Some people receive the Good News with heartfelt appreciation. They hear of the reality of Jesus, they respond by looking for and to Him, and they subsequently find the presence of Jesus. Then, washing their sin forever away in repentance, they enter the Kingdom of God and begin to live new lives of freedom, victory and forgiveness. Best of all, that blessing does not stay solely with them, but spreads to all in their circle of influence, and many are made glad.
But some do not receive the Good News with appreciation. Some see its impact on their community and think only of a temporary downside. Or they see in the need for repentance only their own humiliation before others. They are so selfish and self-absorbed they cannot grasp that some in their community are desperate for the things of God.
As Matthew 8 ends, the people of Gadarenes are pleading with Jesus to leave the area. They have seen Jesus heal the demon-possessed, but at a cost to them that they are not willing to bear. After watching an entire herd of pigs drown, they conclude that allowing Jesus to stay and minister might hinder the lifestyle of most. They ask in the strongest of terms that He leave. What follows is perhaps one of the saddest things in all Scripture. As the NLT puts it, “Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town.”
Jesus leaves. He was urged to leave by the people of the town, and he left. The presence of God moves away, and the people of Gadarenes are left without Him, just as they asked.
It isn’t the first time we read of God leaving. Ezekiel 9-10 tells the same story. Except back then, it wasn’t a Gentile community that sent Him away. It was the people of Israel. They had so grieved God through repeated sin that His Spirit departed from His own temple. What could be sadder than that? That your God – the one who made you with an eternal future of blessing in mind – leaves. Worse, He leaves not by His own desire but is actually driven away, and that by your own foolishness? Wow.
The sadder thing is their loss is not limited to themselves. The people of the community around them all suffer too. Consequently, those who send God away will reap not only the fate of their own foolishness, but also God’s immeasurable anger at the incalculable loss they caused to others.
We all know that following God costs us. But know this for sure: The cost of selfishness is always far greater, and far wider, than the cost of discipleship.
But sin, having intervened to separate man from God, has caused man to turn his back upon God, and to contrive to live without any sort of acquaintance with him.
Henry D.M.S. Jones
APPLICATION: Intentionality
So great is our need for mercy! “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!” (Heb 3:7b-8a)