Wednesday, October 8, 2025
The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. Mark 5:14
A Demoniac's Testimony
This verse in Mark comes from a story of a man who was possessed by many demons. Jesus and his disciples met him as they crossed the sea of Galilee one day to the area of Decapolis, a group of ten Gentile cities with a pagan worldview. They were not interested in Jesus and his disciples, or how he could change their lives.
Jesus and the disciples met the demoniac as they got to the shore. It must have been a terrifying sight. The Bible tells us he was living among the dead, in the tombs. He most likely had ripped all his clothes off and he was dragging chains that he had torn apart with his bare hands. They had tried to chain him up but he broke the chains. He was roaming about, crying out, in what probably sounded like a wild animal. Seeing a human in that shape can be a terrifying thing to behold.
Jesus called the demons out of him and into a herd of pigs, which then ran off of a cliff into the ocean and drown. The herdsmen ran to town and told everyone there what had happened. So they followed him back to where Jesus and the disciples were and saw the man that they had known as demon possessed dressed and in his right mind. The people were afraid and asked Jesus to leave. They believed that the demons should have more power than Jesus, so they did not know what to think. They were okay with the demon possessed man, but not with Jesus. They were afraid of how Jesus would change their lives.
After Jesus healed him, he wanted to leave with Jesus. It is understandable he didn’t want to stay where he had lived in such oppression by Satan. There were probably no good memories for him from this place at all. He had been outcast, chained up, tormented by demons and probably by people as well – maybe even family that loved him. It makes sense he wanted to go to a new place and start a new life in Jesus. But sometimes Jesus asks us to stay. He sometimes asks us to stay where we were once tormented by sin and bad influences. He sometimes asks us to stay where our reputation is not that of a follower of Jesus. He sometimes asks us to stay in places we would rather forget.
Why would he do that? Why would Jesus tell that poor man that he had to stay where he had lived the most painful life? The answer is simple - he was sent to advance the Kingdom of God. Jesus sent him off to tell them that the Kingdom of Heaven had come. Those people there knew the worst of this man. Some of them had seen how he was changed by Jesus, and they were afraid and rejected Jesus, asking him to leave. But they knew this man, and they would listen to him, at least out of curiosity of what had happened. This man could be a light among these Gentile cities in a way that Jesus could not.
At that time, his life and the change that Jesus had made in him would influence those people more than Jesus himself staying with them and trying to tell them about the Kingdom of God. They knew who this man once was, and they saw how he was after he was changed. They would listen to him, ask questions, and he would have a great influence in that area for the Kingdom of God. He was sent by Jesus to be the Kingdom of God to an area full of people who didn’t know Jesus. But many of them would want to know him after witnessing and hearing about this man’s transformation.
Sometimes we have to stay in Decapolis when all we want is to go somewhere else. Being the Kingdom of God means that we will be uncomfortable at times, and we will be inconvenienced at times. Part of being the Kingdom of God to a lost and dying world means sacrifice. Being surrendered to Christ means going where he tells us to go, or staying where he wants us to stay, to let as many people know as we can that the Kingdom of Heaven has come!
