I want to thank you for reading my blog.  I feel blessed that my blog is reaching people in the USA, Singapore, Israel, Hong Kong, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Finland, China, and other foreign countries.  You are giving me a valuable gift:  your time.  I pray that you find a morsel that brings joy to your day and encourages you in your faith walk.  Celebrate each day, Mary

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NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON’T —- HIDING IN THE TOMBS

PART ONE

We made a quick, overnight stop in New Orleans on business.  The next morning, we decided to go for a short walk.  The desk clerk saw us heading toward the door and proceeded to show us where we could safely walk.  Off we went, first down one street and then another.  We went around a corner and there it was.  A cemetery! I started to cross the street when Bill said, “That is outside the safe area.”  To which I replied, “It is just across the street and you know how I like to see cemeteries.”

Full of bravado, I walked right across the street, stepped inside the walls surrounding the cemetery, and immediately turned around.  With that first step, I had seen many homeless move behind graves.  This small-town gal was smart enough to know I had no business going any further.  I also knew this cemetery was home to people who, for one reason or another, did not fit into society.  I bet every one of them had a story to tell.

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.  When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.  Mark 5:1-2

THE TOMBS:  The tombs would be outside of the cities, in desolate places, where the touch of the grave was polluting.  This man was lost to an impure spirit.  He was in a vicious circle: He was unclean for seven days because he touched graves, but he couldn’t come out of the tombs long enough to be clean.

This is where you join the story.  Use your imagination.  Picture a boat … no, not a cruise ship … a small boat and Jesus is stepping out onto the shore.  Notice that the disciples are not mentioned.  They must have stayed on the boat and missed all the excitement.

Look to your left.  Do you see an unkept man coming towards Jesus?  His clothes are tattered.  His hair unkept.  People were stepping back to let him through.  They were afraid of this man who lived in the tombs.

This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.  For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet.  No one was strong enough to subdue him.  Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.  Mark 5:3-5 NIV

Surely your heart is torn as you read about this man.  Surely questions form in your mind.  The first thing we discovered was that this man had an impure spirit.  What kind of a spirit could not be tamed by chains?  What torment this man must have been going through.  What voices did he hear that made him cry out?  What was he trying to cut out with stones?

Picture how this man lived.  He was so violent that no one could bind him.  Can you see him being held down as chains were put on his hands and irons on his feet? How frightening that must have been.  Can you see him breaking free and running away to hide? Can you see him looking up and crying into the dark sky?

This man was possessed by the devil and saw no way out.  Until he saw a man stepping off a boat.  He had heard about this man.  His name was Jesus.  The possessed man started running toward Jesus.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.  He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”      Mark 5:6-7

“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most  High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”

PART TWO NEXT WEEK