Go and Tell
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 5:1-20 tells the account of a man who was demon possessed. This man was so bad that they had tried (and failed) to control him by binding him hand and foot with chains. And this and many other efforts had failed. “No one was strong enough to subdue him.” (Mark 5:4b)
And then he meets Jesus. The evil spirits in the man immediately recognized Jesus for Who He is and begged Him to send them into a herd of pigs on a nearby hillside. Jesus allowed them to enter the pigs and the entire herd “about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” (Mark 5:13b)
What happens next is interesting and I believe revealing of the hearts of the people of the town. Mark 5:17 notes that after hearing of the miracle, “Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.” Why would the people want him to leave after He had just performed such a great miracle? Likely some were angry and fearful because of the loss of the pigs. Surely two thousand pigs were a valuable source of income. Perhaps others simply feared what they did not understand. None of their attempts to control the possessed man had worked. They thought it was hopeless. And they were afraid when Someone more powerful came along.
When the people asked Jesus to leave, he immediately obliged them and got into the boat. But the man who had been healed wanted to go with Jesus! He knew what he had been, and he knew that he had been transformed by the power of God. But Jesus did not let him go. Instead, he tells the man, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19)
If you have been transformed by the power of Jesus, you want to stay with Him. You want to abide with Him. While abiding with Jesus in spirit is good and necessary for every believer, Jesus’ command to the man is the same for all believers, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
