There’s a response which Jesus received more than once during his earthly ministry.
“Go away”
Each time, it happened when someone (or a group of people) started to get an idea of who Jesus was. Let’s look at three of them:
Peter — a man who would eventually become a disciple of Jesus himself. In Luke’s summary of eyewitness accounts, he recounts a time Jesus got into Peters fishing boat to deliver a message (water being excellent at conveying sound waves to a large audience.) Afterwards, Jesus directs him and the other fishermen to let down their nets. Despite fishing all night and catching nothing, they do as Jesus directs, and their nets fill with so many fish, they start to break. Peter intuits that Jesus is a holier man than he first realized, and falls at his feet saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Peter is terrified that Jesus will know who he really is, and hate him for it. Being truly known, and being unloved, unwanted, rejected is a deep fear for many people. So Peter’s desire is for Jesus to get away before he experiences that pain.
The irony, if you’re familiar with the story, is that the opposite happened. Peter pretends he doesn’t even know Jesus when Jesus is on trial for his life. It is in the aftermath of this, when Peter tries to exile himself following the resurrection, that Jesus takes the initiative to restore his connection with Peter.
Peter’s fear of being known and rejected are instead met with knowing…and acceptance.
Gerasenes - There’s an eyewitness account in all three of the synoptic Gospels (meaning Matthew, Mark and Luke) of Jesus taking a short trip outside of Jewish land to an area called the Gerasenes (JER uh scenes). There, he encounters a man possessed by a ‘legion’ of demons. He lives in a cemetery and the people who live nearby were so scared of him, they tried to chain him up, but he broke the chains. Clearly, a dangerous man. Jesus, as the account goes, casts the demons out of the man. The demons are said to have entered a herd of pigs, which immediately run into a lake and drown themselves. Some people who saw the whole exchange, alarmed, run to tell people in the nearby town what happened. We are told a group came out, saw the previously un-chainable man sitting calmly at Jesus’ feet and they ask Jesus to “Go Away.”
These people had certainly been tormented by this man who was far beyond their control. No doubt they worried for their safety and the safety of their families. And how, here was another man — one they knew nothing about — who had handled this threat with apparent ease. He didn’t need violence, chains or an army. Just a few words.
If the people of this town couldn’t handle the deranged man, there wasn’t a chance they could handle someone far more powerful than him.
The idea of being in a situation where you’d be completely helpless is situation most people want to avoid. You likely wouldn’t walk into a biker bar wearing a shirt that says “Motorcycles suck” knowing that if the bikers got mad, there would be nothing you could do about it. The fact that the United States of America has more guns than people is likely connected to this. The idea of the government or other people with weapons makes some want to feel they have enough power to even up the level of power.
But imagine you met someone who was bulletproof, or could make guns vanish with just a word. Your response might be “Please, go away.” It’s power on a whole different level. This is what the people of the Gerasenes realized, and they wanted nothing to do with it, not willing to even entertain the idea that he may use the power for good. It simply wasn’t worth the risk to them.
Pharisees/Sadducees/Sanhedrin - The religious groups and power structures of those groups tried to get Jesus and later his followers to stop spreading his teachings. With Jesus, they tried to bully him, they tried to undermine him, and eventually they conspired to kill him.
The reason they wanted Jesus to “Go Away” (at one point telling him to run because a political leader was going to kill him) was simple: they couldn’t control Jesus. Many people want control over their own life and circumstance, and to varying degrees, control over others. If you boil down most of the arguments in our country over political elections, it’s two groups trying desperately to gain control over everyone. Wildly unhealthy, it was at least as common in Jesus’ day as it is in outs.
The reason is simple: if we are not in control, we are vulnerable. Others can decide our fate. And the idea of vulnerability, especially to Americans, is weakness. Not just physically, but emotionally. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown is a wonderful book about this very subject, and I highly recommend it.
When you find out that Jesus wants you to be emotionally open to him and to others? Well, that’s a pretty good “Go Away, Jesus” moment.
When we hear all the wonderful stuff Jesus will do for us: salvation, possibly healing, some preachers say he’ll make you rich…well, that’s a bargain. But being vulnerable? Check please.
Many draw the line before that. Perhaps we’re willing to pray, go to church, sing some songs…but the idea of losing our independence? Nope. I get to decide what’s right and good for me.
I’ll tell you, this is where my first friction point happened after I started following Jesus. I was a senior in High School and I had already decided I would be pursuing baseball in college. When God showed me he had a different path for my life, I wasn’t interested. I wanted all the benefits, but did not want to lose control of my own narrative. It brought me to a crisis point where I had to decide whether I actually wanted Jesus to be part of my life or if my response was going to be “Go Away.”
I don’t know if everyone should/will have this moment. I don’t know that John or Mary Magdelene or others did. Paul certainly did, but he was part of group #3 above prior to his conversion.
If you’ve never had a ‘Go away Jesus’ moment, I’d ask — respectfully — to make sure you’ve encountered Jesus. And I’m not just talking in a mystical way. If you’ve read and understood what he said and you have not at some point thought, “Absolutely not,” maybe you’ve got some more growing to do.
It’s like me asking if you’ve ever encountered a lion in the wild and you’re like, “Oh for sure! My orange cat sits on my lap all the time!” I’ve had the great privilege of hearing a lion roar once at the San Diego Zoo, and I’ve seen lions tearing apart a wildebeest on safari in South Africa. My house cat Razzmatazz, who I love, is nowhere chose to a lion.If you equated a house cat to a lion, I would know you have no experience with encountering a lion.
A LOT of people will try to get you to meet a version of Jesus they’ve created: Republican Jesus or Democrat Jesus or American Jesus or Blond Hair Blue Eye Staring Doe Eyed at the Ceiling Jesus or Alpha Male Jesus or Sunday Jesus (who only lives at church) or any Jesus other than the Jesus of the eye witness Gospels is always a pathetic shadow of the real thing. Make sure the Jesus you’re following isn’t one of the frauds. One easy way to spot them is that they always agree with you. You’ll probably never have a “Go Away” moment with them.
When you read the Gospels, you’ll see a Jesus who can be confusing and frustrating at first glance:
One minute he’s saving a woman from being unfairly judged (John 8, Mary of Bethany with perfume) the next minute he’s calling a mother a dog for asking him to heal her child (citiation.)
He’s flipping tables in the temple, then he’s meekly accepting his own murder (and forgiving his murderers WHILE they’re murdering him (!!!))
He’s showing up at the house of notorious sinners and spending time with them, then he’s telling them to stop sinning.
And that’s just the start. Wait until you read the First Testament and learn that God doesn’t change, so you gotta work to understand why he’s saying and doing some things that are very confusing at times (to say the least).
When you encounter the real Jesus, at some point, you’re gonna have to face the reaction of “That dude disturbs me.”
If you still hold the same political views, social views, philosophical views, etc, can I ask you to actively look for other people who hold different views so that it forces you to explore your own thoughts a bit deeper? That may be in conversations, or you could read some books that don’t line up with your viewpoints.
For me, regularly reading scripture — and working hard to understand what is being said — is a powerful way to wrestle with challenging ideas.
In our social media age, they use algorithms to show you what you already agree with. You may think the whole world thinks the same way you do. You’ve got to pop that bubble. Trees grow deeper roots when they are exposed to wind and storms.
Peter eventually had the strength and courage to die for Jesus because he let Jesus help him work through his fears.
Many people want nothing to do with Jesus because of the hogwash people do and preach in his name. Learning to see past toxic preachers and dysfunctional churches certainly takes effort. But when you meet the real Jesus, that’s when a true decision can be made: whether you are willing to trust this person with immeasurable power, or to reject it and go your own way. The amazing thing is, in the midst of that power, he lets us make that choice.
I would urge anyone, take care to make a decision that is not based solely in fear.