Mark 5:6-7 – Worship from Afar
From Mark 5…
6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”
"I wake to find my soul in fragments," Chris Rice self diagnoses to jarring effect in "Prone to Wander," "given to a thousand loves." Simultaneously in confession and clinging, he realizes, "But only One will have no rival, hangs to heal me, spills His blood."
We see this demonstrated more dramatically, but no more helplessly, in the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. There is war within the same frame. The legs run to You. The lips recoil from You, sensing just judgment. Even as Yours, Lord, whom the demons dare not claim, we wake to find our souls in fragments, pulled by a thousand loves.
We know what comes next in this man's Mark 5 story. If we ever knew such a moment of tense deliverance from the kinds of addictions which draw the social opprobrium he knew, perhaps we will blow the dust off the yellowing mental photographs and thank You. Then, consciously or not, we will often take the part of the good citizenry and keep our distance from You rather than abide such audacious and revolutionary power in our present.
But Chris Rice is right. We are divided, though not demon-possessed. Desires, says James, rather than demons within readily, habitually, animate our actions without. This guy was helpless without sovereign, ongoing intervention on Christ's part. So are we as His. For, as He has said, if He were to clean us out from the sin that which the Chamber of Commerce would most readily cluck and leave us to our own defenses, the adversaries of our soul would come back seven times stronger.
Given to a thousand loves, we must move, actively, passionately toward something. Will it be as it was with this man, to trade the dictates of demons for an active pursuit of as much of Christ's Presence as he would be allowed to enjoy. Will we hang on His Word, ask to see and to know more of Him, and then honor Him and His instructions when we are sent back to prove Him in the environs from which we came?
Without that man's, and Chris Rice's, candid, continual confession, the graveyard to which the demoniac was once banished insidiously encroaches on what we call real life. Sure, we will go about the movements of the day without his chains, but we will serve our flesh rather than our Lord. We will chase goals that won't stand His scrutiny, and we will, consciously or not, resist what of His active, intrusive Presence He offers.
6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”
"I wake to find my soul in fragments," Chris Rice self diagnoses to jarring effect in "Prone to Wander," "given to a thousand loves." Simultaneously in confession and clinging, he realizes, "But only One will have no rival, hangs to heal me, spills His blood."
We see this demonstrated more dramatically, but no more helplessly, in the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. There is war within the same frame. The legs run to You. The lips recoil from You, sensing just judgment. Even as Yours, Lord, whom the demons dare not claim, we wake to find our souls in fragments, pulled by a thousand loves.
We know what comes next in this man's Mark 5 story. If we ever knew such a moment of tense deliverance from the kinds of addictions which draw the social opprobrium he knew, perhaps we will blow the dust off the yellowing mental photographs and thank You. Then, consciously or not, we will often take the part of the good citizenry and keep our distance from You rather than abide such audacious and revolutionary power in our present.
But Chris Rice is right. We are divided, though not demon-possessed. Desires, says James, rather than demons within readily, habitually, animate our actions without. This guy was helpless without sovereign, ongoing intervention on Christ's part. So are we as His. For, as He has said, if He were to clean us out from the sin that which the Chamber of Commerce would most readily cluck and leave us to our own defenses, the adversaries of our soul would come back seven times stronger.
Given to a thousand loves, we must move, actively, passionately toward something. Will it be as it was with this man, to trade the dictates of demons for an active pursuit of as much of Christ's Presence as he would be allowed to enjoy. Will we hang on His Word, ask to see and to know more of Him, and then honor Him and His instructions when we are sent back to prove Him in the environs from which we came?
Without that man's, and Chris Rice's, candid, continual confession, the graveyard to which the demoniac was once banished insidiously encroaches on what we call real life. Sure, we will go about the movements of the day without his chains, but we will serve our flesh rather than our Lord. We will chase goals that won't stand His scrutiny, and we will, consciously or not, resist what of His active, intrusive Presence He offers.
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