Friday 24th July - Living Among the Tombs

DAILY BYTE
We’ve taken almost a week over the first two verses of this passage from Mark 5:1-20. At this rate, we’ll still be busy with this story come Christmas. If progress has felt a little slow, I’d remind you that this week has really been about entering the text and trying to locate ourselves within it in as real a way as possible. Next week we will pick up the pace as we look at the actual healing encounter between Jesus and this demoniac, and all the consequences that flowed from that. But today, as we bring this week’s devotions to a close, I’d like us to reflect further on this demoniac’s condition as we try to recognize our own story mirrored in his.

In verses 3-5 we read these words, “He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”

It sounds a bit like a scene out of a horror movie about a graveyard werewolf. The point is clear – this man has been reduced to something sub-human, animal-like. There is something utterly wild about him, so much so that he no longer has a place within the habitations of the living, and so the tombs are his home.

It’s a tragic and graphic picture, stark and arresting. This animal of a man, not quite dead but certainly not alive either, at least in the human sense of the word. Again, we might think that he is far removed from us, but what if this is in fact a graphic portrayal of what happens to us when destructive forces beyond our control take hold of our lives? If that sounds far-fetched let me ask you, “Are there ever times in your life when it feels like you’re not really alive, as you simply go through the motions of eking out a mediocre existence? Does it ever feel like you’re living in the tombs, trapped in a dead-end job, or marriage, or financial hole? Is there ever a part within you that wants to scream out in exasperation, or howl like a rabid dog in sheer desperation or terror for what your life has become? Do you ever wonder if there’s really blood flowing in your veins and not just toxic sludge? Do you ever feel so dehumanized by your behaviour that you’d rather just hide away from the world, no matter how agonizingly lonely that might be?

Maybe this wild man in the tombs is not so far removed from our experience as what we first imagined. Maybe his story echoes the universal story of human brokenness, in which we all have our own chapter. If this seems bleak and hopeless to you, then remember that even this story has good news. For just as Jesus entered this man’s story, so he enters ours too, and that makes all the difference.

Next week, we’ll explore the decisive and dramatic healing encounter that took place between Jesus and this poor, wretched man. As we do we’ll listen for the hope it speaks into our own wild, addicted, tomb-bound lives.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy and Gracious God. You have given to me life, a cherished gift that you ask me to take hold of and experience to the full. But instead of doing so, in many ways my life has become a tomb-like existence. Remind me that any dehumanizing dimension to my living is contrary to your intentions for me, and is not really living at all. Thank you that you hear even the wildest cries of my heart, and with immense love and compassion come to me with the intention to heal and to restore. Do your work in me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.