When I was a child, and we played games at school, there was always someone called ’The Boss.’ Every game needed a boss. The boss’ job was important – he (or she) got to choose which game we’d play, what the rules were, and could decide who could or couldn’t play. It was important to be nice to the boss, because they could stop you from playing the game, and you’d have to find somebody else to play with.
The interesting thing was deciding who would be boss. More often than not it would be whoever wanted to start a particular game. They’d go around the school yard, asking different people if they wanted to come and play. So the boss was usually the person who got the game going.
Sometimes, though, the job would go to someone who had the important piece of equipment. So if you wanted to play cricket, you had to find someone with a cricket bat, and they’d always make it a condition of play that they could be the boss. And you had to oblige. What good is a game of cricket without a bat?
Sometimes there would be a fight over who was boss. It could end in several ways – a fight, or more usually, one of the contenders would walk off and start their own game. It was always a case of who had the authority, and there could only ever be one winner.
This is the same situation here in the Book of Mark. Jesus had come to earth, but Satan wasn’t happy. Jesus had already told Satan that he didn’t want him as boss. Now Jesus starts acting like he’s the boss!
This section of the Book of Mark has three different stories which show how Jesus makes his presence felt. If you have your Bibles, I’d like you to turn to these while I explain what I mean.
First, in 4:35 we see the story of Jesus calming the storm. Jesus and the disciples are in a boat. Jesus is asleep when a storm blows up. The disciples – seasoned fishermen, for the most part – start to panic, because they think they are about to sink. I don’t know about you, but if experienced seafarers start to panic in that situation, I’m pretty sure that I’d be worried too! They wake Jesus up, and he commands the storm to be silent. It is, and we are told that the disciples were amazed, and they asked who it was that could control the weather.
In 5:21 we see another miracle of Jesus. A young girl, whose father is an important member of the local synagogue becomes seriously ill. Jesus is asked to come and heal her. When he arrives, he finds the girl has died. At his command, though, she is revived. Again, the crowd is astonished.
And then there is the story, beginning at 5:1, in which a demon-possessed Gentile is healed from his affliction. We read the same thing at the end – the people are amazed at what had happened.
What do we make of all of this? Jesus calms a storm, and astonishes the disciples. He heals a man suffering intense spiritual attack, and the crowds are amazed. He raises a dead girl back to life, and astonishes more people yet. Do you see a pattern forming?
This was more than just trying to please a crowd, however. In each case Jesus was showing the people not what he could do, but who he was. Jesus had control over the weather. In the time that the New Testament was written, it was generally believed that the weather – especially around large bodies of water – were controlled by the forces of evil. When Jesus calmed the storm, he wasn’t just stopping a severe case of sea-sickness in the disciples. He was telling Satan who’s boss.
When Jesus healed the demon possessed man, he was doing more than just helping out a man who needed his help. He was saying to the demons, ’Look who’s boss now!’
When Jesus raised the girl from the dead, he wasn’t just showing off. Satan’s greatest achievement was bringing death into the world, but even that was nothing to Jesus. In effect, Jesus was putting Satan on notice. In 1:13 Jesus is tempted by Satan, to no avail. In 3:20-30 we see how Jesus responds to the charge that he is in fact an agent of Satan. No, says Jesus. I am destroying Satan’s kingdom. Satan was in charge of the schoolyard here. But look out Satan. There’s a new kid in school.
What does this mean for us?
Let’s briefly look at the most obvious brush with the forces of Satan in the material we’ve looked at – the episode with the man from Gerasa.
It’s hard to say what we would make of this man today. How would we see him? He lived in a cemetery, ran around naked, and apparently made a big nuisance of himself. He suffered all sorts of torment, and inflicted serious damage on himself. We would call him mentally ill, and we would have no qualms in having him committed to a mental institution.
Even as mental patients go, this man was trouble. If he had no trouble breaking his chains, why would we think that he could be confined to a hospital? I guess the people in the nearby villages figured that if they left him alone, they’d be reasonably safe. As long as he stayed down in the cemetery, he couldn’t hurt anyone.
And then Jesus comes along. Now Jesus had actually come over this side of the lake to get away from all the demands of ministry. He’d been preaching and teaching, and 4:36 would imply that they left to escape some of the pressures facing him there. Yet on the way he has to put up with a jolly big storm, winging disciples, and when he finally gets to the other side, this poor, tormented soul comes and starts on him.
What a holiday! I would have been very tempted to turn around and leave! But not Jesus. He gives this man the thing he needs most – deliverance from the demons. And it gives him another chance to put Satan properly in his place.
I want to look at the reactions everyone had.
*The Townsfolk.*
It’s easy to condemn the townsfolk for their callous attitude. But think for a moment how this affected them.
They had put up with this man for years. They may have had to protect themselves from him. They couldn’t easily tend the graves of their relatives. They probably had to care for his family.
Then this Jewish man appears, and heals the man, destroying a huge herd of pigs in the process. How would you feel? This man was Jewish, clearly powerful, and probably ruined some hard working farmer.
On the other hand, their attitudes weren’t all that great. They valued somebody’s commercial interests over somebody’s mental and spiritual health. And they were scared of the power of the Son of God. Even in the face of such an act of power, they rejected Jesus. They preferred the Lordship of Satan to the Lordship of Christ.
Some of you may have read in the paper recently about a lady who had a lot of trouble accessing suitable professional help for her drug addiction. She was so disappointed with the services on offer she decided to set up her own rehabilitation clinic. To get things started, she has asked people to sign a petition to show support for this initiative. I went in to my local milk bar on Friday, and this petition was on the counter. I had a look at it, and signed it. I’m not too sure how she intends running this service, but I am quite sure that a service like the one she is proposing is needed. I was a bit surprised to see that my signature was the first one on it. The lady behind the counter looked surprised that I had signed it, and said that a lot of people refused to sign it, because they didn’t want to have anything to do with drugs. I thought that seemed a bit funny. There’s a big drug problem in Portland, and somebody finally wants to do something about it. Yet the town doesn’t want to know.
Last night I went in there again. One more signature had been added to the list. But somebody else had scribbled on the bottom, ’I hope you all die from your self inflicted problems.’
That upset me. Really upset me. And I couldn’t help thinking how that attitude seemed so similar to the attitude to the people who lived in this town.
They wanted something done about this man. But the moment somebody did it, they didn’t want to know. Even though Jesus had won in the heart of one man, fighting against 6000 demons, Satan won a victory when those people sent Jesus on his way.
*The Man formerly known as Legion.*
This man showed a different attitude. He was certainly grateful for what had happened. He wanted to follow Jesus. In this case, following Jesus meant staying home. His job was to simply tell what God had done for him in the region in which he lived. And in so doing, he amazed many people.
This man displayed the most important attribute of being under Jesus’ Lordship – obedience. He obeyed Jesus. It is no good saying Jesus is your Lord if you don’t do what he says. Taking Jesus as Lord means allowing him to control your life. It means submitting to his authority. It means doing as you are told, even when you don’t want to.
*Conclusion*
Now we have the choice of masters. We can be like the townsfolk, and have Satan as our master. Now I’m sure they didn’t think that Satan was their master. They were good, upright people. They were decent folk. They certainly weren’t Satan worshippers, or anything like that. Yet deep down, they preferred the Lordship of Satan to the Lordship of Christ. Maybe some changed their mind later on, when this man told them what Jesus had done. Who knows?
We can be like the man. We aren’t even told his name. The only name we have is the name of the demon(s) that afflicted him. But we know that Jesus cancelled out the power of Satan in his life, and Satan left him. Jesus took control. He did as he was told.
Which are you? We all have some idea what Jesus requires of us. For some, it may mean giving up certain attitudes, just like the townsfolk here. Jesus may have a very specific job for others to do. Maybe he wants you to be praying for something, or somebody. Maybe he wants you to tell somebody what he has done for you. I don’t know what he wants you to do. But I do know that if you don’t do as you are told, you are submitting to the Lordship of Satan. But as we have seen in these few stories, Jesus ends up winning. Jesus’ side is a difficult one to be on. But it’s one he wants you on. The choice is yours to make.
