Disappearing Tail
Mark 5:17 MKJV
(17) And they began to beg Him to leave their borders.
As soon as it is understood that it has and will cost something, there is usually much less acceptance of the source of healing and deliverance - when the miracle is for someone else anyway. Though it was surely amazing to see the man once possessed by demons completely delivered, when confronted with the bill for this demonstration of Jesus’ power, it was unacceptable for this to take place any more. Jesus had to go. If they had only known that the very man they were expelling would soon lay down his own life (so much more valuable than the mere herd of pigs) for their own deliverance, their assessment of the event would surely have been reversed. As they look back on it now they must have a great deal of shame for the treatment and value they gave their own Deliverer. If only they could have seen the true value of the victory and freedom over what it cost them in a few smelly pigs, they could have shared in the victory with an embrace for the Conqueror rather than a rejection boot.
It is not possible to hold on to those grunting valuables in our lives and experience the One who has come to give us something of such greater value. As the Spirit of God comes into our realm with liberating deliverance, some of those treasures may go running off into the ocean. It may appear that our very livelihood or way of living is being compromised, but with the disappearance of every swirly tail into the surf, there is an opportunity to more fully appreciate the magnitude of the treasure offered to us by the One still standing on the shore. Instead of quietly refusing His access to those certain areas that we thought were ours alone, we can embrace His replacement and welcome Him onto every other shore of our heart to displace anything else that would take oppression with it.
