An Identity Crisis
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Going Home
A
young man bound for the mission field
found himself seated on an airplane
next to Billy Graham. He eagerly told
the famed evangelist how he was on
his way to some remote mission
station, where he confidently
expected to lead many heathen to the
Lord.
Graham
said that was wonderful news. Then he
asked how many souls the young
missionary had brought to Jesus in
his family or neighborhood. Looking a
little downcast and distracted, the
young man responded that he had not
brought anyone to the Lord yet-and
then he commenced to offer a series
of contrived excuses for why it was
so difficult to produce converts in
his hometown.
After a
prayerful pause, Graham soberly
advised the young man to return home,
saying, “If you have not been
successful in reaching nobody in your
family or neighborhood, it is likely
you will not experience success in a
foreign land either.”
As Jesus
began to board the boat to leave
Decapolis, the newly restored man
pleaded that He might accompany Him.
What a transformation! The one who
feared His arrival now dreaded His
departure. It is likely that he even
wished to become one of the
Lord’s disciples.
However,
the commission Jesus gave the
demoniac was considerably different
from His instruction to others He had
healed. Usually, He told them to keep
quiet about what he had done for them
(see Matthew 8:4; Luke 8:56). * The
former demoniac was not to sit at
Jesus’ feet indefinitely either,
but to go and tell others about
Jesus-beginning with those in his own
home. ** So many sit in church
week after week and never share their
faith. As a result, their Christian
experience atrophies. The
“home” environment
represents the best but also the most
challenging training ground for
developing missionaries. The first
person the disciple Andrew led to
Jesus after he found Him was his own
brother, Peter (John 1:40, 41). When
the Samaritan woman at the well
learned Jesus was the Messiah, she
immediately went to share the Living
Water with her neighbors (John
4:28,29). Jesus even asked His
disciples to begin witnessing to
those who were closest at hand and
then expand the circle
outward-ultimately, to the far
corners of the earth” (Acts
1:8).
It is
also important to note that Jesus did
not command the former demoniac to go
home and become a great orator, but
simply to give testimony to what
Jesus had done in his life. Being a
witness is as simple as that! It will
always be true that there is no more
powerful sermon than a life that
Jesus has transformed! “He went
on his way and proclaimed throughout
the whole city what great things
Jesus had done for him. So it was,
when Jesus returned, that the
multitude welcomed Him, for they were
all waiting for Him” (Luke
8:39,40). ***
Perhaps
you have some dear family members or
friends who have drifted far from
God. Perhaps they are caught in a
downward spiral of self-destruction.
You might even wonder if your many
prayers in their behalf are a waste
of time. The good news is that if
Jesus could reach this man, He can
reach anybody! No condition
other than death itself could ever
have appeared more hopeless, no
bondage more complete. This man was
truly as far from God as we could
imagine. In other words, there is
always hope, so do not ever give up
on those you love.
Before we
leave this story, please take in this
amazing contrast one last time:
The possessed man
moves among decomposing carcasses in
the shadow of the surrounding hills,
snorting the cries of the foul swine.
His ripped and raw flesh drags
remnants of mangled shackles and
chains. Screaming and moaning, his
snarling mouth foaming with saliva,
he wanders aimlessly among the
silhouettes of caves and tombs, his
stinking, naked body followed by a
cloud of flies. He continually stabs
at his scarred limbs with dirty
rocks, and his wild eyes glare
menacingly from under his dirty,
matted hair.
Isaiah 1:5, 6,
describes this so well: “You
will revolt more and more. The whole
head is sick, and the whole heart
faints. From the sole of the foot
even to the head, there is no
soundness in it, but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores; they
have not been closed or bound up, or
soothed with ointment.” Before
meeting Jesus, the demoniac was the
ultimate picture of LOST-all capital
letters! He was unclean, unsociable,
unrestrained, and tormented.
And now,
the contrast: After he came to Jesus,
he was tranquil, civilized, clothed,
smiling, and in his right mind.
*There
were volatile political tensions
between the people of Galilee and
Judea and their Roman overlords. If
Jesus miracles were too widely
publicized, they would have fanned
the messianic hopes of the people
into flames of revolt. There was no
such danger in Decapolis; therefore,
the mercy of the Lord was to be
freely proclaimed.
**Notice that
Jesus first told the demons to go and
then He told the man to go. Jesus
sent the demons to the pigs, and He
sent the man to the lost. It is also
symbolic that the ones who took care
of the pigs left to share bad news.
After the demoniacs encounter with
Jesus, he went to the same area to
share the good news.
***The Gospel of Luke
implies that Jesus returned to this
district and that because of the
powerful ministry of this one man,
the whole region was waiting for
Jesus when He returned. That is our
job too. Jesus is returning to earth
very soon, and we are to do all we
can though our word and example to
prepare others to meet Him in peace.
What a
difference Jesus made in his life! It
was the difference between light and
darkness, lost and found, and life
and death. Jesus can and will make
the same difference in your life too!
As someone once said, “When I
look at myself, I wonder how I can be
saved. When I look at Jesus, I wonder
how I can be lost.” Whatever
chains might be, Jesus can break them
and set you free. “If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new” (2
Corinthians 5:17, KJV).
If you
have not already asked Jesus to save
you, ask Him to do so now. Then go
and tell what great things He has
done for you.
Do not let sin
reign in your mortal body that you
should obey it in its lusts.
And do not present your members as
instruments of unrighteousness to
sin, but present yourselves to God as
being alive from the dead and your
members as instruments of
righteousness to God. For sin shall
not have dominion over you, for you
are not under law but under grace.
What then, Shall we
sin because we are not under law but
under grace? Certainly not! Do you
not know that to whom you present
yourselves slaves to obey, you are
that one’s slaves whom you obey,
whether of sin leading to death, or
obedience leading to righteousness?
But God be thanked that though you
were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine
to which you were delivered. And
having been set free from sin, you
became slaves of righteousness
(Romans 6:12-18).
Remember my
friends…with God all things are
possible. Matthew 19:26
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