Luke 8:27-39

Jesus steps out of the boat just after commanding peace to the waves to meet another stormy situation. Here a man meets them - he’s completely naked, probably filthy as can be, and covered in scars of self harm (Mark 5:5). That’s just what they see first off. They learn he lives in the tombs - you know, with dead people. And he cries night and day while he cuts himself with sharp stones. Who knows who he use to be before he was filled with legions of demons, who knows how he got there. But there is enough of “him” left to run and fall on his knees before Jesus (Mark 5:6).

Like many times in my life when someone is raging and screaming or looks scary and threatening, I (try to) see past the outside. This man is a mess. I imagine his scarred body and wonder what pain and sadness, what inner turmoil was going through his mind with each cut of the sharp stone? When he broke out of the restraints that people (somehow) put him in, did it terrify him as much as it did them? As he realized no one ever could control him - not himself and no one else either? He may have been a big tough man on the outside, but inside he was a terrified little boy.

This is how I see him running to Jesus. One last hope. And as he ran - the demons in him, everything that held him back, screamed out against each step he took.

This man, like many others in the Gospels, wanted healing. Like the woman with the issue of blood in this same passage, he pushed forward. They both pushed past cultural barriers (she’s a bleeding woman touching a Jewish man and he’s a naked man running up on Jesus and His posse). They both gave it all they had for one last chance at healing.

We have some freaky stuff with temporarily demon possessed pigs apparently and the owners of the pigs run to tell the town what happened. I get all that - I’d run too. But they come back and see this man now in his right mind. Healed. And they rejoice for their friend and ask Jesus to heal them too.

Not.

The Bible says they are overcome with fear. Maybe fear of what Jesus might change in their own lives? One version I read says they were a particularly sinful people who didn’t want Jesus in their mess. Maybe they were mad about losing all that yummy bacon (they weren’t Jews, those pigs were food!).Either way, they didn’t think twice about the man whose entire life was changed when Jesus healed him. They focused on themselves and chose their own pet demons over freedom and healing.

They told Jesus to leave. And He listened. And this part of the story has always bugged me. If that one man represented just a portion of the hurts in that town then there was so much healing Jesus could do there. But that man wanted it and the town did not. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the WHOLE town begged Jesus to leave! Jesus walked away from an entire town full of hurts and healed just the one who asked.

Jesus’ picture of operating within human consent here is humbling. Jesus asked another man in John 5, “Do you want to be well?” He doesn’t force healing on people. As someone who has been through deep healing this is a relief - especially when my wounds were directly from my own lack of consent... Jesus says, “I will heal you but you have to want it. I need your consent.” Jesus starts and completes the work, but the decision is fully your responsibility.

Do you have enough left to run to Him?