Luke 8:40 And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.
Never Take the Lord Jesus for Granted
One of the keenest disappointments a person can experience is the disappointment of seeing something that is valuable slip through his fingers. This is made even sharper when we have or could have something in our possession, whether it is a relationship, a thing, or an opportunity, and we take it for granted only to later find someone else enjoying what could have been ours.
I can’t think of a greater such example of this kind of loss than losing the opportunity you have to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus. It is very easy to take His presence and His provision for granted. One such story of people doing that is found in Luke 8.
Jesus had gone to the land of Gadara. He had delivered a man who was demon-possessed, and after his healing the man was found “clothed and in his right mind.” The amazing thing is that the people of Gadara, instead of embracing Christ and thanking God, asked Jesus to leave. Jesus had sent the devils into a herd of swine which then ran headlong into the sea and drowned. The Bible says, “The whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them: for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.”
They were fearful. They had more fear of Jesus than the demons or the wild man when he was possessed. Apparently, they took more care of their hogs than they did one of their neighbors. In any event, Jesus went back where He had come from. Verse 40 says, “And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.”
How amazing that one group of people asked Jesus to leave, and when He crossed the water again, another group of people gladly received Him. In fact, they were waiting for Him. There will always be those who are waiting and will gladly receive the Jesus we send away. The point is to never take the Lord Jesus for granted.
Twice, in subsequent passages, Jesus instructs his disciples in a similar way. In Luke 9:5 Jesus says to the twelve, “And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”
Again, with a larger group in Luke 10, Jesus said, “And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” And then Jesus said, “But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.”
Nothing is a worse loss than the lost opportunity of hearing Jesus’ words and living in submission to Jesus. Today, never take the Lord Jesus for granted. There are opportunities such as church, gathering with other believers, your own Bible, and your fellowship with the Lord Jesus. These are things we can take for granted. They can even become an imposition to us. But like a person who loses a good friend or mate because they took them for granted, we dare not lose that fellowship with Jesus because there will be always those who would gladly receive the Jesus that we send away.