Jesus Is Scary (Mark 5)

In Mark 5, everyone is afraid of Jesus.

The guy who freaks everyone else out is freaked out by Jesus. The demon possessed man lives in a graveyard, breaks chains when bound by them, and spends his days howling and cutting himself with stones. But when Jesus appears, he falls at His feet (5:6).

Jesus scares demons for crying out loud. And not just a demon, but a legion of demons; anywhere between 4,000 and 6,000 of them. There are thousands of demons possessing one unsubdueable guy; Jesus shows up and they start pleading with Him, "I beg you, don't torture me!" (5:7, NLT). He let's the demons go into a herd of pigs, and the formerly possessed man is in his right mind now, perhaps for the first time in years.

Then the townspeople show up, and they don't throw Jesus the ticker tape parade we would expect. They too "were afraid" (5:15). Why? Well, Jesus has somehow subdued the guy who used to talk in demon voices!

Jesus is scary. He's too scary for these folks. Their response to God's kingdom as it's coming to them in Christ brings the joy of the scene to a stunning halt: "And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region" (5:17). These people don't mind a distant, fearsome God, they don't mind a cuddly, guru Messiah, but they have no taste for a Savior who IS God incarnate. When we really come face to face with Jesus, we come face to face with someone far more terrible than 6,000 demons. We come face to face with the awful transcendence of the Almighty Himself.

As we look to worship in our reading today, we need to ask if we fear Jesus. If we don't, then we don't really worship Him. We only worship persons greater than ourselves. If I think I can subdue Christ into my own personal Jesus, I don't worship him; I turn him into a terrier.

Jesus isn't my lap dog. He's my Creator. He's more than that, but he isn't less. If I don't let that truth sink in, then I won't worship him, and I won't let him tell me what to do. Part of worship is letting Jesus tell me what to do. If I am going to repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:15), I have to let Jesus tell me how to live "my" life. The only other response I can have is to beg Jesus to go away. If I'm really going to be a Christian, I have to face a fearsome Jesus and let him have the control of my life I don't have, but so desperately grasp after. Then, and only then, can I hear him telling me gently, "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36).