“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you” (Lk. 8:39).
“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matt. 4:19), from Matthew’s account of the calling of the first disciples. Or the call of Levi, from the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus says to the tax collector, “Follow me” (Mk. 2:14). Or in Luke, Jesus’ words to the crowd that’s gathered around him, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:27). And to round it out, Jesus’ words to Peter after his resurrection, recorded in the Gospel of John, “[W]hat is that to you? Follow me!” (Jo. 21:22).
These representative Gospel tag lines make it clear that Jesus called his disciples to follow him. Being with Jesus, and following in his footsteps, is basic to the definition of what a disciple is. We see in the New Testament accounts that the Twelve, and others, shared an itinerant life with Jesus, characterized by getting up and moving on. The word “apostle” itself actually means “one who is sent,” so covering the apostolic distance is built into the program.
But we know from our Gospel today, and from other passages like it, that the message wasn’t always the same. When Jesus arrived in Jericho and saw Zaccheus in the sycamore tree, he didn’t tell him to hit the road but instead said, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Lk. 19:5). Apparently Zaccheus continued to be an honest tax collector, not only extending hospitality to Jesus but also giving away half of all he owned to the poor.
Or again, when Lazarus came out of the tomb, Jesus didn’t say “follow me,” but instead, “Unbind him, and let him go” (Jo. 11:44). We know from the story of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha that Lazarus went back to his home in Bethany, where eventually Jesus came to share a meal (Jo. 12:2). The three of them were part of Jesus’ support system: people who were very close to Jesus and crucial to ministry, but not folk who travelled with him.
Our reading today is a bit like these other stories. Jesus heals the man who is possessed by multiple demons, and out of his mind. Jesus casts out the evil spirits into a herd of swine, who run amok and perish in the lake. It’s a spectacular cure; so spectacular that people are afraid of what will happen next! They beg Jesus to leave the country, before anything else happens, so he gets into the boat in order to depart. The man who has been healed begs Jesus to take him with him, but Jesus tells him, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you” (Lk. 8:39).
That’s right: “Return to your home” (Lk. 8:39). John Henry Newman, in a sermon on this passage (Parochial & Plain Sermons I.9), imagines that Jesus, knowing our different temperaments, gives different commands to different Christians. To some he says, “follow me,” and to others, “return to your home.” The man who had been cured of demonic possession might have wanted to remain with Jesus because of his dramatic experience. But Jesus knew what was best for him: the more humble way of faithfulness in place, surrounded by the familiar scenes and the customary round.
Well, maybe that’s the case; though I think the difference in Jesus’ call to each of us has less to do with what we need and more to do with what Jesus needs. Jesus needs those who will follow in his footsteps and hit the hot tarmac of apostolic life. He needs those who will follow him; and in a sense we are all followers of Jesus by virtue of our baptism.
But he also needs people like Zaccheus in Jericho, and Mary and Martha and their brother in Bethany. He needs those who will remain in place and help resource his ministry, extending hospitality to him and to others. Jesus is building a network; vanquishing the demons and restoring us all to our right minds and to our own homes. In these crazy and unsettled times in the life of our society and our world, we could use our share of that.
There are different ways to be a follower of Jesus. Abba Serapion, in the fourth century, went to visit one of the early monastic hermits, a woman living in the desert. When he entered her room he asked her, “Why are you sitting here?” She replied, “I’m not sitting: I’m on a journey.” Wherever we are, and wherever we’re called to be, we are always on a journey with Jesus.
As our Gospel tells us, the man who was cured proclaimed throughout the city “how much Jesus had done for him” (Lk. 8:39). Those who are reaffirming their baptismal vows and receiving the laying on of hands with prayer will have their own opportunity to share the good news with others. They will be witnesses in their various places to the things Jesus has done for them. What’s on offer today is new, resurrection life, and each of us will have a chance to claim it through our own reaffirmation of vows. Wherever we are, at home or abroad, we are all traveling with Jesus. We all have a chance to hear again Jesus’ words, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you” (Lk. 8:39).