It’s Personal
and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” Mark 5:7 NASB
What business do we have with each other – This entire phrase is a gloss attempting to capture a Greek phrase ti emoi kai soi (literally – “What I and you”). The demoniac approaches Yeshua and bows before him, shouting this idiomatic expression. “What are you doing here?” we might say. “I have enough torment in my life. Have you come to make things worse for me?” Peter was more polite when Yeshua approached him. “Depart from me for I am a sinner,” he begged. In the presence of holiness, very, very few of us will feel comfortable. Unless, of course, we are blind to the truth of the man before us. The demoniac was not blind. He saw clearly. He was only tormented.
When the Messiah stands before you today, will you be polite like Peter, frightened like the demoniac or perhaps like the Syro-Phoenician woman who knew she didn’t belong there but refused to be turned away. The answer all depends on this: We must enter into the life of the other. It is useless to theorize about Peter’s apprehension, the demoniac’s fear or the Syro-Phoenician woman’s rejection. We must feel what it is like. The “necessary prelude to repentance”[1] is to experience life as the victim. Repentance means that we understand what it is to be injured by uncaring acts because we ourselves recognize that we acted without care. To repent is to first become the victim of our own transgressions. Then we will know why we must change. “Forgiveness is easy, repentance—true change of character—is difficult.”[2] It becomes possible only when we experience what it would mean for us to have received the brunt of our own acts.
“What business do we have with each other?” asks the man whose life is torment. It is a question about relationship. In his state of tortured self, isolation surrounded him. Now someone who is anything but isolated approaches. What kind of threat is this? Will he show himself only to amplify my loneliness? Will he add more grief to my pitiful condition? He doesn’t belong here. What will he do to me? That is my fear. How will any interaction with this holy man hurt me? It never crosses my mind that he can actually help. Why? Because what has holiness to do with the dark? What has good to do with evil except condemn it? If you and I are in the dark, we fear the light because we think the light has come to punish us. The truth is just the opposite.
What was Yeshua doing that day? He could have avoided this tortured man. He could have ignored him. But instead, he healed him. What if the light has come to free you of the demons? What if you are only running from yourself?
Topical Index: light, you and me, demoniac, Mark 5:7
[1] Jonathan Sacks, Not In God’s Name, p. 156.
[2] Ibid.
Isaiah 6:4-7
Do we still have seraphim to touch our lips heal our thoughts for it i only when we are undone that He can provide rebirth… Or are we reliant on a man of God or is the personal touching from God sufficient as Hosea proclaimed in chapter 6.
Skip all these are nice historic examples how will we experience them today… Still teaches priests etc. acting on behalf of God or is it now self preparation study to show yourself approved – principle???
I believe God has said what must be said, we must just learn and understand what has been shared or is there still a hidden agenda that is taken away or lifted in Christ…
I think we ‘create’ our own demons (spiritual representations of destructive choices), or at least hand out admittance tickets. Demons reside in the vacuums where relationship should be.
I think demoniac power is very real, which is to say, some real power is unleashed in the universe whenever and wherever relationship is interrupted, and that power is destructive. Conversely, I think love is also power that changes that entire reality whenever and wherever it is allowed to have its Way, too (the will of the Father). The demoniac knew the truth: those two powers cannot exist in the same place at the same time, because the one necessarily negates the other. I think we cannot really generate either power, but I can see we have been given the power to choose which one will win.
This story of the demoniac(s) remains the single most amazing story to me; not only because the man (men?) was aware of not only his condition, but the condition of the Saviour who stood before him – a self awareness which insanity, by definition, cannot grasp (which leads me to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit revealed it to him), but also because Yeshua commissioned him to do what He knew He was not going to be able to, which was to evangelize that community (which also certainly took the intervention of the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts to listen to the man (or men).
I believe sin (for humans, anyway) occurs in the places where we are believing something that is not true. In the demoniac’s case, he was believing that he WAS his sin – that he WAS the sum total of the manifestation of the insanity that is the inevitable result of a fracture in relationship. He knew he was fractured. What he didn’t know was that he was not the fracture (sin) itself. Sin is where I become one (relate with) my fracture. God Himself cannot safely separate me from my sin without destroying me with it. I must learn the truth: learn that I can separate myself from that sin (repent). Then, and only then, can He heal the fracture (negate it) without negating me, too. Sin (insanity) bound the tongue of the man, but his heart remained open to the truth – the truth that we were created to give and receive love – and his heart wanted that love, even if it killed him. Yeshua heard that heart cry. Sin died that day, and a man lived. I believe that was the testimony that saved the Gadarenes.
I passed a church marquee yesterday that read: “Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once”. Love it!
I thought the same, welcome back, missed your insights as well
Hugs to you, dear Laurita. Good to know you are having a good time with your brother- an adventure! 🙂
Shalom!
Welcome back Laurita! We, for one (or more accurately two), missed you and your unique insights.
Light or dark. Good or evil. Bright or dull. Fat or thin. Health or sickness. Opposites or at least the appearance of being so. What has one to do with the other? “ti emoi kai soi (literally – “What I and you”)”, or to make the point, just add a question mark and now you have ‘What I and you?’ Oil and water; they just don’t mix. Good corrupted becomes evil, yet the Creator allows for this corruption by his creatures, but always with the possibility of returning back to good. We call that repentance; God may refer to it as ‘common sense’. We were created to reflect His image into His good creation. But we make bad decisions and our ‘light’ becomes clouded and suddenly, we are running on our own battery, disconnected from His power source and our ‘energizer bunny’ is nearly spent and seemingly dead. But God says ‘no’, not dead, just badly disoriented and in need of a charge. And the light gets brighter and brighter and the lights’ reflection, more in tune with what it’s meant to be; i.e., His image, reflected by us into the good creation. And make no mistake, God has an amazing inventory of ‘windex’ and ‘tarnish remover’.
Brilliantly simple! Love it 🙂
Holy Savior, YOU are most welcome here, in this house!! My answer to YOU LORD, is an ever-louder, never-ending, eternal YES!! I’ll say, Yes, LORD to Your will and to Your way. You have come to heal and to deliver and to save and to redeem. You are Who you say you are and You ever live to make intercession for us!! YOU are the Son of God and God the Son, both fully human and fully divine, You are our Life. You are worthy, O LORD, to receive honor and glory and blessing and power, for you have created all things by the word of Your authority and all authority has been given unto your, both in Heaven and here upon the earth. You gave Your life’s Breath and Your blood for us and for all sinners everywhere upon the cruel cross of Calvary. You have conquered Death, Sin, hasatan, and the grave and you are worthy for all the eternity of eternities of all of our highest praises. You have died for us, may we learn to live for You and may the high praises of God ever be in our mouths and a two-edged sword be in our hand. Thank you, for you willingness to meet us when we bow the knee, and again for Calvary, which by grace through faith, made this prayer possible. Amen
” We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Plato
Even Plato had some truth : )
The idea that repentance requires an understanding of being a victim of what we have done brings to mind how Joseph treated his brothers, how he subjected them to the experience of fearing for their lives before he revealed himself and forgave them. Has the person coming for our forgiveness had a realization of the consequences of his or her actions and has the person come to make any kind of restitution, according to the specific restitution required by the Torah. A person who comes with such awareness and concrete restitution must be forgiven by Y’shua’s standards even if they fall back again and again into the same sin. Just saying that you are sorry does not fully encompas what is meant by repentance in Torah. But, on the other hand, think about how many times all of us slip into Lashon Hara and what would happen if people shunned us if we fell back into this sin immediately after the thirdor seventh time.
Rhonda is repentance in Torah:
The Priestly vow
The paying of the penalties
The sprinkling
The washing of the body etc.
OR
Turning our hearts away from sin and being baptized by God (Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Hebrews)}
The dying off, burying, rising up from the dead works (Hosea)
OR
Rebirth (Yeshua)
New Creation (John, Peter, Paul etal)
Understanding repentance may be the key to when we forgive and let go as you rightfully say but what does it entail.
Moses experienced God’s fury
Israel witnessed God’s rage
The scribes and traders experienced Yeshua’s anger
Peter was rebuked yet still said to be the most beloved apostle.
These all acknowledge either admittance of ones wrong or just hearing the rebuke. Which is enough for repentance or will every situation and individual determine to which extent we tolerate…
I agree just saying sorry means nothing when it is just part of a passing comment…
I would wonder if this demon possessed man or men was mentally ill. I had a roommate who was paranoid schizophrenic. She was telling me about her family and her home. As she continued to talk she became more and more agitated. She then began to say that there were people after her. She was having a full blown hallucination. She started to rock back and forth on the bed. Then she got up from the bed, sat on the floor and began to throw her body against the wall. I have met two more women who were both bi-polar. One was a beautiful young woman who was suffering from delusions around fame. Another was a lady in a support group that I had known for about a year. One night after a meeting, she was telling me a story. As she was talking her speech became more rapid and her words became disconnected. In all these interactions I did not see any “demons”. I saw women whose brains were not working properly.
So, I think it is possible that Jesus healed a mentally ill man or men. Even up until the 20th century mentally ill people were chained and shackled as no medicines were available to help these illnesses until recently. And still people with these brain illnesses are mistreated and receive substandard care.
Shalom Lee,
So appreciate your comment.
Bi-polar is a condition falsely diagnosed and termed! They are folks tormented mentally due to stress and trauma they could not handle having no support.
They can be healed! Not with pharmaceutical medication, but through proper supplementation and nutritious diets, in the right environment!
There is a Bipolarized Movie at Utube in which such a person was determined to be healed, and he was healed!!!
HalleluYAH!
Blessings to you.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and support. I agree the bipolar diagnosis is way over used and medications prescribed way too much. But, I have seen medication work for people with this diagnosis. And yes, I have seen people over medicated and walking around like zombies.
These illnesses are no different than other illnesses where nutrition and lifestyle changes could be used in place of medication. Such as heart disease or diabetes. I’m okay with medication for any illness as long as we look at the whole person. I believe the word is nephesh. 🙂
“We must feel what it is like.” That I would term as compassion, true compassion.
“The “necessary prelude to repentance”[1] is to experience life as the victim.” YES!
” Repentance means that we understand what it is to be injured by uncaring acts because we ourselves recognize that we acted without care.” ABBA, we seek Your forgiveness!
” To repent is to first become the victim of our own transgressions. Then we will know why we must change.” Amein!
“Forgiveness is easy, repentance—true change of character—is difficult.”[2] It becomes possible only when we experience what it would mean for us to have received the brunt of our own acts.” Absolutely! What we reap from experiences through the trials, difficult decisions, choices and circumstances should/ought to amazingly transform our characters to be more humble / meek.
Isolation is the reverse of community living, which sharpens our spiritual perception and understanding learning respectfully from each other.
What a beautiful, liberating TW! Shalom!