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Art of Brian Yi, muddypainting.blogspot.com
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Jesus is more passionate
and alive than a poster man on our bedroom wall. He is more dynamic and charismatic
than our modern image of him hanging on the cross with a painful expression.
Jesus is more than a nice-always-smile gentleman and definitely more than a
soft spoken positive-thinking preacher. He speaks with authority. He have power
over disease. He had mightily displayed his influence over nature – wind and
waves. Here in Mark 5:1-20, we will
also discover that he is dominance even over evil spirits.
When Jesus and his
disciples arrived “on the other side of Lake Galilee, in territory of Gerasa”
(Mark 5:1), a man who came out of the burial caves welcomed him. The man was
little more than a vicious animal when he first saw Jesus. The man was demon-possessed.
Have you seen one? I do. Those who were possessed by evil spirits look very
scary. Their eyes red and fierce like tiger. Hands and feet sometime bend like
crawling animals. And their skin-colour turned to dark pale. “He was some distance
away when he saw Jesus; so he ran, fell on his knees before him, and screamed
in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me?
For God’s sake, I beg you, don’t punish me!’” (Mark 5:6-8, GNB). Scary demon-possessed man was fear of God-anointed
man. Surely, Jesus is more to be fear than a demon-possessed man!
Many great events happened
after that: evil spirits kept begging Jesus, then by Jesus’ command they went
out of the man and entered a large herd of pigs, the pigs rushed down the side
of the cliff into the lake and drowned, people of Gerasa were afraid of Jesus
and what he had done to the man and the pigs. “So they asked Jesus to leave their territory”
(Mark 5:17). However, the healed man wants to stay with Jesus. He wants to be
in the team. “Let
me go with you!” (5:18) he begged Jesus. What would Jesus do? Well,
Jesus would do what he always does best – making
mind-blowing decision and saying surprise statement. Jesus rejected the man
résumé and give him an assignment instead: “Go back home to your family and tell them how much the Lord
has done for you and how kind he has been to you” (Mark 5:19). Jesus
healed and turned a demon-possessed man into a Good News’ reporter! The man went through many towns and reported what Jesus had done for him. As a result "All who heard it were amazed" (Mark 5:20)
What the healed man or
(let me put it in today’s context) the new believer’s first responsibility as a
Christian? What is the effect of receiving God’s grace in our life? Jesus
commands, “Go
back home to your family…” It
is to share this new life in Jesus with those who knew you best. The place
to start witnessing is where you live; your family, your friends, your neighbours.
Christian witnessing is to start at home and then work outward from there.
Jesus also commands, “…tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how kind
he has been to you.” Jesus didn’t ask you to prepare a batch of
evangelistic sermons, memorize 7 spiritual principles or mark all the salvation
verses in your Bible with red highlighter (although all of these are good
ideas). Rather, Jesus wants you to tell
others about your own experience with God. What Jesus has done for you and what
Jesus has meant in your life. This is the Good News.
Jesus is dominance, have authority over evil spirits –
over all.
Jesus therefore can healed and turned demon-possessed
men into Good News’ reporters
And as reporters of God’s goodness, we are to share
Christ with those whom we see every day. And our greatest message is about our
personal experiences of Christ’s love
and power at work in our life. You’re God’s reporters!
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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