I would do anything for love, but I won't do that

God doesn't call us to be comfortable. --Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

I learned something today, something from the Bible--the New Testament, even.  For me, that is a huge confession.  In my heart, I know that I am not the "smartest man in the room" when it comes to the Scripture.    But in my sinful mind, I catch myself letting out a huge sigh and rolling my eyes at preachers who use the term "Seraphims" to describe the angelic creatures attending to God.  ("Seraph" is singular; it is one angelic being.  "Seraphim" is plural.  In the same way that the English language adds "-es" to nouns to make them plural, the Hebrew language adds "-im" to nouns to make them plural.  That is why it is significant that the name of God used in Genesis is "Elohim" and not the singular "El".  That construction of the Name of God supports the Doctrine of the Trinity--when He said "Let US make man in OUR image," He was not speaking to the angels.  But I digress.)

The thing that I learned was that Jesus' earthly ministry was not confined to Israel alone.  Sure, we know about Samaria, the area between Judah in the south and Galilee in the north.  But this region remains in modern-day Israel, and is located west of the Jordan river.  But in Luke 8, when Jesus commanded His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they were leaving the sacred homeland.  They were going over to the Decapolis, an area of Greek heritage under Roman rule.  Those who grew up under strict Jewish laws would not have gone over to the east side of the lake--they kept pigs there, both for food and for religious sacrifice; the Greek theaters and gymnasiums featured public nudity and pornographic images on their facades; some of the pagan temples even encouraged human sacrifice, and some may have had temple prostitutes in honor of the Greek god Dionysus and the goddess Aphrodite.  Strict Jews wanted to avoid going there as strongly as fundamentalist Christians want to avoid going to Las Vegas or Reno, Nevada.

Nevertheless, Jesus told His disciples to board a boat, and to go across to the southeast side of the lake.  While they were going, a storm rose up.  Perhaps some of the disciples thought that the devil was in the storm.  Some modern-day commentators believe that Satan tried through natural means to keep Jesus away from his territory.  And where did the disciples find Jesus? Asleep in the hull of the boat.  When they woke Him, and asked in utter terror, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark 4:38), were these seasoned fishermen (who had grown up on the water) so afraid of the squall, or were they holding on to some superstitious belief that demons were punishing them for leaving the Promised Land and entering into pagan territory?

Significantly, the first person Jesus meets is the Gadarene Demoniac--Gadara was one of the Ten Cities of the Decapolis (some translations say he was a Geraseen, as Gerasa was also among the Ten Cities--and the account in Matthew 8 says there were two demon-possessed men there, so perhaps both are correct).  If the devil couldn't scare Jesus away with a furious squall on the water, he may have wanted to confront Jesus face-to-face in a graveyard.  Again, there were manifold reasons why a strict Jew would avoid this man completely--he was living among the tombs (the Law said that coming into contact with anything associated with death made one unclean); he was naked (the Law forbade public nudity); he was probably covered with sores and abrasions from the chains that the locals had used to subdue him (the Law forbade coming into contact with open sores); AND he was possessed by many demons. Yet Jesus is not afraid; He shows compassion.  He touches the man, and delivers him from demon possession.

The demons, knowing they are about to be evicted by the Creator, the Ultimate Landlord, all ask to be cast into a herd of pigs feeding nearby. (I actually heard a preacher once say that he knew these Jews to whom Jesus had gone were sinful, because no practicing Jew would keep pigs--he was probably the same preacher who had mis-used the word "Seraphim".  The region was Greek, not Jewish.)  Jesus allowed them to go, and the large herd of pigs, numbering about 2000 (Mark 5:13) ran headlong down a steep embankment, right into the Sea of Galilee and drowned.  Now the disciples were probably afraid of going back across the lake--if the boat capsized, they might come into contact with the pigs!

I wonder if it was this region that Jesus spoke about in the parable of the prodigal son.  Although He describes it as "a far-off country", the prodigal winds up tending swine, and having lost his fortune, would have had to walk back to where his father was waiting.  A trip from the Decapolis to Galilee might have taken a day or two by foot.  And the Decapolis would have been a fine place for profligate living.  The implication was that the Prodigal not only rejected his father, but his country and their religion as well.

Well, when word got back to the town, where the locals lived and the owners of the pigs were, they all came out to see what had happened.  They might have had a positive reaction: "Wow, this man who'd had to be subdued with chains is now calm; the one who was naked is now dressed; the one who had been bat-crap crazy is now in his right mind.  The Man who did this must be like the gods."  But instead, they were angry and afraid--angry that they had lost 2000 head of swine, and afraid that they, too, might be ordered to go drown themselves in the lake.  So they asked Jesus to leave.  The man who had been freed from the demons asked to go with Jesus; but Jesus asked him to go back home and tell everyone what had happened to him.

When Jesus had cast out the demons, he commanded the man to return home to tell others what God had done for him. The territory to which Jesus sent the man was certainly one of the most challenging mission fields to which he ever called anyone. Later, crowds from the Decapolis followed Jesus. This crowd of followers was a testimony to the effectiveness of the healed man's witness. (Mark 7:31-36 and Matt. 15:30 record the same event. Matthew referred to crowds of people, but he did not mention the place.) --http://followtherabbi.com/guide/detail/a-far-country-decapolis

So what do we take from this lesson?  First, no matter how long I study the Bible, I can always find something in it that I did not know before.  Second,  if I want to be like Jesus, I will need to set aside some of the bigotry and intolerance I have for other cultures; if I want to follow Him, I will need to repent of some superstitions I still hold in avoiding certain people or places.  Third, even if my mission field is full of hard-hearted pagans, bent on fulfillment of their sensual appetites, if Jesus asks me to witness to them, I can be successful in bringing other people to Him.  As Sri Lankan evangelist D.T. Niles once said, "evangelism is merely one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."