What does mercy look like?

 

Never is a man in his right mind till he is converted, or in his right place till he sits by faith at the feet of Jesus, or rightly clothed till he has put on the Lord Jesus Christ. --J.C. Ryle

On February 14, 2020 a singer/songwriter Eddy Mann released an album entitled Love Strands, which included a song called Grace is Not a Blue-Eyed Blond.

Grace finds me when I'm not looking
Grace loves me when I'm not worthy
Grace visits me when I don't deserve it
Grace is not a blue-eyed blonde

I can't think of any better way to start our study of the fifth chapter of Mark, and to answer the question, "What does grace look like?"  

Going outside your comfort zone

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.  He lived among the tombs.  And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.  No one had the strength to subdue him.  Night and day among the tombs and the on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.  --Mark 5:1-5

We already saw last week that it was late in the day when Jesus told the disciples to get into the boat to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  Then a storm hit, and likely delayed them even further.  My point is that it was very likely after dark when they came ashore in the area of the Decapolis, a Gentile region of ten cities bound together by culture and commerce.

The disciples were mostly good Jewish boys who were taught not to associate with Gentiles.  They probably had not spent much time outside of Israel, and I'm pretty sure they didn't hang out in or near the cemetery.  They certainly would not have been there after dark looking for a man with an unclean spirit that had broken chains and shackles hanging from his wrists or ankles, but that is who Jesus sought out immediately.  It was like a scene out of a horror movie, but Jesus was more concerned with the person who had put himself in this predicament.  Jesus knew that mercy required going to where the need is, not waiting for the needy to come to Him.

Looking beyond their faults, hearing their heart and not just their words

And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him.  And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I adjure you by God, do not torment me."  For He was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"  And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"  He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many."  And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.  --Mark 5:6-10

If this man had any human interaction at all, he had likely heard of the ministry of Jesus.  After all, it was all people were talking about at that time.  When Jesus appeared on the shore near the graveyard where he stayed, the man may have had some understandable fear and trepidation.  After all, all the other people in authority had tortured him, trying to subdue him with chains and shackles when they could not confine him in prison.  Naturally, when a famous Rabbi shows up, the man thought He was there to condemn him.

The spirits who possessed him certainly knew who Jesus was.  They may have discussed it among themselves, and the man may have heard their voices in his head.  Jesus had already told them to leave the man, because Jesus was concerned about the man himself, not with the demons who had made their home in him.  It is difficult to discern who is speaking the words, the man or the spirits, but Jesus heard his heart.  "What have you to do with me?" was a question both in the heart of the man and in the thoughts of the spirits.  Jesus responded by asking the man his name.  The answer came instead from the spirits inside him.  "I am called Legion," the man said, "for we are many."

The man asked not to be sent away again; the spirits feared that the end of the age had arrived, and that they would be sent forever to the lake of fire.  Jesus heard the words he spoke, and discerned their meaning on both the physical and spiritual levels.  I pray that we can do that when we speak to people--when we hear their words, I hope we can listen to their hearts.  I am comforted to know that when I speak to God in prayer, he sees beyond my speech and hears my heart.  He certainly knows our needs.

Prioritizing people over profits

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them."  So He gave them permission.  And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.  --Mark 5:11-13

Jesus had to know that the pigs were somebody's business.  Not only were there herders there who witnessed this event, but there were the pig owners in the town who were raising them for profit.  Two thousand head of swine had to represent the livelihood of dozens in the town.  The meat from those pigs would have fed thousands of meals to hundreds of people.  A short-sighted person would have seen the economic loss, the good that those animals would have done to a great number of people.

Fortunately, Jesus valued this one man's life--both physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal--above the few dollars profit and the few meals provided by these pigs.  If you think about it, the profits would be spent and more would need to be made; the meat would have been eaten, and the consumers would have been hungry again.  This man, this one man, would receive abundant, everlasting life in exchange for the lives of the unclean animals.

To risk being misunderstood

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country.  And people came to see what it was that had happened.  And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.  And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.  And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.  --Mark 5:14-17

Strange things had just occurred in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning.  The herdsmen had witnessed the physical manifestation of spiritual warfare, and did not understand all that they had seen.  They went and told the townspeople, perhaps waking the owners of the pigs as well as the priests and other spiritual leaders.  They may have been thinking, "We have just seen some strange voodoo here today," evidenced by this man who was known around town as running naked through the countryside, dwelling in the tombs, cutting himself and talking to himself, now clothed and in his right mind.

Taking stock of the situation, the town leaders saw that the pigs were missing, the demon-possessed man possessed no longer, and hearing the first-hand witness of the herdsman that Jesus was the cause of removing the demons from the man into the swine before the pigs committed mass suicide.  Fear overtook them.  This fear was directed at Jesus, who had exhibited authority over the demons, the man that they had been trying to subdue for some time, and two thousand head of livestock.  Rather than invite Him to their temple to explain His abilities and purpose, they respectfully and fearfully asked Jesus to leave.  They did not understand mercy so they ignored it, looking instead at their losses.  Mercy comes at a cost, and most are not willing to bear it.

Seeing the beneficiaries change, grow, and share

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him.  And He did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you."  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.  --Mark 5: 18-20

It is only natural that the man freed from spiritual bondage would have wanted to follow Jesus, to hear Him teach, to grow spiritually from the One who had authority over dark demonic forces.  Jesus forbade him to come, because he would do more good as a missionary among the gentiles than he would be as a close disciple.  He did not need a seminary education to tell what had happened to him.  People would see the man whose reputation as a crazed lunatic turned evangelist, and would relate to his story.

No longer were the demons speaking through him, limiting him to graveyards and wildernesses.  Rather, he told the good news of Jesus throughout the ten cities in the region.  When we receive grace, we can do nothing less than praise the giver of grace to all who will listen.  This is what mercy looks like.