Monday - 27th July - Prevenient Grace

DAILY BYTE

Last week we started looking at the story of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5:1-20. We spent the entire week exploring the symbolic context of the story and the nature of this wild man’s condition, looking for points of connection with our own lives. This week we turn our focus to the actual healing itself that ensued from this man’s encounter with Jesus, and all that flowed from that.

Today, the section of the story we’re considering is vv.6-8. “When he saw Jesus from a distance he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torture me.” For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’”

In the way in which Mark tells the story, all the action and initiative in his encounter with Jesus appears to come from the demoniac himself. In the space of just a verse or two there are four action verbs closely packed together describing what this man did. We read that “he saw…”, “he ran…”, “[he] bowed down…” and “he shouted…”

However, if we read the text more closely, we discover that all of this action on the part of this demoniac was actually in response to Jesus’ initiative. In v.8 we read, “For he [Jesus] had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’” In other words, Jesus had already addressed the unclean spirit in the man. Remember too that this entire encounter was taking place because of Jesus’ initiative in going across to the other side of the sea (Mk 4:35 & 5:1), and he was the one who had stepped out of the boat in the first place (Mk 5:2).

The point that I want to make arising out of this observation is this: God is an initiative-taking God. When it comes to giving us life, and when it comes to our healing and wholeness, God is always ready, willing and eager to make the first move. In fact, one of the great discoveries in the life of faith is realizing that even long-before we were consciously aware of God, God was already at work within our lives.

In theological language this is called prevenient grace, which literally means ‘the grace that comes before.’ It is a key dimension to the very foundation of the entire gospel story. We see God’s prevenient grace at work in God’s initiative in creating the world in the first place, in establishing a covenant with the people of Israel, and most emphatically in sending Jesus into the world. There’s a beautiful gospel song that says, “You did not wait for me to draw near to you, but you clothed yourself with frail humanity. You did not wait for me to cry out to you, but you let me hear your voice calling me.”

It is that same spirit of prevenient grace that we see here in this story in Mark 5, as Jesus took the decisive initiative in addressing the unclean spirit in this man.

Which is exactly how Jesus comes to us. And while Jesus will never force himself upon us or coerce us in any way, we need to know that there is decisive initiative he takes in coming to us with divine authority, compassion, and merciful grace, to address that which is bound or broken within us with his words of truth and life. This is good news, because it means that the way has already been cleared by Jesus for our healing and transformation. All that remains is for the blockages to wholeness that are in us to be released. That is what we will explore tomorrow.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, even before we are aware of you, you are lovingly at work within our lives, blessing us with your goodness and grace. Thank you for the initiative that you take in our lives. Thank you for coming to us, for reaching out to us, for speaking words of liberation and hope into our lives. May we recognize in your coming to us your invitation for us to connect with you and experience the kind of abundant life that you lovingly hold out to us all. Amen.