“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. (NIV)

“Home.” This word can spark delight, fear, or sometimes both. Maybe home is your safe place, where you go when you need to remember what is important in life. Maybe home is where your happy memories live, where you grew up crawling after caterpillars and selling lemonade. Maybe home sparks confusion, where decades of suppressed emotion bubbles to the surface. Maybe home is where you always get in a fight over politics. Maybe home is the only place you’d never go. Maybe home is something you’ve never had.

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In Luke 8, Jesus restores a demon-possessed man who, after being healed, “begged to go with [Jesus]” (v. 38). Begged. He wants to go with Jesus and leave the rest behind.

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When I read this passage, I can think of the things I too have begged of Jesus: Heal me. Teach me. Remove from me. Give to me. Show me. Save me. Hold me.

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I’ve felt judged, misheard, misunderstood, unwanted, left alone, used…and I’ve begged Jesus to take me from it and to let me follow him to somewhere else, somewhere better, somewhere new. Wherever you want to go, I’ll go, Jesus. Let’s just get out of here.

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But Jesus doesn’t welcome this newly healed man into his boat. He replies to the plea with, “return home.” Return home? To the people who have watched him suffer, chained him down, and spent who knows how long watching his life fall to pieces before their very eyes?

If I’m honest, the times I’ve asked Jesus to take me away from something are the times I’ve been too concerned for how my past will influence my future. Don't make me go back there. Or don’t let them hold that over me. Or I don’t want to stay stagnant any longer. I’ve had times when I’ve trusted that Jesus has healed me, but I haven’t trusted that my healing could bring restoration to much more than that. I believed my healing was over, that it started and ended with me, but Jesus knows there is so much more to be had.

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We are told in Scripture that after Jesus heals this man, the people nearby tell Jesus to leave “because they were overcome with fear” (v.37). Instead of granting this man leave, Jesus asks him to go back and speak of Jesus’ good work. Jesus’ healing has only just begun, and through this miracle, he plans for many more to be saved from their own possession of fear.

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Sometimes Jesus does put us in a position where we can avoid where or what we came from. But sometimes he asks us to return “home,” whether it be to caterpillars and lemonade or to memories of confusion and hurt. He asks us to trust that his healing hand is not just good enough to heal us now, but it is big enough to also heal the fears that linger. He knows that the best next step after salvation is discipleship – going back to the world and proclaiming not just our story, but the story of the One who saves. Healing can end, or continue, with us.

Lord, thank you for being holy and for not leaving me how you found me. Thank you for the restoration that preceded me by generations and for the restoration that will continue for those to come. Help me see where I am stifling healing because of my own fear and speak into those places of my heart. Do not let me keep salvation to myself but encourage me to share my testimony. Let me return “home” with your peace and to speak boldly of how you have changed my life. Because you have changed my life. Amen.