Day 5 (Thursday) – “Sent to Witness”
*Luke 8:26-39
We spend our days in West Virginia getting our hands dirty. We climb onto roofs, we help lay flooring, and we climb under houses. We are excellent witnesses of the love of Jesus through our actions. We are excellent witnesses of the hope of the gospel through our works of service. But that is only half of our witness.
Jesus was an excellent witness through his actions, as well. He traveled throughout the countryside healing the sick and freeing the demon-possessed from their lives of bondage and isolation. And some of these healing miracles were extraordinary. The story in Luke 8 is once such occasion. As the story begins, Jesus had just arrived at the country of Gerasenes by boat when a man tormented by demons greeted him at the shore. This man had been living a life of isolation and struggle: the legions of demons within him were so fierce that they drove him into the wild to live, naked, among the tombs. This man was the epitome of a tortured soul. Upon seeing this man, Jesus commanded the demons to leave him – but struggling against Jesus’ will, the demons forced the man to his knees where he cried out, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” Determined to witness to the hope of the gospel through actions, Jesus sent the legion of demons into a herd of swine and freed the man forever from his torment. Through this extraordinary miracle, Jesus sought to fulfill his mission to bring wholeness to broken humanity.
Yet, Jesus’ witness was not complete with this healing miracle. While works of healing and justice are indeed witnesses of the gospel, they cannot bring the fullness of the good news that Jesus came to share. As the healed man rejoiced in the new life set before him, he longed to accompany Jesus in his ministry. But Jesus had other, extremely important, plans for this man. Jesus sent the healed man back into the world to “declare all that God had done” for him through this healing miracle. Just as Jesus was sent to proclaim the good news of the gospel, so Jesus sent this healed man into the world to declare the extraordinary healing power of God.
It may have been easy for this healed man to return home and tell his friends and neighbors about the miraculous healing power of God. But, we often find this task to be a difficult one. We are comfortable getting our hands dirty, but we often become uncomfortable when we are asked to tell others about the hope we’ve found in Jesus. Yet, the commission Jesus gives to the healed man is the commission that Jesus gives to us: we, too, are sent to declare all that God has done in our lives. We, too, are sent to tell our families, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies all of the ways that God has saved us, healed us, and made us whole. Let us not be a people that only uphold half of our mission by telling of God’s love through our actions but failing to declare God’s hope through our words. Let us be a people that are so moved by the extraordinary healing and loving power of God that we cannot help but go out into the world to share the good news through our actions and our words.
--Laura
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