Jesus Said to Go

The Bible is filled with strange stories. In the Old Testament, a man was swallowed by a large fish (Jonah 1:17), a donkey spoke with a man’s voice (Numbers 22), and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down with just the shout of the children of Israel (Joshua 6:20). And in the New Testament, there is a very strange story about thousands of pigs who became possessed by demons and then killed themselves by running off a cliff.

Despite it being a ridiculously crazy story, we know that there is something deeper here than meets the eye. While the reason for the mass suicide isn’t clear, there is one lesson that we can learn. Demons obey Jesus when he tells them to do something. He just said the word go, and they immediately obeyed the voice of the Son of God.

We are also told to go in Mark 16:15, and yet so many of us who call ourselves Christians stay. We can learn an important lesson from pigs.

When Jesus truly calls us to follow him, it is radical. Matthew was collecting taxes, and suddenly, he became a follower of Jesus—a fisher of men. But he didn’t just have a change of vocation. He also had a change of heart that caused him to want to go in another direction. Being a disciple means to accept Jesus as our Master and Teacher and walk the same path he walked.

Before Jesus called us, we were busy pursuing our own agenda. But if anyone comes to Christ, they become a new creation; old things pass away, and all things become new . Like Matthew, we certainly have a changed heart, and that changes everything. Everything we now do is with the purpose of making God smile.

Prayer: Father, may my life continually fulfill the Great Commission. May I always be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ.