Out Our Way: It's your call - Luke 8:37

Out our way, there is a lot of open space, especially in the areas devoted to ranching and farming. Tourists and city folk drive past the open prairies and Bear Paw Mountains saying, “There is nothing there,” but we how get to roam the vastness know that is not true. Indeed there is a great deal there. 

As many of you know, I was blessed for a number of years to ride the Tiger Ridge area with my saddle pard, Charlie, working Big Mike’s herd. Now Charlie knew the whole area and I relied on him to keep me on the right trail. More than once I thought I knew where I was and started riding in the wrong direction — but Charlie would always call me back and point me in the right way.     

But what if I had decided to ignore Charlie? What if I had decided I preferred to go my own way? A hard lesson for a good many boneheaded folks these days is the discovery that moving forward is not “progress” when you are going the wrong way.

Consider the folks in the region of the Gerasenes whose lives had been made terrifying by the demon-possessed man who wandered the tombs and graveyards. He obviously didn’t stay there as the town folks were terrified of him and had tried to bind him. Yet they could not hold him. He broke the bonds and continued his reign of terror. Then came Jesus.

With a word of command, he cast out the demons and restored the man to sanity. The towns people were amazed to find the “monster” they feared was no more, and their former neighbor totally restored. And yet the fear remained. For now, instead of fearing the demons and the man they had controlled, they feared Jesus. One has to ask why.

Clearly Jesus made them nervous — for he represented the power of God. In Jesus they were confronted by holiness and that was something they could not accept. For when confronted by holiness, our own sins become obvious. We can no longer pretend we are “good enough” on our own and have no need of God. In short, confronted by the holy we are confronted by the terrifying fact “There is a God, and we are not him!”

For self-centered people who want to believe they alone are the final judge and jury about what is right and wrong, the revelation of a Higher Power is terrifying. No wonder some folks lately have demanded statues of Christ — along with Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington — be torn down. They fear Him and His power, for they see their own power is diminished. The people who saw the healing of the demoniac did not praise God, but demanded He leave them. And, sadly, He did.

But before He left, Christ sent the healed sinner back into their midst as testimony to the truth. The scripture often speaks of a faithful remnant, rejected and often persecuted by seeking God’s will rather than that of the popular crowd. When Israel forsake God’s ways for the worldly ways of pagans, they ended up in exile in Babylon. But a faithful remnant remained and eventually returned. In Jesus’ day, even the high priest of God’s Temple proved to be but a puppet of pagan Rome, and the Pharisees who put legalism above love and pride in self above worship of God were no better. Yet again, some remained true to God and they found the long awaited Messiah. 

Christ is at work in our midst, but some fear Him and ask Him to leave. Others claim to serve Him but demand to go their own way. But a few, and may God grant I may yet become one of them, choose to follow Him despite all the obstacles and barriers they and others erect to turn them away.

Christ calls us to follow but leaves it to us to do so. We may reject Him and tell Him to leave, or we may give lip service but still demand that we — culture, popularity, power etc. — be Lord instead. Or we may cast out the demons of selfishness, conceit, and all the other various dark things that get between God and self and be made whole. It is our call.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write “Out Our Way.” He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].