STRUGGLE AND SURRENDER

 

Friday, April 19, 2024

 

STRUGGLE AND SURRENDER

 

Mark 5:1-5

5:1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

 

Both Mark and Luke, the physician, tell of the struggle of the tortured soul of Gadera. In Doctor Luke’s account the story is just one pearl on a string of Messianic miracles. The electric emotions of this tale are more wrenching than the details.

 

1. Who was this man?

 

He was some mother’s child. How or when he went astray are hidden from us but his beginning was not unlike our own. He is all the more fearful because he represents our own potential for wickedness and anguish. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

 

2. What was his condition?

 

Both Mark and Luke refer to him as unclean. He was an arrested soul, bound by lustful, violent, and impudent impulses. His was a horrific conflict of wills. The townspeople had tried to help him, tried to contain him even with chains but his tormented soul broke them like string. He should have been among the living, but he dwelt among the dead. Morbidity was his habitat. So the skull and bones adorn the clothing and music of our culture. He loathed his own body and marked and abused it with cuttings, piercings and nakedness. He was on the highway to hell and could not himself change his path and would not.

 

Ah, but he recognized the master! Mark said that “immediately” upon reaching shore this man ran to Jesus and declared the truth of who he was. He knew that he was in the presence of Jesus the Son of the most high God. The impropriety and incongruity of his testimony assaulted Jesus. That wickedness should testify of Jesus and that self-righteousness should mistake his identity was the painful truth of Jesus’ culture.

 

3. What was Jesus’ response?

 

He did not say: “Thank you very much; how nice of you to recognize my royal person!” No, Jesus stopped him in his naked tracks, held him fast with the power of his person and demanded the evil to depart from this tormented man. You do not negotiate with nor placate wickedness! You must confront it! Wickedness does not leave a man willingly when man has long been a willing host. This is spiritual warfare and both angels and demons have made bare their arms and drawn their swords. The clash of sword and shield, could we but see them, would terrify us. Revival does not place man upon the battlefield. He is the battlefield and the prize!

 

4. What was the wonderful result?

 

Luke 8:35

35 Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

 

From being unclothed and out of his mind this mother’s child was restored to his sanity. He put on clothes and, to prove his lucidity, sat himself at the feet of Jesus for fellowship and instruction. Oh, to sit at the feet of Jesus! To be near Him, to thank Him and to learn from Him is true liberty.

 

Dear Jesus, wonderful Friend, like the tormented Gadarene I was once an embarrassment to myself and a danger to others. Then you found me and liberated me. Let me sit at your feet and be at peace. AMEN