First I want to say that the title of this post is completely plagiarized from today's sermon. This morning in church, our guest speaker talked about what he called "the most bizarre story in the bible." He was referring to the story in Mark ch 5 about the guy who was full of demons that Jesus cast out into the herd of swine. Well, I wasn't too sure about that being the most bizarre. There are TONS of strange things in the bible (Elisha and the floating axe head, Balaam holding a conversation with a talking donkey, the sun holding still for Gideon, huge walls falling down when a big group of people marched around them singing and blowing trumpets, etc). The funny thing is that I've read/heard these stories SO many times, they've sorta become...just stories that I accept without batting an eye or having a second thought.
SO, Rick (guest speaker) starts talking about how this guy in the story has been wandering naked among the tombs, how he can't be bound by shackles or chains, and how he spends his days crying and cutting himself with shards and rocks. Not normal behavior by any means. What in the world brings a person to that point?? What kind of life did he have prior to his current existence? I bet he wasn't much different from most people before Legion decided to move in. Anyway, you can bet this guy was one hurting unit in desperate need of a Savior.
This is where it becomes awesome. Jesus and His followers arrived to that particular area on a boat, and the possessed man RAN TOWARD HIM AND BEGAN TO WORSHIP! Just remember that it was the demons in him who were doing this (which I think is...awesome). Demons get cast out into the herd of pigs, pigs run off the cliff into the sea, and the man who had been possessed is now of a sound mind, dressed, and speaking normally. The story goes on from there, but here's what I found really cool. After sending the man back to spread word among his town/friends, Jesus gets back into the boat and crosses back over to the other side. He came all the way over to one shore, healed and saved this hurting man, sent him out to witness, and then got back in His boat and returned to the other shore.
How close is that to what He has done in every Christian's life? I was a hurting and miserable person without Him...and He knew where to find me. He called me, woke my heart to Him, and gave me Grace abounding. It doesn't matter where any of us are...Christ can meet us there. I'm definitely a member (though not proud of it) of the Million-Sins-Committed Club, but still He loves me and forgives me. Amazing. It's also very convicting to me that He told the man "Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and that He has had compassion on you." In other words...we shouldn't just take our salvation and keep in quiet and to ourselves.
Anyway, this has been an inadequate summary of an amazing bible passage that I had overlooked till now, but I hope I made some sort of sense.
