Let them be amazed

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

LET THEM BE AMAZED 

Mark 5:18-20

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."  20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

NIV

It is interesting how some of the people were so filled with fear they pleaded with Jesus to leave the region, but then when the man told about his experience with Jesus, those people were amazed. That makes us think that it was those people who thought Jesus might interfere with their financial plans that happened to those owners of the herd of swine, for they must have lost a great deal of money-losing over two thousand of their swine. But that was the last part of this narrative and now with Jesus having healed this man of those demons, he wants to follow Jesus, go with him, be at his side, be a companion, a disciple. However, Jesus did not permit him to become one of the group, but rather thought it best for him to go home, be with his family so they could rejoice they had their husband and father back home and of sound mind, able to love and cherish each other. Certainly, this does give us the idea that we all are not called to be a traveling evangelist, but that as we live out our daily lives in our family setting, we are still called to go tell how much the Lord as done for us and how he has mercy on us. That alone would take us a whole book just to enumerate all the Lord has done for us. Our lives have been filled with his mercy, his compassion, his provision, his healing, and his direction. His word has indeed been a light onto our path, our lives. How could we be silent? Still, it would seem this man told everyone in all ten of the cities that were in that region. He did not simply confine his witness to his family, but he told everyone, he could not keep quiet as to what Jesus did for him. Of course, he was excited to be free from all that torment, all that craziness he was burdened with. Instead of torment, he now had peace in his heart. Is that not our story? Before we knew Jesus, were we not filled with fear and anxiety about our lives? There was no peace, no contentment, and no hope. Life was pretty much all about ourselves, and looking back that was pretty meaningless. But we met Jesus and he had mercy on us, forgave us all our sin, wiped it away, and healed our mind and heart. He gave us his peace, his love, his compassion, and understanding so that we could be of sound mind and spirit. So we tell others about what Jesus did for us. We will not stay silent, we will tell more and more people about what happened in our lives. We are no longer deranged and out of our mind, but we have been healed and so we need to tell them all so they can be amazed.