A familiar event in the life of Jesus has captured my attention recently. Not for its familiarity but for a detail that I had overlooked. That detail has been on my mind. This event is recorded in Mark chapter five and Luke chapter eight.
The scene opens with Jesus getting out of a boat as they had crossed the Sea of Galilee. He was immediately met with a man inhabited by thousands of demons who says to Him, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” (Mark 5:7). Jesus asks the demon who he is, and his reply was, “My name is Legion; for we are many” (Mark 5:9). The demon implores Jesus not to send him out of the land, “into the abyss” (Luke 8:31). He asks to be allowed to go into the pigs, and Jesus allows this to happen. Then, 2,000 pigs run down to the Sea of Galilee and drown. The man that had been living among the tombs and wandering in the desert was now healed. The man that could not be bound was now set free. Many people feared Jesus at that point. Those that witnessed the event ran to the nearby city and into the country side exclaiming what had happened. When they came back to kindly ask Jesus to leave, Luke records that the man was sitting at Jesus’ feet. He had been there probably for a long time as the men went about gathering the people to come and see. So as Jesus was leaving, the man that had been healed implored Jesus once again. Now in his right mind, he did not ask to be rid of Jesus but to follow him. Jesus’ reply was this, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). This has been on my mind.
Here is someone who really wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus did not permit it. This would have been a very faithful disciple. Why could he not follow? We don’t know. Here is what we do know. He did not go away sad like other would-be followers. “And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:20). That may have been exactly what he was prepared for. In Luke 9:49, John tells Jesus that they found someone teaching in Jesus’ name and casting out demons. I like to think that Jesus smiled in that moment and thought of the man healed of the legion and replied, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you” (Luke 9:50). We can’t know that it was the preacher in Decapolis, but it could have been.
You may not be the person that gets in the boat and goes across the sea. You may be the person that goes home and shares the amazing things that God has done with your life. Maybe that is what you were prepared for.