Sea Stories: Let's Go Over There
Sea Stories: Let’s Go Over There by Rev. L. John Gable
May 1, 2016
I know you could hardly endure it, but I wish we could present this whole series of sermons to you in just one sitting – without having a week between them – without having them seem like stand-alone stories – because each of them relates to and builds upon the others.
We started this series of sea stories by telling how Jesus carried out His ministry of preaching and teaching and healing primarily in a relatively small region on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. He actually called several of His disciples away from the sea itself since they were fishermen, namely Peter, Andrew, James and John with the simple invitation, “Follow Me.” The following week Oscar gave a wonderful sermon about how Jesus crossed over the sea from the primarily Jewish side on the west coast to the primarily Gentile side on the east coast. In doing so, in essence, Jesus was crossing over to the wrong side of the tracks, to a region where He wasn’t supposed to go, to be with a people He wasn’t supposed to care about. (But then again who can tell the Son of God where to and where not to go.) While there, He preached, taught and healed and fed 4000 men, not counting women and children. Not a bad showing considering He was on the wrong side of the sea.
Last week you might recall we heard the story of Peter walking on the water, a further example and explanation of Jesus’ call to “Follow Me”, and Peter’s obedience in doing so when he stepped out of the boat, albeit not for very long, which brings us to our lesson for today which ties so many of these themes together.
One day Jesus says to His disciples “Let’s go over there” meaning, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake (bear in mind the Sea of Galilee is only 7 miles across so this is not as big a geographic adventure as it is a social/cultural and religious one). By crossing over to the other side of the lake they were going into the Gentile region, to that place where they weren’t supposed to go. Of course, the disciples went, no doubt against their better judgment, out of pure obedience, not unlike the Jonah story when the Lord sends the prophet to Ninevah, the capital city of their arch enemies the Assyrians. Why would we want to go “over there”? We like where we are. We feel safe and comfortable here. We know what we like ‘cause we like what we know. Why would we want to associate with “them”?
So, I wonder with you today, where is your “over there,” that you do your best to avoid or that you would rather not have to think about? And, who are the “them” in your life who perhaps you have never taken notice of or thought to care much about? Perhaps it is someone in another country or people group, someone “out of sight/out of mind,” or perhaps it is a neighbor or a co-worker who you find to be particularly disagreeable, disinterested, perhaps even undeserving of your time or attention or friendship. Maybe your “them” and your “over there” is an arbitrary line of demarcation that divides our city. I have known people who live north of 86th street who do not dare venture south of 38th Street unless they are shooting down Meridian with windows up and car doors locked; and conversely, I have spoken with folks who live south of 38th Street who would not dare go as far north as 86th Street, much less beyond. So, where is your “over there” and who are your “them”? And why should we even bother going “over there” or reaching out to “them”? The answer to that question is simple because we take our lead from Jesus and still today He bids us “Come,” saying “Let’s go over there.”
Let me give you an example. Nearly every week in worship we pray for our neighbors in this neighborhood, right? Last week we did the same, but there was something strikingly different. When we asked for prayer requests one of our members offered prayers for our neighbors, by name. He must have named 8-10 names as he called them to mind, asking us to pray for them. He doesn’t live in the neighborhood, but somehow he got to know our neighbors. How did he do that? He did it by going “over there” and by being with “them,” there is no other way.
So Jesus gets into a boat with His disciples and goes “over there” to the land of the Gerasenes in the region of the Decapolis (Ten Cities) in Gentile territory. We then hear a fascinating story about how He heals a man who is possessed by an unclean spirit named Legion, meaning there were many unclean spirits in him. A “legion” is a Roman military term meaning 4000-6000 men. But as we’ve seen time and again, Jesus has compassion on that one who no one else seems to care much about and would rather avoid, and at Jesus’ command the man is healed. In an interesting turn in the story Jesus casts the demons in to a herd of swine who rush down into the sea and drown, causing a great uproar from the swineherd (understandably so) and all the towns people who beg Jesus to leave, all except the man who has been healed, who is now sitting calmly, in his right mind, who begs Jesus to let him go with Him and be one of His disciples. That seems like a good idea, right? There is nothing like a satisfied customer, but Jesus says, “No”. Mark tells us, “But Jesus refused and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you.” End of story. Jesus and His disciples get back in the boat and leave the man behind.
When I read this story recently I thought immediately of the history of the Christian missionary movement in China. It began in the early 19th century, 1807 to be exact, as part of the Second Great Awakening and the growth of world evangelism. At first the impact was limited and isolated, but then it exploded as churches were planted throughout the country for the next 150 years.
However, in 1953 all of the Protestant missionaries were expelled from the country by the Communist government. For the next 20 years and more the Christian faith was outlawed, churches were closed and believers were persecuted, and those missionaries and their families who had given their lives in service to that people group surely must have wondered about them, as I’m sure they prayed for them. Had they gone over there for naught? Had they invested their lives for nothing? Had the Chinese church died under the hand of Communism? Hardly.
When Chinese restrictions were loosened for economic reasons in the mid 1970’s missionaries returned to the field, and what did they find? In 1949 there were an estimated 4 million Chinese Christians. Today there are an estimated 26 million Christians, excluding children and those who are part of unregistered churches. Despite all of that oppression and persecution the church did not die, it thrived. I’ve always loved the G.K. Chesterton quote when he said, “Six times in history it looks like the church has gone to the dogs, but all six times the dog dies.”
So here is the reason I think of that movement of the church in China when I read this story from the Gospels. When Jesus took off with His disciples he told the man He had just healed of the demons to “go home and tell your friends what the Lord has done for you.” Well apparently he did. Mark tells us, “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.”
How do we know he actually did that or that he was in any way successful? Remember the story of the feeding of the 4000? That miracle took place in that same Gentile region and it happened after the miracle of the healing of the man with the demons. So how is it that 4000 people, on the wrong side of the sea, would have known enough or cared enough to show up to listen to an itinerant Jewish preacher preach and teach and heal? We have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect that that guy went and did what Jesus told him to do. He went and told everyone he knew what Jesus had done for him, and he got a response not unlike the one Jonah got when the whole city of Ninevah repented and turned to the Lord.
In his book Habitation of Dragons Keith Miller recounts a speaking trip in which things did not seem to go very well. He had left his home state to address a large group of businessmen concerning Jesus’ power to change human lives. His talk came out feeling flat. To top it off, right at the end, he found himself saying, “You know, I have the strangest feeling that I came all this way to talk to one of you who may be going through some of the same feelings of frustration and self-pity I am. And if you think you are that person I would like to meet you after this session.”
Miller sat down feeling completely stupid. “These people are going to think I’m some kind of a kook,” he thought, but it was too late. He forgot allabout his remarks until at the end of a line of well-wishers he saw a short, heavy-set man with glasses and black wavy hair. His name was Joe. A couple of tears had started down his cheeks. Miller took the man aside and they began to talk.
Joe began, “I am an attorney and I travel a lot. I never planned to come to this meeting. As a matter of fact, I have a mistress in this town and was coming to see her – though I was supposed to be on a business trip. For weeks I have been feeling very guilty. I wanted out of this relationship, but couldn’t seem to break it off. Well, anyway, when I got out of my car a block from this church in front of her apartment, who should come charging up to clap me on the back but three guys from my home church. I almost fainted as one of them asked me, ‘What are you doing here, Joe?’ I, uh…I’m just passing through. I lied, scared to death they were going to see the guilt written all over my face. ‘Hey, great. We’re just going down to hear some Christian businessmen speak. You’ve gotta come with us.’ And I was afraid to say no for fear I’d somehow give myself away. But as I sat there in the meeting and heard you speak about starting a new life – a life with purpose and meaning, I was amazed…Then you stood up there and looked squarely at me and said what you did, and I knew that I was the one.”
Miller was in a rush to catch a plane. “Listen,” he said, “we haven’t got much time. Would you like to commit your whole future to God, including your relationship with this woman?” Joe bit his lip and said, “I sure would.” Miller invited Joe to confess that he wanted his way more than God’s way. He led him in a simple prayer in which Joe asked Christ for the power to begin living only for him. Then Keith and Joe promised to pray for each other and to stay in touch. Miller glanced at his watch and noticed that the whole conversation had lasted about twelve minutes.
Joe did stay in touch. He wrote to Keith and told him that his new life in Christ was both exciting and difficult. He ended the relationship with his mistress and began to dig in to the Bible on his own. About a year later he wrote to ask if Miller would come to his town. As Keith remembers it, “He had told a few people about what was happening to him, but he did not feel they understood him… several people in town had come right out and asked what had happened in his life.”
Miller flew to Joe’s town and traveled with him to the church where Joe’s curious friends had gathered for the evening. Keith says he will never forget walking in to that room and looking into the faces of more than 800 people – all of whom wanted to know why Joe’s life was different. (Miller – McDonald).
Friends, Jesus is still calling us to go “over there” and to be with “them” even if there is only one of them, in His name, whether that is across the sea, across the world, across town, across the street, across the corridor, across your driveway, or across your living room. There is someone over there who needs to hear the story of what God has done in your life. You don’t need to have a great dramatic testimony to share. You are not the point of the story, Jesus is. All you are being asked to do is to go “over there” and tell “them” what Jesus has done in your life. But we can’t do that from “over here,” we have to go “over there”. And we can’t just tell our stories to one another; we have to tell them to “them,” whoever and wherever “they” might be. And we can’t pray for our neighbors by name until we get to know our neighbors, by name, just as Jesus wanted to know the possessed man’s name before He healed him.
Just as long ago by the Sea of Galilee, Peter was willing to drop his nets and later to step out of the boat when Jesus said, “Come”, so today we must be ready to get up and go when Jesus says, “Let’s go over there.” Amen.