asked him to do a hard thing, I believe it was for a reason. I won’t pretend to know exactly what that reason was, but I wonder if it had something to do with Becca’s point on page 33 of chapter 2,

We need one another, and the stirring of the Spirit, to be our best practical and divinely inspired selves. We emerge from our tunnels in a different place from where we started. In ever story of faith, the Spirit comes as a surprise – it’s more abundant than we imagined, and we can’t go back to where we were.

Hmmmm…. We come out of our tunnels different, and we can’t go back to where we were. Well, we can’t go back until Jesus tells us to go back. And, that’s what He just did. The man was asked to return to where he was even though he was very, very different. And, Jesus told him to tell his family what the Lord had done for him.

Yes! We need a community of believers. And, if our communities aren’t filled with people who have lived in darkness and experienced freedom from that darkness, we are missing out on a beautiful piece of the Gospel. Jesus absolutely transforms lives, and we are so forgetful that we need human examples of that over and over again.

I love you, ladies. Thank you for journeying with me. Read the rest of Mark 5 if you’d like, because we’ll be in chapter 6 tomorrow.

God, THANK YOU for freedom. I have to be honest, it stinks to live among evil. It’s so hard to know that there is an unseen world of darkness that has been given temporary freedom in this world. Sometimes, it’s downright scary. Today, use Legion’s story to remind us all that You still possess all power and dominion. When You say the darkness has to flee, it must! Guide us and direct us on how to lean into the power of Christ every moment of ever day. We ARE free and victorious, because of Jesus. Amen.