The Mission

 Sometimes, I wish I could just be with Jesus, hanging out at church, doing "Jesus things" with no complications.  But we have a bigger mission than that.

In Luke, chapter 8, we are told of a man possessed by a legion of demons.  His life is no life at all.  Jesus crosses the lake to heal him.  He drives the demons from him and makes him well, whole, in his right mind.  The reaction of the crowd is interesting.  In verse 37, we are told, "Then all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them, because they were overwhelmed with fear."  These people had just seen the man formerly acting as a wild animal in his right mind, and all they could do was cower in fear.  They sent the One who casts out fear away.  The man's response is much different.  "But the man from whom the demons had gone out kept begging Him, pleading to go with Him;" verse 38 tells us.  This man desperately wants to stay right with Jesus always.  He knows that only Jesus can keep him and guide him.  Only Jesus can heal and teach and make whole.  But Jesus has a mission for him.  Verse 38 continues, "but Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return home and tell all the great things God has done for you.'  So the man went away proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him."  You see, Jesus knew that the people weren't ready to listen to Him or to be around Him, but He also knew that they could benefit from listening about Him.  This man from whom a legion of demons had been cast out was now a missionary commissioned by Jesus to preach the gospel in a Gentile region (that's why there were pigs there).  

Jesus doesn't just want us to hang around our church and do nothing else.  Yes, some of us are called to work in and around the church for a large part of our mission on this earth.  But that doesn't mean that most of us are.  All of us are called to "tell about the great things God has done for (us)" in our homes, work places, market places, and the world we live in.  Jesus doesn't send us out to be away from Him, but to be with Him, taking Him to places where people aren't ready to encounter Him in all His glory.  Places where seeds need to be sown so that He can work in their lives in the background until they are ready for Him to work in larger, more obvious ways.  So let's go out and "tell about the great things God has done for (us)" and let Him do the rest.

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