Madman Turned Missionary
The once-demonized man is restored, the townspeople are terrified, and Jesus leaves behind his first Gentile missionary to tell the story of mercy.
5:14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
The herdsmen bolt—2,000 pigs plunging into the sea isn’t the kind of thing you keep quiet about. They run off to town and country, spreading the news, and soon a crowd comes streaming to see for themselves. The sight that greets them is almost harder to believe than the drowned herd: the man who once lived among the tombs, chains hanging from his wrists, is now sitting calmly, dressed, and in his right mind.
And how do they respond? They don’t rejoice. They don’t praise God. They beg Jesus to leave. Notice the pattern in Mark: the disciples are terrified after the storm, the demons are terrified when Jesus arrives, and now the townsfolk are terrified when they see what he’s done. Mark’s Jesus isn’t the sanitized Sunday school mascot. He is power incarnate—the kind of power that unsettles everyone it touches. He is, as Capon might put it, flexing his “right-handed power”—the raw omnipotence of the Creator who commands storms, silences demons, and remakes men. And such power doesn’t feel safe when it’s loose in your neighborhood. Better to send him away than let him keep remaking the world.
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 own people 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.
As Jesus and the disciples prepare to leave, the man who has just been freed clings to him, begging to go along. Who could blame him? Jesus has given him life back. But Jesus has other plans. Unlike in Jewish territory, where he hushed the newly healed, here he sends this man out: “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
And just like that, the man who was once chained among the tombs becomes the first missionary to Gentile lands. Jesus’ trip across the lake wasn’t a detour—it was an appointment. He came for this man, and through him, for the Decapolis. The man obeys, proclaiming his story throughout the region, planting seeds that Jesus himself will water when he returns.
Reflection Question
Who might God be reaching through your story—not of perfection, but of deliverance and restoration?
