Lord over Chaos - Deliverance
Readings for this week April 29 - May 4
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings.
Day 1 – We Are Never Beyond His Reach
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Mark 5:1-5
There is nowhere and no one that Jesus cannot reach, no distress or disease that he cannot allay. He turns up in unexpected places and addresses impossible situations. No one and nothing are beyond his reach. This episode with the demoniac is a perfect illustration of this. Jesus is not even in Israel. This area was a source of contention between many groups (and, sadly, still is to this day); Jesus has travelled to a place outside the boundaries of Israel, to a people not Jewish, and a situation that ticks almost every box for uncleanness and impurity. Jesus is outside the land, among Gentiles, and even worse, pig-farming Gentiles. The possessed man is – literally – unclean, covered in dirt and wounds and scars because of his self-harming behavior. And he inhabits a graveyard, his proximity to the dead a further ritual stain on anyone encountering him. Everything about him says keep away – and everyone has.
Except Jesus. To a man in an impossible place, living – if we can call it that – in an impossible situation, seemingly with no conceivable way of being rescued, Jesus comes, reaches through all that imprisons him and dehumanizes him, and sets him free. However impossible the situations that imprison us, whether the chaos assailing us is from outside or rises from within us, we are never beyond the reach of Jesus’ restoring, healing hands. No one is. We must not write ourselves off, and we must not see the plight of any around us in this world as irrevocably beyond hope. That is not how Jesus sees anyone, and nor should we.
Question to Consider
Have you ever experienced “impossible release” like this man? How?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you that we cannot fall beyond your reach, that your compassionate gaze tracks us wherever we go, and that we cannot have separated us from your love. Help us love like we believe it. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – No Circumstance is Beyond Him
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Mark 5:6-13
Jesus met a lot of people in desperate need of healing. Many were unwell through disease, accident, or some other cause. But some, like the man we read about today, were controlled by evil spiritual beings. We all need to be set free from the power of sin, but there is more to the freedom Jesus brings. Like it or not, we live in a spiritual world where evil spiritual beings can and do dominate and destroy people. We also have our own personal ‘demons’ that we struggle to overcome—addictions, lust, anger, pride, and greed, to name a few. But Jesus is also Lord of Chaos within us too. We need not be slaves to our internal passions and addictions.
People had tried to chain this man up, presumably for his own safety, but he had always broken free of his restraints. They had tried to subdue him and keep him quiet but that had never worked; he was simply too strong for him. There was nothing they, or anyone, could do for him. So, they left him to wander amongst the tombstones. Despite their best efforts, they knew his situation was hopeless. Or so they thought. As irretrievable as this man’s life seemed, he was not beyond the loving reach of Jesus. Nothing is beyond the power of God. There is no circumstance beyond restoration or redemption. There is nothing about us and where we have been or what we have done that disqualifies us from the restoring love of Jesus. There is hope for everyone, not matter the circumstances, if only someone will tell them. There is freedom for all if freedom is spoken to all.
Question to Consider
What hopeless situations have you seen Jesus rescue? How were lives changed by what happened?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for your miraculous power, and thank you that no one, no matter their circumstances, is condemned to the scrapheap. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Freedom
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Mark 5:14-17
Jesus has authority over all spiritual powers and loves to release people from them. Bringing freedom to people – to all people, from all manner of things, including the demonic – is something that Jesus specifically came to do. The freedom Jesus offers isn’t just freedom from slavery to sin. It transforms every part of life and makes all things possible. The gospels are full of similar examples of Jesus setting people free from physical and spiritual problems, releasing them into new life.
We have been set free. This is the primary fact of our existence. We were in chains – of sin, corruption, evil and death – and Jesus rescued us. He has freed us from so many different types of bondage and imprisonment, so that we can become the people we were always meant to be in God. This is a major part of the restoring work that Jesus has done and a key part of the message we must share with the world. People need to know that freedom is possible, and the best way we have of letting them know this is by telling people our freedom stories: how we have been set free, how Jesus rescued us, stories of our new life in him. What did such healing mean for the man with the legion of demons? Sure, it was relief from the immediate problem, but the consequences didn’t end there. It meant his relationships with family, friends and his community could be restored. He was finally free and that meant he could return home with a story to tell.
Question to Consider
How has your life changed since Jesus rescued you? What stories of freedom do you have? How are you sharing these stories with others?
Prayer
Almighty God, thank you for the new stories of freedom you have written in my life. Guide me as I share these stories and the freedom you provide with those still trapped in bondage. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – “Go Home and Tell”
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Mark 5:18-20
“Go and tell.” A short phrase almost as memorable as “Come follow me.” However much the healed man wanted to stay with Jesus and follow him wherever he went, Jesus told him to “go home and tell.” It wasn’t so much what the man would be able to do when travelling with Jesus, but more what Jesus would be able to do through the man’s witness at home. And for this to happen, the man had to “go and tell.” People had seen what had happened to the man, but what was just as important was that he go back home and tell others what had happened, tell them his story, and share his experiences of Jesus. People needed to be told what had happened in his life and how Jesus had set him free – and that the Lord of All had come.
Part of following Jesus is to tell his story and ours. Our experiences of Jesus, our relationship with him, our learning from him, our time spent with him, how he has changed and is changing our lives – all these things are part of the story we can tell others when we tell them about Jesus and his part in our lives. Discipleship involves both showing and telling. We need to go and tell others too, wherever we are, wherever we go, whether where we live or far from home. Jesus deliberately sent the man back home, with a changed life for all to see and a message for all to hear. Jesus is the good news for everyone, us included. So, we need to go and tell the story.
Question to Consider
How have others in the past told you, their story? What did that make you think? How did it affect you? How are you telling your story?
Prayer
Loving Father, make me a storyteller of my life in you. Help me share the many ways in which you have enriched my life and the lives of others. Give me courage to tell the stories to those who have not heard of you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Lord of All
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Romans 14:9
Jesus is the great restorer, of people, places, relationships – indeed, of the entire world. He is Lord of All. He is Lord of the chaos that swirls around us and the chaos that churns within us – whether that chaos is of our own making or originates elsewhere. He came to fix what was broken and redeem what had been lost. He calms the storms that batter us from without; he subdues the storms within us and casts out what is alien and destructive to us. He is Lord and no person, and no circumstance is beyond his restorative reach.
A major way in which Jesus showed and still shows that he is indeed Lord of All and is truly able to master the chaos we experience even today, is through healing – again, the healing of people, places, and relationships. He was known as a miracle worker and a healer; much of the acclaim that surrounded him came from the numerous miracles of healing that he performed. The demon-possessed man was one such person, receiving deliverance and healing. As we will see, there were many, many others. The next part of this series will look more closely at healing and the way that Jesus is also Lord of what the poet R.S. Thomas once called “the mystery at the cell’s core.” The healing and restoration of body and soul and mind, the bringing of wholeness to our wounded selves, wherever those wounds are, however they were inflicted, is a key identifying marker of who Jesus is and what he has come to do for us and amongst us.
Question to Consider
How have you experienced Jesus as Lord of All in your life? What chaos has he stilled and erased for you?
Prayer
Loving God, you are a God of miracles and of hope, Lord of all that we are and all that surrounds us. May we have faith in your desire for the former to offer the latter to the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)