Some of Tim's Sermons

Location, location, location.

In our summer sermon series we have been exploring different encounters that people had with Jesus in different locations, and the importance of those locations to that encounter. A couple of weeks ago Jesus was at the pool, asking a man who had been disabled for at least 38 years if he wanted to get well. Last week Jesus was at the beach, calling some youngsters away from the fishing boats to fish for people.

Pool. Beach. So far, so summer.

This week our location is a little bit less holiday themed. Jesus is in a graveyard. Not a very common holiday destination, unless, like my parents, you’re into your family tree research, and want to see the details on the gravestone of some great-great uncle.

But, even before we get to the actual graveyard, there are some more details of this location that are important for us to notice.

In verse 1 we heard that they “went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.” That first bit is important. “They went across the lake”. This was a place away from their homes, their normal work place, the place that Jesus had been ministering to up to now. It was foreign territory.

What was this foreign territory? It was the region of the Gerasenes. To be honest, nobody is really sure where this was, or indeed what it was actually called – as you’ll see from the footnotes in your Bible. To get a bit more of a fix on where it was we need to look to the last verse of the passage where we’re told, having been told to go home, the man went to the “Decapolis”. And we do know where that was.

The word Decapolis means “The Ten Towns” in Greek, and not surprisingly, there were ten towns in this region, mostly to the east of the sea of Galillee. Whilst there were Jewish people living there, it was a centre of Greek and Roman culture, and was largely Gentile.

Even if we didn’t know this from other historical records of the time, there are a couple of pretty big clues here in the text. Firstly, it’s known by a Greek name, and secondly, they were keeping pigs in the vicinity, which are not permitted to be eaten in the Jewish dietary laws, so there must have been enough Gentiles around who were willing to eat pork, and to keep the pigs.

So, in summary. Jesus has taken his disciples, his friends and followers to a place they probably didn’t know well, that they hadn’t worked in before, that wasn’t Jewish, that was foreign to them. And he lands them in a graveyard.

What might be significant about this? Well, this is illustrated for us by our reading from Numbers. In this reading God is giving Moses instructions for the annual festival of the passover, remembering and celebrating God’s rescue of the people of God from slavery in Egypt. But, it says, “some of them could not celebrate … because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body.” So, God makes provision for them, and says that it is fine for them to celebrate the passover the following month instead.

This, though, is the point. The Jewish people believed that touching a dead body made you ceremonially unclean. So. How do you think that the disciples, all good Jews, felt about going into a graveyard. Not only had Jesus taken them to a place where unclean Gentiles lived, who kept unclean animals, but now he had landed them in a place where the risk of ceremonial uncleanness was high – a graveyard.

And then, to top it all off, who appears?

A man filled with unclean spirits. And I choose that word deliberately. If you look in your Bibles you will see that there is footnote that every time it has “evil spirit” in the text, there is an alternative translation of “unclean”. I think “unclean” is actually a better translation, not because I want to minimise the evil of these spirits, but because I think that Mark choose and used the word for “unclean” to echo all the other “unclean” things that are around this location.

This was a man who was permanently unclean. He lived among the tombs. He was cut off from all community. He was excluded by the thing that afflicted him, he was excluded by the fear that affliction provoked in other people, he was excluded by the pollution of the place that he lived. He was completely excluded.

But not by Jesus. Jesus wasn’t polluted – he was holy, and like the man in the White Suit, he was unstainable. He wasn’t afraid of the man’s affliction. And, most importantly Jesus had the power and authority to free the man from what afflicted him.

I wonder if you noticed how Mark emphasises the power and strength of the man.

No-one could bind him. He had been chained in the past, but he’d broken iron fetters. No-one was strong enough to subdue him.

And what was his reaction when he saw Jesus?

He knelt.

The unclean spirits recognised the power and authority of God in Jesus, calling him “Son of the Most High God.”

No human had been able to subdue this man or the spirits that afflicted him. But they knew immediately that the divine power of Jesus could and would.

Jesus restored him in body and mind, Jesus took away from him the fear and stench of death.

Rejoicing all round. Yes?

No.

Apart from the financial problem that the swine herds had, as Jesus had killed two birds with one stone by getting rid of the unclean spirits and the unclean pigs in one go, the people who heard about it were afraid of Jesus. They had been afraid of the man, but now someone even more powerful had turned up, and that made them afraid. So they begged him to leave. Which he did.

And as he goes, there is someone else begging him to do something. The man is begging Jesus to let him go with him. But this is the first request in this story that Jesus says no to. He lets the spirits go in to the pigs, and he agrees to leave the area, but he does not let the man go with him. To be honest, if it had been me, I would have done the opposite in all three situations – why complicate the matters with pigs, why leave an area where you’ve just done an amazing miracle, and why not let this newly freed man go with you? Which just goes to show that sometimes Jesus does unexpected things, and that we should listen to him.

Because what happens when the man is obedient and goes back to his home and starts telling people about what God has done for him? The people are amazed. And actually, although that was the end of today’s reading, it isn’t the end of the story.

In the next verse, verse 21, Jesus and his friends go back to their side of the lake, where there’s another story about Jesus freeing someone from an affliction of uncleanness, and then he goes home for a bit, sends our the 12 on a mission field trip, and when they get back he teaches a huge crowd and feeds at least 5,000 people.

After another couple of trips on the lake, and some conversations about what makes a person unclean, in chapter 7 v 31, we’re back in the Decapolis

“there some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him”

That is quite a big turn around, from begging him to leave because they were so afraid of his power, to begging him to place his hand on someone because they wanted his power to heal him, which Jesus did. As we go into chapter 8 we discover, in the same place that another huge crowd has gathered to hear Jesus, so many that this time he has to provide food for at least 4000 people.

So. What has changed between when Jesus left the Decapolis and when he returned? We don’t know for certain, but it seems to me to be a reasonable assumption that the main thing that had happened is that the man he had freed from the affliction of the unclean spirits had been going around telling his story.

So, what are we going to take from today’s encounter with Jesus?

Is God calling us to a place beyond where we normally go, onto foreign territory, into places that we might be uncomfortable or which don’t seem clean? Will we follow him there?

Is God sending us home to tell our story of what God has done for us? It might not be as dramatic as this one, but our stories have power. I spent some time with someone this week, and they told me their story of coming to faith, and it was so down to earth, it felt relatable, it felt real. I believe that relatable, everyday stories of God’s work in our lives are just as important as the imagination stretching ones. One type stretches our faith, the other helps us see that it can be real for us.

Do we feel chained or are we praying for those who are chained? This man had broken his physical chains, but the spiritual and mental ones were still binding him. Jesus has more power and authority to break all the chains than we can ever imagine. Let’s bow our knees before him, trust him, and walk into the freedom that he brings.