‘who IS this guy?’
14 june 09 – boat ride on sea of galilee to kursi, en gev, jordan river (mark 4.35-5.20)
a quiet, peaceful night on the sea of galilee…water as smooth as glass…moon and stars reflecting off the surface…the night sky filled with incandescent light.
the wind gradually beings to pick up, as it does most nights in this region. but the usual gusts of wind continue to build into a full-fledged squall, a storm that tosses the fishing boat violently back and forth. the boat takes on water rapidly, and the crew begins frantically trying to keep the boat and their hopes for survival afloat.
the people on the boat are scared.
all the while, the leader of the crew sleeps as sound as a baby in the back of the boat. the crew are living a nightmare, and their ‘captain’ is snoring away in dreamland.
they rouse him from his slumber, complaining that he doesn’t care about the severity of their plight. he wipes the sleep from his eyes, stands up and groggily heads to the bow of the boat.
‘PEACE! BE SILENCED!’
the squall immediately dies down, and the hopes of the crew are resurrected. the water is once again smooth and still, and the crew can breathe deeply once again.
‘oh, you ‘little faiths’…why do you despair? have you no FAITH?’ the captain lets the questions hang in the air, then returns to the back of the boat to resume his pleasant journey into his next r.e.m. cycle.
‘who IS this guy?’ the question breaks the silence like a laugh at a funeral.
the squall is stilled.
the people in the boat are scared.
once on shore in the region of the golan heights, the ‘captain’ encounters a man possessed by an evil presence. he is turning self-mutilation into a new, grotesque artform. he is already a danger to himself. so he is bound by chains and exiled out in the wilderness, the area of tombs, so as not to be a danger to others.
all of a sudden, he yells at the top of his lungs…’what do YOU want with me, Jesus, you Nazarene? please, please…don’t torture me. i’m already torturing myself enough as it is.’
the man in the tombs is scared.
but Jesus doesn’t really talk directly to the man. rather, he addresses the evil presence within him. ‘what is YOUR name?’
‘Legion’, the presence replies in plural. ‘we are many…and we are afraid. please, please don’t torture us.’
the evil spirits in the man are scared.
‘PEACE! BE SILENCED!’ the ‘captain’ commands the spirits to leave the man in peace, and at once they enter a herd of swine on the hillside. the swine then stampede their way towards the sea, take a running jump, and drown.
the owner of the swine is pissed.
the people of the town are scared.
‘who IS this guy?’ the townspeople wonder to themselves, as they watch this unappealingly fragrant source of livelihood rumble down the hill, plunging into their watery tombs. but almost lost amidst the clamour and confusion is a miraculous occurrence.
the man of the tombs is healed.
he wants to follow Jesus on to the next town, and the next, and the next. such is the attraction of the Source of true life, the Fount of perfect Love that casts out all fear.
‘PEACE! but DON’T BE SILENCED…stay here, and tell everyone who will listen and who won’t listen what has happened within you.’
the One who commands the wind and waves, the spirits and the Spirit, invites this transformed man not to ‘come and follow’ but to ’stay and follow’, to allow his personal transformation to transform his entire town. the man obeys.
the man from the tombs is no longer scared.
and his town, kursi, is transformed. so much so that a basilica is built in the 5th century, a living testimony to the man who was set free from the darkness of evil and suffering into the light of new life, a place of worshipping the ‘captain’ of the boat …
the One who calms the storms that break out in our lives…
the One who drives out the crippling evils and fears within us with perfect, redeeming, restoring, transforming, life-saving and life-giving Love…
the One who is the embodiment of PEACE.
i write this knowing of the many ’storms’ that are battering people, communities, and nations across the globe. i am currently located right in the heart of one of the most tumultuous places on earth…a place like so many others that is longing for release from self-mutilation, prolonged violence, and the ubiquitous presence of evil, within and without. and i shudder to think of what could become of this region, along with all the other regions and peoples who suffer from their own ’storms’, however personal or public they may be. even in my hometown.
even within myself.
i am scared.
and i need the peace, the shalom, of the One who commands the forces of nature and the forces of Spirit to calm and even drive out my fears with perfect Love…for God, for myself, for others, for our world.
as i lay my head down to rest on the boat that sails the stormy seas of life, i offer for you and for myself a prayer for PEACE.
’shabbat shalom’ (a peaceful Sabbath rest) to you,
brian
*currently listening to ‘the Wind’ by erdal erzincan & kayhan kalhor