Are You Amazed by Jesus?

^{Matthew 5:5}Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

There is so much that is just creepy about this story - the demon possessed guy (Matthew records that there were two of them), alone in the graveyard, screaming at Jesus. Pigs dying. People rejecting Jesus because of their fear. Here is another story that examines the fear of God - except that these people, told Jesus to leave. The disciples at the end of chapter 4 "feared a great fear" and responded with amazed worship. These pig herders (obviously not Jewish, but Greek) were afraid and responded with amazed rejection.


I think that Mark, in his fast paced, bang, bang, bang style, is demonstrating the power of Jesus at the end of chapter 4 and in chapter 5. Jesus has power over all nature - he calms the storm. Jesus has power over the spirit world -he rebukes and redirects the demons out of this guy. And later in chapter 5 - Jesus has power over sickness and death - he heals the woman and raises the little girl from death. In case anyone was confused about who Jesus is, he has the same power that God has! The response of people in each situation was basically the same: fear and amazement:

^4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"


^5:15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.


^5:20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.


^5:33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.


^5:42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.

Before I go on, I just want to say that I think that one of the reasons why Christianity is so dull and dry these days is because we have lost our fear and amazement of Jesus.


Jesus raised the dead! Oh, that's nice. I saw that in the Terminator movie.


Jesus cast all the demons into a herd of pigs! Oh, that's not nice that Jesus killed all those pigs.


Jesus calmed the storm! We can easily explain that by looking at the meteorologic data.


We are so used to science and data and the movies that there is little that impresses us anymore. Maybe that is one reason why people love to go see movies with incredible special effects and grand visual elements. Maybe people are looking for a way to be amazed - to be impressed.


But these things are just false realities - Computer animation can make it look like dogs and cats can talk, but God could truly make a donkey talk. If you want to talk about fear and amazement, here is something that is truly amazing - the complete and instant life transformation that happens to this poor guy.


My favorite verse in this story has always been verse 5. "Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones." People don't usually talk about the flowery and beautiful language of the NIV, but I love the way this verse is written - there is so much description in those few words. Think of all the ways this man was described here:

• He never had any rest (Night and day)
• He lived with death (among the tombs)
  
• He was completely alone (in the hills)
• He was in constant pain & agony (he would cry out)
• No one ever heard his cries (in the hills)
• He wanted to die (cut himself)
• He abused and hated himself (cut himself)
  
• He had nothing (with stones)

There are more descriptions in the other verses and in the other accounts in Matthew and Luke - but isn't that one verse enough to describe how alone, destitute and pain ridden he was?


But Jesus did heal him, and he was completely transformed - that amazes me. Jesus told him, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Can you imagine a more zealous evangelist? What would they say? I wonder how they responded? Did his mother cry? Did he have a wife or children?


One thing that we do know (verse 20) is that he told everyone in the areas about Jesus and his deliverance, and the people were amazed.


I hope that you too, today are absolutely amazed by Jesus.