Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you

 

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.  And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.  And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I implore You by God that You do not torment me."  For He said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!"  Then He asked him, "What is your name?"  And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."  Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.  Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.  So all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us to the swine, that we may enter them."  And at once Jesus gave them permission.  Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.  So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country.  And they went out to see what it was that had happened.  Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.  Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.  And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that He might be with Him.  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you."  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled. 

 

- Mark 5:1-20 

 

Yesterday we read that, when evening had come, Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us cross over to the other side."  Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along int he boat as He was.  And other little boats were also with Him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.  And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!"  And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?"  And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!"

 

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.  And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.  And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I implore You by God that You do not torment me."  For He said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!"  Then He asked him, "What is your name?"  And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."  Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.  Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.  So all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us to the swine, that we may enter them."  And at once Jesus gave them permission.  Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.  So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country.  And they went out to see what it was that had happened.  Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.  Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.  And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that He might be with Him.  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you."  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.   My study Bible comments that the country of the Gadarenes was in Galilee, an area where many Gentiles lived among the Jews.  It explains that Gentile influence on the Jews caused many of them to take on Gentile practices, such as raising swine, which was forbidden by the Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 14:8).  Once again, the demons recognize who Jesus is, and identify Him as Son of the Most High God.  We notice the power of Christ:  although the malice of the demons is great, my study Bible point out they can do nothing against the will of God, and so they can only enter the swine at Christ's command.  The destruction of the swine shows the real effect of these demons, and we may conclude that the man had been protected by God's care:  otherwise he would have perished under their influence.  My study Bible adds that it reinforces that swineherding was not lawful for Jews, and shows the incomparable value of human beings, whose salvation is worth every sacrifice.  

There are some details we must notice about this story.  First of all the demon-possessed man clearly reminds us of some things we  might see in a modern Western city:  some homeless who are afflicted with mental illness.  He's wild and disordered, uncontrolled:  no one can bind him even with shackles and chains.  The text says that no one could tame him.  And night and day he was crying out and cutting himself with stones.  He lives among the tombs, because he can't live among the living; he is not a part of any community or society.  But the demons in him nevertheless know Jesus, and Christ comes and restores order; even the effects upon the swine have a reasonable teaching behind them.  For if we look at the environment here, we see several things.  First of all, as Jesus taught His disciples only to go to the Jews we can assume that although this is a region of mixed Gentiles and Jews, these are Jews who are raising swine for the Gentile market, in violation of the Jewish Law.  Therefore we may conclude from several aspects of this story that their values are purely materialistic:  they care about the money they might gain much more than a desire to honor God.  We can see it in their attitude toward the miraculously healed man who is now sitting and clothed and in his right mind:  they are just afraid of Jesus and beg Him to leave their region, for they've lost their swine, and that was clearly the only thing they cared about.  That the healed man becomes an early evangelist for Christ tells us about his transformation and redemption.  He goes to the Decapolis, a region of ten cities (this is the meaning of the name Decapolis, "ten cities") of Greek and Roman cultural establishment, but with mixed populations including Jews.  If we could make a modern metaphor out of this story, we might come to see a disordered environment that produced this tormented man, one that preferred wealth and materialism over the transcendent values of God.  This man is afflicted by what is hidden behind the scenes but nonetheless present and apparently thriving in such an environment:  the demonic activity that destroys souls, and the evil that seeks to afflict those who would come to love Christ.  The life among the tombs is a life we might see as one lived among the spiritually dead, where the only thing that matters is material wealth, and not the things of God.  Certainly love is missing from this picture.  The disordered man, we might say, is simply the evidence of a disordered society with disordered values.  Those who herd the swine are perfectly content with the way things are; they are simply distraught by Jesus who sets things in order, and in so doing upsets their own apple-cart and shakes up their material world.  But the formerly demon-possessed man has found himself, and Jesus sends him out with the gospel message that the Lord has done great things for him, and especially telling the story of the Lord's compassion.  The thing that characterizes those who herd the swine is selfishness; even in the sending away of the demon-possessed man among the tombs and the mountains we can see a world content to distance itself from problems so long as they are compartmentalized away and do not interfere with the pursuit of wealth.  We may find ourselves in such an environment, where the things of God matter not in terms of the real choices that people make.  Healing is fine as long as it simply enables those afflicted by the cold detachment of unloving values can function without disrupting that materialist system.  Some of us may even find ourselves living in a family environment like this.  But, as in this story, in a modern setting we also may find that faith in Christ comes to teach us different values, upsetting the apple-cart of those who prefer their swine to the spiritual health and well-being of those who need the love of God alive in their hearts and in their lives, who cannot truly live among the cold tombs of emptiness and abandonment except in pain and obvious disorder.  Jesus will say to one who comes to Him but wants to delay discipleship for a family duty to bury his father:  "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8:21-22, Luke 9:60).  In Luke's Gospel, He adds, ". . . but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  So it is with this man healed from the affliction of a legion of demons, and so it may be with all those who recognize a disordered world without the love and compassion of God to guide us, where the love of money and faith in its solutions prevails instead.