Restoration – Radical Discipleship Part II

Sermon Title: Restored: Returning Home

Good News Statement: God restores us for a Home in Glory

Preached: Sunday, January 16, 2022 at Dogwood Prairie and Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): Mark 5:1-20 Today’s scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter five verses one thru twenty. Listen to the words of the Apostle Mark…

Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac

5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ³ He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain; ⁴ for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; ⁷ and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” ¹⁰ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herds, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. ¹⁷ Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood.

¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, Amen.

 

Introduction:

          A preacher, who shall we say was “humor inspired”, attended a conference to help encourage and better equip pastors for their ministry. Among the speakers were many well-known and dynamic speakers.

            One such speaker, boldly approached the pulpit, gathered the entire crowd’s attention, and said, “the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn’t my wife!” The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, “And that woman was my mother!” The crowd burst into laughter and he delivered the rest of his speech, which went quite well.

           The next week, the pastor decided he’d give this humor thing a try, and used that joke in his sermon. As he approached the pulpit that sunny Sunday morning, he tried to rehearse this joke in his head. It suddenly seemed a bit foggy to him.

            Getting to the microphone, he said loudly, “The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!” The congregation inhaled half the air in the room! After standing there for almost 10 seconds in stunned silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurred out, “…and I can’t remember who she was!”

Have you ever tried to remember who someone was but then are unable to come up with a name or physical description of that person? Have you ever run into someone at the grocery store who knew you but you didn’t know them? (I got this quite a bit when I first moved here. People would come up to me and say, “You’re the new pastor in town who preaches at Dogwood and Seed. I would say, “Yes, I am!” But then I thought, what are my congregations saying about me that is travelling through the whole town so quickly?) Have you ever looked at a picture of someone and simply said, “I should know them. But their name escapes me at the moment.” If you said yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Your pastor has been in those situations many times in his life and so have others! And he has been on the other end of these types of situations as well.

My point is that there are people in our lives that we knew in the past but have a difficult time remembering them in the future. Whether this is because we haven’t seen them in some time or haven’t reached out to them or they have changed drastically or simply because we really had nothing to do with them or we fall in line with what scholars say, “That the average human being can only remember 200 names at a given time”, we know of them but we really don’t remember them. The demon-possessed man or demoniac according to Mark has changed: he has become something that resembles the ways and means of an untamable animal, living outside the city walls, feeding off of what people bring to the tombs to honor their dead, and wearing torn clothes and broken chains around his wrists and ankles. This man is someone the townspeople knew, but they have chosen to ignore him because he has changed into something they don’t remember him being. The demon-possessed man is our reminder that God restores us so that we will be remembered. To be a radical disciple, we must be willing to experience restoration in our own lives.

Opening Prayer:

            Let us pray…Dear Lord, Jesus, you alone have the ability to know everyone; past, present, and future. Lord, we pray that you grant us with the ability to remember a fraction of those who you put before us. And Lord, help us to remember these people for who they are and not for what they have become.  I pray that my words fall to the ground as your words settle in the hearts of all those before me. In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Body:

Last week, we looked at the story of the Paralyzed Man from the Gospel of Mark and I asked you “Have you ever felt paralyzed?” Have you ever felt as if something is weighing you down so much that you can hardly move? After asking you this question, we analyzed the story of the Paralyzed Man and found out that Jesus has the amazing power to redeem us, to save us, to set us free from our past so that we can live a better tomorrow. And when we surrender all to Jesus to gain a better tomorrow, we find ourselves on the path of becoming a radical disciple. A radical disciple is one who seeks transformation in the here and now so that everyone has the opportunity to experience God’s unending love and amazing grace wherever they are in life.

Needless to say, in order to become a radical disciple, based upon the story of the Paralyzed Man, we must be willing to let Jesus save us, redeem us, and set us free, to courageously seek transformation in our world today, to help others get to Jesus, to make sure our faith is filled with works; and to allow Jesus to remove whatever is making us feel paralyzed in this life. God sets us free for a better tomorrow. In addition to these items, Mark introduces us to another level of what it means to become a radical disciple: we must seek to be restored by Jesus.

This particular story of the demon-possessed man articulates the meaning of restoration. The story begins with Jesus getting out of a boat in a region near the Sea of Galilee. Prior to this story, Jesus calmed the stormy weather after his disciples woke him up from his much needed sleep. So after a night of battling storms and calming the sea, Jesus as well as the disciples are ready to set foot on solid ground. Immediately after getting out of the boat, “a man with an unclean spirit from the tombs meets him” (Mark 5:2). We learn later on that this man has some sort of knowledge about who Jesus is when he says, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God” (Mark 5:7).

This man doesn’t come to Jesus wearing the finest linen or even wearing sandals or even gathered with others. As a matter of fact, this man comes to Jesus alone because he has been exiled by his own village, he comes to Jesus with broken chains and shackles around his wrists and ankles, with bruises and scars all over his body which are remnants from his own actions (Mark 5:5), and he comes to Jesus wearing nothing but torn, ragged, smelly, and filthy clothes. Luke states, “For a long time this man had not worn clothes…” (Luke 8:27). On top of all this, this man comes before Jesus with many demons inside of him. Simply put this tormented, tomb resident, demon-possessed man, comes before Jesus from what David writes in Psalm 23, “The valley of the shadow of death.” This man is far from perfect. But yet, Jesus doesn’t leave him to rot in the tombs. Jesus chooses to restore this demon-possessed man—a man that for some was too weighed down by the past to be restored. Jesus restored this man and he can restore you.

Just within the opening few verses of this text, we receive a glimpse of how powerful Jesus can be when we put are full faith in his works. I can’t speak for everyone here in terms if you can relate to this demon-possessed man. You may not have been demon-possessed, but maybe you have found yourself in the valley of the shadow of death. Within my own life, I have felt like this man: exiled, hurting, crying out for help, wanting to know why all this happened to me, not knowing if things would ever turn around, not knowing if Jesus would get out of the boat to restore me, having chains and shackles at my feet. Have any of you ever felt like the demon-possessed man? Do you know of anyone in your life that carries the same characteristics or descriptions of this man? If you do, then what are you doing to help free them or yourself from pain and suffering?

After falling on his knees and worshipping Jesus, the Son of the Most High God, simply says, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit” (Mark 5:8). It is not until verse 13 when the legions of demons leave the man and enter into the herd of two-thousand swine that just so happen to be in the field nearby. Before the demons leave the man and before the herd of swine rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned, Jesus asked this question, “What is your name?” Notice, Jesus doesn’t ask, “Where did you come from? Why are you out here living in the tombs?” No, Jesus asks, “What is your name?” Now, for many scholars this question is perplexing because they don’t know who or what actually answered the question: is the man’s name Legion? or is the unclean spirit named Legion? If the unclean spirit was named Legion, then why would Jesus be taking the time to get to know something that is constantly fighting against him? If the man’s name is Legion, then could Jesus be hinting at the notion that this man is more than what the village describes him to be; an untamable animal? Knowing who or what is named Legion is important to the story. But what is more important to the story is that Jesus sees us for who we are and not for what others see us as. Jesus knows how to restore us, but we have to be willing to answer his questions. So if Jesus asked you, “What is your name,” what would you say? We answer to a lot of different names in our life, but what name will be used when Jesus calls upon you or even when Jesus restores your life?

After restoring the demon-possessed man and watching two-thousand swine drown in the sea, Jesus is begged by the townspeople to live. The text reads, “They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood” (Mark 5:15-17). Luke writes in chapter eight, “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). The townspeople were seized with great fear. A stranger has entered their town, destroyed the swine—possibly a source of income for the people—and has restored a man who was exiled from the town. The townspeople were seized with great fear because a stranger disrupted their lives. This stranger, the Son of the Most High God, did something that no one else could do: he restored the life of someone who was once forgotten and living in the valley of the shadow of death.

Jesus accepted the townspeople’s request and got into the boat. But he refused the request of the restored man who begged him that “he might be with him” (Mark 5:19). Has Jesus ever refused your request? What did you do when he refused? The restored man simply accepts this request and now becomes a vessel for spreading the good news in a region that is seized with great fear. Jesus said to the man, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” (Mark 5:19). Would you have the strength and courage, after having your request denied by Jesus, to listen to and follow Jesus’ command? Sometimes in life what we want and desire is not what Jesus wants or desires from us. Sometimes we have to be restored from our own situation before we can fully embrace a life in Christ.

Conclusion:

The demon-possessed man, who lived in the tombs and was shackled and chained repeatedly throughout his life and who was tormented by a legion of unclean spirits, found faith simply by presenting himself to Jesus, the stranger in a foreign land who just got out of a boat and who was begged to leave. “They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion…” (Mark 5:15). If Jesus can restore someone like this, then imagine how he can restore your life!

To be a radical disciple—in addition to putting others first, seeking out Jesus, and finding transformation—is to let Jesus restore your life; to let Jesus restore your hope and trust; and to let Jesus restore your faith. If you aren’t willing to be restored, then there isn’t any room in your heart for transformation. If there isn’t any room in heart for transformation, then there isn’t any room in your current discipleship for experiencing God’s desires for your life. The story of the demon-possessed man, although focuses on the restoration of one man, is story that speaks to a legion of followers: followers of Jesus Christ who need to be restored from something in their own life. Followers like you and me.

Thinking back to the idea of not being able to remember names or certain people in our life, I ask you today, “Do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered for who you used to be or for the person that you are striving to be? How do you want to be remembered?” It’s time to run to Jesus, before he gets back on the boat, and beg him to restore your life so that you can become the radical disciple that his Kingdom needs you to be. (As Andy Griffith famously said, “I firmly believe that in every situation, no matter how difficult, God extends grace greater than the hardship, and strength and peace of mind that can lead us to a place higher than where we were before.”) Jesus brought the demon-possessed man out of the tombs and placed him with his people. Jesus restored this man; and Jesus can restore you. Are you ready to be restored?

 

Closing Prayer:

            Let us Pray… Dear Lord, Jesus, I pray that you restore all of us: restore our life, restore our hope and trust, restore our faith, and restore our love so that we can be the radical disciples that you need us to be. Help us all to become restored so that we can proclaim the good news to all of your creation. In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Benediction:

As you pray to Jesus and ask him to restore your life, I encourage you to let Jesus restore your life. Let Jesus guide your faith, your compassion, and your purpose in life. Let Jesus restore you so that you will always be remembered. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, go, transforming lives as you live well and wisely in God’s world. Amen. Amen. Amen.