Where Would You Not Go?
Read Mark 5:1-20.
Where would you not want to go to share the good news about Jesus? I have lived in or near some places that a lot of people would not want to go. When we were in college, we worked for one summer on the west side of Chicago, where drug deals and murders regularly took place about a block from where we lived. Three people were killed there in one weekend. (We did not share this with folks back home until we were back home!) It was a dark place, and not a place a lot of folks wanted to go. I've been to the hills of eastern Kentucky, where poverty is king and there are no "perks" (or cell service) for living there. Superstition co-exists with faith, and nice houses are few and far between. And I lived next to a city where I was told "you shouldn't go" because the streets were so dangerous. Certainly, I was told, don't go there after dark!
Where would you not want to go to share the good news about Jesus?
In Jesus' day, the place good Jews did not go was the area of the Decapolis (or "ten cities"), the region of the Gerasenes. It was the place where the Gentiles lived (as evidenced by the presence of the unclean pigs), the place where (it was said) demons lived, the place where you would not want to be caught after dark. It was "the other side of the tracks" (or the lake). Those people were lost. There was no hope for them. Just stay away from there.
And most everyone did. But not Jesus. Don't you think the disciples wondered what in the world he was doing when they docked the boat on the "other side"? Being good Jews themselves, they had never been here and never planned to be here. There was no point in sharing the good news with "those people." They wouldn't listen anyway. They ate bacon, for heaven's sake! And yet Jesus crosses the lake and comes to this place to find one single person: a man who called himself Legion, for he was full of many demons.
There isn't anywhere Jesus won't go to find one lost soul who is longing to be healed. There isn't anything he wouldn't do to reach your heart. There isn't any expense he wouldn't spare to make you whole. Jesus would battle the storms and cross the lake for you—just for you.
There may be places we wouldn't go, areas we don't trust, areas that inspire fear in us—but there isn't anything Jesus wouldn't do or go for you and for me. Thanks be to God!
Where would you not want to go to share the good news about Jesus? I have lived in or near some places that a lot of people would not want to go. When we were in college, we worked for one summer on the west side of Chicago, where drug deals and murders regularly took place about a block from where we lived. Three people were killed there in one weekend. (We did not share this with folks back home until we were back home!) It was a dark place, and not a place a lot of folks wanted to go. I've been to the hills of eastern Kentucky, where poverty is king and there are no "perks" (or cell service) for living there. Superstition co-exists with faith, and nice houses are few and far between. And I lived next to a city where I was told "you shouldn't go" because the streets were so dangerous. Certainly, I was told, don't go there after dark!
Where would you not want to go to share the good news about Jesus?
In Jesus' day, the place good Jews did not go was the area of the Decapolis (or "ten cities"), the region of the Gerasenes. It was the place where the Gentiles lived (as evidenced by the presence of the unclean pigs), the place where (it was said) demons lived, the place where you would not want to be caught after dark. It was "the other side of the tracks" (or the lake). Those people were lost. There was no hope for them. Just stay away from there.
And most everyone did. But not Jesus. Don't you think the disciples wondered what in the world he was doing when they docked the boat on the "other side"? Being good Jews themselves, they had never been here and never planned to be here. There was no point in sharing the good news with "those people." They wouldn't listen anyway. They ate bacon, for heaven's sake! And yet Jesus crosses the lake and comes to this place to find one single person: a man who called himself Legion, for he was full of many demons.
There isn't anywhere Jesus won't go to find one lost soul who is longing to be healed. There isn't anything he wouldn't do to reach your heart. There isn't any expense he wouldn't spare to make you whole. Jesus would battle the storms and cross the lake for you—just for you.
There may be places we wouldn't go, areas we don't trust, areas that inspire fear in us—but there isn't anything Jesus wouldn't do or go for you and for me. Thanks be to God!
So, so true! He loves each and every one of us so much.
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