Luke 8:26-39
"Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear" (Luke 8:37)
Here's a tough word about Jesus: He will always trade in livelihood for life. This is precisely what we learn in today's story about healing the man with many demons. Jesus comes across this man who has been besieged by "Legion" and now lives apart from his family, friends, and community. He rattles about each day in the land of the dead, the tombs. We fully expect our loving, compassionate Jesus to heal this man and even rejoice when He does. However, in healing him, Jesus sends Legion into a herd of swine and those swine run off a cliff and into the water to drown and die. This is a remarkable loss to those owners of the pigs. Their livelihood is dependent upon the raising, slaughter, and sale of these swine. It would almost appear that Jesus doesn't care about this. The people rush to Him, they complain to Him, and when He doesn't respond, they become afraid. In their hurry to worry about themselves, they don't pay any attention to the formerly-possessed man who is now sitting there "clothed and in his right mind" (8:35). This is why Jesus has to send him back into town - back amongst the living and no longer with the dead - to pronounce for them all that God has done for him.
Learning that Jesus will always trade in livelihood for life is a tough word. Yet a tougher word remains for us: Jesus will honor our requests that He leave our midst. Notice that Jesus doesn't make a defense for Himself. He doesn't try to remind this community that one of their brothers has now been returned to them, whole and healthy. He is told to leave and He goes.
In our own discipleship of Jesus Christ, there are plenty of opportunities for us to tell Jesus to get out. And many of these opportunities arise when we suspect that He is a dangerous Lord who will trade in livelihood for life. As such, if we are to truly and honestly and earnestly follow this Jesus, it will have to involve following Him even when it scares us. We will have to learn to look for where Jesus is giving Life (even in the literal midst of death! Death of pigs. Death of the tombs. Death of this possessed man's former life).
This is why we keep inviting you to do missions work. We want you to catch a glimpse of Jesus giving others Life. Only seeing this will give you peace and security when Jesus threatens your own livelihood. Is this devotion a precursor to our upcoming stewardship campaign? Maybe. Maybe my meetings and praying and prepping for stewardship have made me sensitive to this reality. But if this is the case, then it is a good reminder for all of us that we must be more interested in where Jesus is giving life than in where we are making a livelihood. This is the only antidote for the fear we will feel when our Savior comes stomping into our lives.
