Jesus: Don’t Follow Me

American Christians are obsessed with “going places.” Perhaps its our hustle-bustle lifestyles once again affecting our spirituality, but let’s be truthful: sermons about Moses or Jesus “going to the other side” really get our mojo going.

It goes without saying that this creeps into our perceptions about saying “Jesus, I’ll follow you.” This is said with the best of intentions when it is said, but how does that actually play out in everyday life? “I’ll follow you anywhere” is pretty ambiguous when Jesus isn’t physically on Earth, and especially when we seem to think Jesus is trapped in churches we can only interact with during certain times of the week like “adult swim” or something.

What if the term “follow” isn’t what we thought? What if its a call to a different perspective of life?

In Mark 5, an interesting exchange takes place. A man who is heavily influenced by demons has been living in caves like a savage and is so animalistic (anti-human) that people would try to restrain him with chains. Funny thing is, even that couldn’t control him. This guy was a fanatic. I would imagine that even without the demons, this was no Mr. Rogers – this was the college party guy who loved to get in bar fights and has a cell reserved for 72 hour jail time. He would take sharp rocks and cut himself like they were razor blades just to see himself bleed. For the record, being a “cutter” isn’t anything new.

Jesus encounters the man, though he is so vexed by demons that he talks back and forth to the demons. They had a military name (Legion), and thus were quite unified in their actions. Jesus commands the demonic military to hitch a ride in some pigs, which in turn leads to what had to be an amazing site – 2,000 maniacal pigs spinning circles, oiking in a frenzy, and hurling themselves one after another off a cliff into the sea. Kind of what the disciples were hoping Jesus would do to the Roman government.

Gadarene Demoniac

 

Following the pig bath, there was this man left in his home of caves and graves. He had lived for a very long time out of his mind around dead bodies and couldn’t have any healthy interaction with humans. This was a man who was probably thinking clearly for the first time in ages. The “Gadarene Demoniac,” as he is often called, did what every preacher craves to see when they deliver their favorite softball altar call.

“Parakleo autos hina o meta autos.”
“I beg that I might follow you.”

For the average preacher, this craving would be the ultimate! To pray for a man like this in a church who is bound by chains, cutting himself with rocks, and lives in a graveyard to be freed of demons, then in one swoop delivers the “I’ll follow you, Jesus” would make a preacher take his wife and kids out for stake after church.

Funny thing is, Jesus isn’t who we thought He was. His reply doesn’t follow the script.

“No, go home to your friends. Tell them what has happened to you, what God has done for you, and that God had compassion on you.”

Yes, if you’re asking – Jesus told the man not to follow Him.

Maybe Jesus knew something about this man that we don’t, but I think there’s quite a bit of instruction, here. We often fall into a trap of trying to overspiritualize “following Jesus.” We turn our “God-given destiny” into an unreachable, unidentifiable, unpredictable place we must follow Jesus for all our lives to reach. Yet, Jesus commandment to this brand new follower was to take His newfound narrative to his everyday, mundane life and spice it up.

This man was from a city called “Gadara.” This was no ordinary city – this was a cultural center for a region called “Decapolis” (Ten Cities) and was home of a lot of activity that influenced regions all over. Think of Silicon Valley, Seattle, New Orleans, Rome, Venice, Paris, and the like. The city had plumbing. The city had a lot of history (including the place where Balaam was stopped by an angel). The father of satire (who’s name was Menippus) was a local boy. There was an incredible library, as one of the Empire’s best poets had lived and died there 50 years ago. Around this time, Theodorus created a school where he trained future Emperor Tiberius. Basically, this place was hugely important.

 

Ruins of Gadara

 

 

Jesus, a culturally engaged prophet, sent this famous delinquent back into this city to tell all these influential people what had happened. Imagine those in Theodorus school hearing about this healing prophet turning “The Demon Guy at the Graveyard” into a perfectly sane man. By Jesus sending this man back into everyday life, he sent the first real missionary.

But he sent him home.

In our lives, we all have an influence on our own cultures. In our schools, jobs, and families, perhaps we do a better job of following Jesus by taking our stories of insanity gone sanity into everyday life. It would be as if Curt Cobain had had a life altering transformation at the peak of the Nirvana days, but instead of quitting the band, he took his new story and influenced an entire culture with it.

Follow Jesus. Where you are.