Jesus Takes
A Detour
Luke
8:26-39
Introduction
In the movie The Hunger Games, 24
teens are selected to fight to the death, a boy and a girl from each of the 12
districts. In District 12, it is the boy Peeta and the girl, Katniss. For me,
one of the most compelling scenes, they are discussing what to expect, since
one of them must die. Peeta says, “I don’t know how to say it exactly. Only…I
want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” … “I don’t want them to
change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.” – taken
from the The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, chapter 10, page 71.
Peeta was worried that somehow the world, the expectations
of those watching and those people running the “games” would be able to manipulate
him so that at the end of the process he would not even recognize himself—he
would become a “monster” When I heard that, I could sympathize with his fear.
There are many people who would want to give me instructions—how to raise my
kids, how to raise my tomatoes, how to eat, how to live, how to love, how to
laugh. If you stop and think about it, it is really quite invasive. Sometimes
they call it a law. Sometimes they call it advice. Sometimes they call it wise.
But all around us—just like the audience and game masters—is a world with an
opinion about you.
And it is not always outside of us. Some of these voices we
have actually invited inside of our heads, a sort of jury box with whom we go
over each of our decisions, mentally anticipating their thumbs up or thumbs
down. Maybe it is your Mom (like me) who, even though I haven’t lived with her
for 25 years, I sometimes mentally look for her thumbs up or thumbs down. Or my
grandfather, Waldo, a godly man who has been dead these 15 years. Maybe it is a
teacher, or an older classmate, or a boss, or a hero. Each one of us
accumulates a jury box who we give mental permission to pass judgment on our
plans and mistakes. To some, we look for approval. For others, we are afraid of
their negative opinion.
But, there is yet
another level where we give up our own voice. We let go and another dictates
our actions and behaviors, maybe to avoid getting hurt, maybe out of desire for
something or maybe out of hopelessness. The Bible describes this spiritual
condition-a sort of spiritual “loss of willpower” as demonization or (less
precisely) demon possession.
Now, in the 8th chapter of Luke, one of the four
biographies of Jesus found in the Bible, we see Jesus encounter a man in this
very condition. It is one of the strangest episodes in Jesus life and yet, at
the same time, is revealing as to what is at stake when Jesus the Messiah, the
Christ, insists on the kingdom of God is coming to earth. This episode will
show us what Jesus sees, what drives Jesus and what he expects will happen, not
just for one troubled man, but for all of us. Why would Jesus take a detour?
Jesus Takes The Detour…Will You?
Maybe you heard
the story this week about Bob Russell. Forty-two years ago, when he was a
college student in Philadelphia, he returned home after a date with his
then-future to find that his 1967 Austin-Healey sports car had been stolen.
Reported to the police, there was no hope. Every time he saw a car that looked
like his beloved lost vehicle, he checked closely, hoping he could recover it.
Then recently he
was scouring on eBay when he saw one. Sure, the paint was faded, the hard top
broken down and the interior worn down, but after comparing the vehicle
identification numbers, sure enough, he had found his car. Some work with the
car dealer selling it, who had no idea of its history, and after forking over
the $600 impound fee he was reunited, 42 years after he lost it. His goal now
is to completely restore it to its former glory.[1]
Forty three years ago, Jesus lost one of his children: me.
But he didn’t give up on me. Instead he kept looking for me and, when he found
me, he had paid the price so that I could be returned to him. Now he is in the
process of restoring me to the glory in which he had originally created me.
When Jesus went looking for this man, he really took a
detour. In order to rescue this one man, Jesus had to overcome at least six
different obstacles. He never gave up. Let’s look at the six.
1. Comfort Barrier. Jesus’ ministry was doing well.
He was drawing crowds everywhere he went. In fact, according to verse 40 of
this chapter, when Jesus went back, his whole fan club was there waiting for
him. In order for Jesus to rescue this man, he had to set aside what was
comfortable and even what was working, to do what God wanted.
2. Physical Barrier. Jesus had to cross the lake
and through a storm to get to this man.
3. Cultural Barrier. These people were not Jewish.
Jesus was Jewish. They raised pigs. Jews thought pigs were dirty. Jesus could
have said, “They aren’t like me. They don’t look like me. They don’t talk like
me. They don’t eat like me.” Instead he made the first move.
4. Religious Barrier. In the Jewish religion, you
cleaned yourself often. If you touched something or someone that was
religiously dirty or “unclean” you became dirty yourself and were excluded from
society and even public worship. This man lived in the graveyard. And the
“evil” spirit (vs. 29) in the Greek is really “unclean” or dirty. Inside and
out, he was defiled. But Jesus reached out to him, in a way no synagogue,
church or “religious” person would.
5. Social Barrier. This guy wasn’t exactly easy to
get along with-he runs up to Jesus and starts shouting at him at the top of his
voice (vs.28). And he’s naked. And he’s violent. No one in town till deal with
him. But Jesus will.
6.
Spiritual Barrier. This man’s problem is a
spiritual issue. He has given away his self to not just one demon, but many.
The term “legion” typically consisted of 5,000 Roman soldiers.
Jesus took a detour from Galilee and conquered every
barrier, even if there was just one man to rescue and believe. My friends, that
is exactly what he has done for you. Jesus took a detour for you—from heaven
to earth, from glory to the shame of the cross. You didn’t deserve it. He had
every reason to turn his back on you, but he didn’t. The Bible says:
7Now, most people would
not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be
willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8But God showed
his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still
sinners. – Romans 5:7-8 (NLT)
Jesus overcame every obstacle. Will you cross the street?
Will you cross the room? Will you open your mouth? What excuse have we used to
explain why we can’t go to the people God has called us to reach.
Jesus Sees The Person…Will You?
But why did he do it? He did it for us because he loved
us and he could see us-really see us.
Everyone looked at this man and saw a wreck. Homeless. Out
of control. Violent. Unholy. But Jesus saw that inside that rotten man was
someone worth saving. From the trash heap of this man’s life, Jesus knew there
was someone worth saving. Someone whose life, if redeemed, would change the
face of eternity.
C. S. Lewis once said: “It is a serious thing…to remember
that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a
creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or
else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a
nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or
other of these destinations … There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never
talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are
mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals
whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or
everlasting splendours.”[2]
We were all made in the image of God, but it is a failed,
distorted image. But Jesus sees that when we are re-made in the image of
Christ, we can be the people we were meant to be, not just the be people we
have become. He saw that and gave this man hope. Do we see the people
around us? Or do we see problems? Or do we see resources?
I think that up to this point, the man had lived in fear of
demon. Up until this day, the spirits to whom he had opened the door of his
life were the most powerful that he knew. But somewhere inside that naked,
violent, vile, out-of-control man was someone desperate for hope—but paralyzed
by fear.
Then something happened: the demon was afraid. Twice during
the conversation, the demon begged Jesus
not to hurt them (vs. 28, 31). The man was afraid of the demon, but the demon
was afraid of Jesus. And that Jesus was reaching out to help.
Right now, we are living below our potential in Christ
because fears rule us. But think…everything we are afraid of is afraid of
Jesus. And fortunately, Jesus is more powerful and more loving that our
fears. So replace what you are afraid of with the One who loves you. He doesn’t
worry about who you are or what you have done—he worries about where you are
going. He knows the heavy burden you bear, but you bear it unnecessarily. His
yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Look around you, Folsom Community Church, at a
community bearing the burden of fear, yearning desperately for hope, flailing
blindly in the vain hope that the American dream will save them, when only
Jesus can. Can you see?
Jesus Breaks Down Barriers…Will You?
Strangely enough, in this story, there is one obstacle that
Jesus himself could not overcome.
The demons rush out at Jesus command into the herd of pigs
nearby and the pigs promptly commit suicide of the edge of a cliff into the Sea
of Galilee. The people from the town hear about it and come out to see for
themselves the pig mass-murderer. One man. Thousand dead pigs. There’s the
former naked wild man, dressed and sane. But the pigs! Sure the guy seems ok.
But the pigs! Sayang ang lechon! So
they ask Jesus to leave (kind of like the reaction of the demons). Jesus was
too scary for them.
Jesus could reach the man, but Jesus could not reach them.
But watch what happens next:
38The man from whom the
demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away,
saying, 39“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done
for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much
Jesus had done for him.
Jesus could not reach them, but that man could. And Jesus
can’t reach Folsom, but we can. We can proclaim throughout the whole city how
much Jesus has done for us. I’m guessing he’s done something for you, or else
you wouldn’t be using up your Sunday afternoon.
Jesus told his followers this same lesson shortly before he
died, when he said:
12I tell you the truth,
anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even
greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. – John
14:12
I’m sorry, but Jesus
couldn’t be here in Folsom today. Instead he left Mary, Max, Brian, Tito,
Vergie, John and the rest of us to do his work because he knew that, with some
help, we could do the job, even a better job. Look what Jesus said next:
13And I will do whatever
you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 16And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever-the Spirit of truth…
Conclusion
Maybe you’ve heard the proverb: “Give a man a fish, feed a
man for a day. Teach a man to fish feed him for the rest of his life.” But
there’s another one: “Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a
man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”[3]
You may laugh, but there is some truth to this. God doesn’t
just want to build us a fire, he wants to light us on fire for him—ablaze for
the rest of our eternal life. Because our life was not designed to be maintained,
our life was designed to be spent for God.
24Those who want to save [preserve/maintain] their lives will give up true life. But those who give up [spend] their lives for me will have true life
– Luke 9:24
Jesus saw the man. He cared. He moved. Can we see? I can’t.
[Picture 1]: All of
Folsom. I know, in my mind, that the 400,000 people within 25 miles of this
spot are hurting and crying and dying without Jesus. But somehow, I can’t see
it. But that picture is made up of so many individual lives [Picture 2]: One house (Beardsen Ct.)
I drive here almost every day. Why don’t I care? Why don’t I
move? Am I the only one? Next Saturday, 10:30am I will be up here at the water
tank on top of this hill to pray. It is as close as I can get to the view that
God has of Folsom. And I am going to beg him to let me have his heart for
people here. Frankly, I am afraid of what I will see and feel and have to do. https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.652346,-121.105932&spn=0.005698,0.012392&t=h&z=17
Jesus crushed every barrier. No excuses. My excuses are for
my convenience, but convenience is not in God’s vocabulary when it comes to
rescuing people’s souls for eternity. There are people I don’t talk to because
I don’t like them, or they aren’t my type of person. How about you? Am I the
only one?
Jesus sees the future for you. He has put you in this time
and place. We could spend all of our time wishing we could leave (just like the
man) or wishing our circumstances are different. And, in doing so, we miss
seeing the reason God put us here. I am not here by accident. I am not with you
by accident. Can we commit to find out
what that reason is, together?
Jesus took a detour for you. Maybe today, fear is holding
you back. But God is bigger than your fears, and certainly Jesus is more
living.
Jesus took a detour for you. Now, will you take a detour
with him for others? He was a gate-crasher, a detour-taker, a barrier breaker,
a risk-mismanagement-through-the-storm, take-on-your-cross sort of guy. Will
you be one, too?
No excuses.
[1]
Texas Man Finds Stolen Car 42 Years Later, ALON HARISH, ABC News (Jul 11,
2012), retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/texas-man-finds-stolen-car-42-years-later-203003133--abc-news-topstories.html
on July 12, 2012
[2]
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
[3]
Terry Pratchett, Jingo (1997), p. 181
