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Our text for Sunday has a lot of “strangeness.” One of the strange things is the presence of pigs among Jewish people (or at least near them). Hey, Moses commanded they shouldn’t eat pork he didn’t say they couldn’t raise pigs. Perhaps it wasn’t Jews at all, maybe it was Gentiles with all these pigs. There were a lot of pigs, over 2,000! I worked on a pig-farm in Fenwick where we had about 800 pigs, I can tell you this, it can be smelly and frustrating work. However, there is profit in pork today and there certainly was money to be made in the first century as well. When Jesus arrived at Gadara, He met two demon possessed men in torment and who were tormenting others. Jesus wasn’t scared of them; the demons were scared of Him. He had the power and authority to send them to their final judgment. They requested permission to go to the aforementioned pigs. Jesus said, “Okay, go!” Whether Jesus knew what would happen or not, I do not know, but what did happen is pretty crazy, the pigs ran off a cliff and committed suicide in the Sea of Galilee! For this, the owners of the pigs were afraid and angry and they asked Jesus to leave their region. Their profitable pigs were more important than redeemable people and more important than Jesus! Of course it is easy for most of us to say, “That is silly, why would they pick pigs over Jesus?” But this isn’t about pigs alone, this is about values. What do we have in place of pigs that might cause us to ask Jesus to leave? Have you ever done that? Have you ever said, “Jesus look the other way or please at least go away for a while?” If we are honest I think we would have to say yes. As strange as it is, we too would dismiss Jesus at times. May we grow in our appreciation of the Beautiful One and say at all times, “I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.”
The storms across the southern United States this past Spring were horrible. People are still trying to recover; losses were estimated to be in the millions of dollars. Storms are not common but they are not predictable and they are not preventable. What often makes a storm a storm is that we are completely out of control of the situation. No wonder the term we use primarily for weather is also a metaphor for some of our life circumstances. We have all had some storms in life…some more devastating than others. Like the apprentices of Jesus in Matthew 8 we may believe that Jesus seems a bit indifferent to our plight. “How can He be sleeping while we are drowning?” We may know the verses that remind us of His unfailing love but our circumstances “feel otherwise.” What should we do in this storm? Should we be napping, bailing, rowing, singing or praying? It is hard to know, that’s what makes a storm a storm. One thing we should always be doing in a storm is “believing.” We may even need to pray, “Lord, increase our faith.” According to Jesus it is our “puny faith” that puts us in a panic. Jesus is with us in the very storm and His presence is the key. We must believe He can end this storm with a word AND we must believe that He can sustain us in the storm. He will not always cause the storm to stop, but He can calm the anxiety in our hearts to cease. Believing God and practicing Paul’s admonition to the Philippians (4:5-9) will bring a “peace that passes understanding.” It was not natural that the storm ceased the way it did when Jesus spoke to it and the peace He gives is not natural either. He may not calm the storm in your life but He has promised to calm the storm in your heart. Will you let the Prince of Peace reign?
