Crossing the lake

Read > Luke 8:26-39

He went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him (v. 39).

Cyndi likes to be alone. It’s not that she wouldn’t enjoy the company of others – she craves it, actually. It’s just that life is somehow less painful when she’s by herself.

Cyndi comes from that family – the fractured family with erratic hygiene, bad habits, no money, and limited social skills. She drinks hard, does drugs, and winds up with men she doesn’t really want to be with. Solitude is better. On her bad days, she thinks about suicide.

When Jesus and His disciples crossed the Galilee after a long day of ministry, a social outcast in a foul mood met them. Possessed by demons, this man had often been shackled, but he snapped the chains and “rushed out into the wilderness” to live in the tombs (Luke 8:29).

Jesus stepped in with a personal touch and a drastic change. While others tried to imprison the man to protect themselves, Jesus freed him to reach out to others. He drove out the demons, which in turn entered a large herd of pigs that promptly drowned themselves (v. 33).

The swine herders ran and told the townspeople, whose reaction provides remarkable insight into human nature. They wanted Jesus gone, perhaps because they feared His power, or perhaps because a fortune in pork-bellies had been lost when the pigs did their lemming impersonation. Either way, they valued the status quo or their economic security more than the man’s sanity and salvation.

But the man himself wanted to follow Jesus (v. 38). At last, here was Someone who had seen him and not just the inconvenience and embarrassment he caused! But Jesus told him, “Go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you” (v. 39).

Apparently, Jesus had crossed the lake just to rescue this lonely man! – Tim Gustafson

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Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death (Psalm 68:20).

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What was the man’s reaction when he was freed from the demons? Do you have a “Cyndi” in your life? What can you do to reach out to her?