Jesus, Don't Go Away. Draw Near!

Scripture — Mark 5:14–20 (NRSV)

The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Devotion

The story of Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac is full of riddles. Yesterday, I admitted my own puzzlement over what motivated Jesus to allow the demons to enter the herd of pigs. Today I want to focus on how the crowd responded to Jesus’ actions.

After Jesus delivered the afflicted man from a legion of demons, sending them into pigs who drowned in the lake, a crowd from the local town ran out to see what had happened. There, with Jesus, sat the formerly demonized man. He was no longer acting strangely, cutting himself and howling (5:5). Rather, “sitting there, clothed and in his right mind” (5:15). Witnesses to the actions of Jesus told the crowd what they had seen. “Then the people,” Mark tells us, “began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood” (5:17).

Isn’t that something?! The crowd observed the results of an astounding miracle. A man who had been horribly tortured by demons was now whole and free. Yet the townsfolk begged Jesus to go away. Perhaps they were afraid that he would do even more to upset their livelihood, as he had done to the owner of the pigs. It’s likely, however, that they simply didn’t want Jesus to mess up their lives. He was too powerful, too unpredictable, too scary, too uncontrollable. So, they cried, “Jesus, go away!”

I expect that most of us aren’t quite so honest with Jesus. We wouldn’t ever say to him, “Jesus, go away!” Yet I wonder how often we do, in effect, tell Jesus to let us be, at least in part. If we were to put into words our secret thoughts, might they sound something like this: “You can have me when it comes to my family life, but leave me alone at work.” Or “You are welcome to touch my public actions, but don’t mess with my inner life.” Or “I’m willing to give you a tithe of my income, but leave the rest of my money alone.” Or “I’m happy to have you in my life, Jesus, but don’t ask me to forgive my parents.” Or . . . You can fill in the blank with whatever fits for you.

Jesus wants all of us, not just part of us. He seeks to be Lord of every part of our lives, even that which we’d rather keep to ourselves. This means, however, that we can’t be in full control over how we live. We can be quite certain that Jesus will want to change things in us and in how we live. This can be quite disruptive. Yet the benefits of this disruption are incalculable.

Lord, give us the grace to say to you, not “Go away,” but “Draw near.”

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Live So Others May Flourish.