In today’s Scripture we find Jesus in the country of Gerasenes, where He encounters a man possessed by many demons. I think this guy would have probably been a frightening site, he ran around the tombs naked and cut himself with stones, we are told that when they tried to chain or shackle him he broke the restraints and that no-one could subdue him. It seemed that this guy was hopeless. But let me tell you something, he hadn’t met Jesus, things were about to change and pigs were about to fly.
Read verse 6-20
So we know Jesus was in a land full of gentiles or those pigs wouldn’t have been around, I would guess none of the folks around there knew much about Jesus. But one thing was for certain Legion knew who He was, the man that was possessed by the demons may not have known Jesus, but the demons who possessed him certainly did, they even bowed before Him.
Now when the folks in the region found out about Jesus and those flying pigs and they saw the demonic sitting with Jesus clothed and in His right mind they wanted Jesus to leave. Can you imagine anyone who had just seen or heard of the Miracle that Jesus had just accomplished asking Him to leave? Me either but think about it, they had just lost a big part of their livelihood with that herd of pigs and probably didn’t want to lose anything else. Or maybe they were just afraid that they might have an encounter with this Galilean themselves. Cause you know what? People are scared when Jesus starts moving, that’s right, people get a little nervous when Jesus shows up and starts showing out. We beg the question sometimes ourselves “Jesus, what business do we have with each other?” Jesus makes us uncomfortable sometimes and we don’t like it. We cry out to Him sometimes “what do you want with me?”
Let me tell you what business Jesus has with us;
Salvation, Freedom, Joy, Happiness, Eternal Life, all of these things are Jesus’ business with us. When we accept the salvation that has been offered to us we begin to experience a freedom, joy and happiness like we never had before and we begin to look forward to our eternal home with a much different outlook.
We aren’t much different than the man that had legion living inside, oh we like to think we aren’t like him but we are more similar than we like to admit. He was possessed by demons that didn’t want to leave his body and we have things in our heart that just won’t let go. We have things in our hearts and minds that just don’t want to leave. Things of the world come in and set up shop and then it’s hard to get rid of them. The longer they stay the deeper the roots and the deeper the roots the harder they are to remove. But we must get rid of all the worldly things rooted in our hearts but we cannot do it alone. We need to let Jesus in our hearts and let Him take care of business, let Him get rid of the guilt and the shame. We can’t be free until we are set free by our savior. We just gotta let Him in.
Jesus is ready and waiting we just need to meet Him and let Him take care of business. Rev.3:20 says “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and He with Me. Jesus is standing at the door knocking we just need to let Him in so that He can drive out all those things that have taken such deep root in our hearts
Now when our hearts get clean and empty we must fill the gap that is left behind, and it needs to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We all have it if we are Christians but we must learn to harness its power in order to keep our hearts clean. Here’s one reason why we need to keep the Holy Spirit in our hearts Luke 11:24-27 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
If we want to find true happiness and peace we must have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We must let Him clean our hearts and help us focus our minds if we truly want to experience freedom.
