As soon as Jesus walked up, the demons recognized Him and knew He had the power to do anything He wanted with them. In fact, they begged Jesus to not send them to a distant place. Jesus gave the demons permission to enter a herd of 2,000 pigs that were close by. The herd immediately plunged down the hillside and drowned in the water. (Some say this is a picture of evil being cast into the abyss.)
The herdsman who were caring for the pigs ran to town and told everyone what had happened. He created a huge stir and crowds went out and gathered around Jesus. They saw the possessed man sane and dressed and sitting calmly and this frightened the crowd. The people who witnessed what Jesus had done told the crowd the story and the crowd responded by begging Jesus to leave them alone and leave the area. Verse 18 tells us Jesus was getting into the boat, so He did as they asked. If Jesus is in or working in a person's life and they tell Him to leave, He will. He does not force Himself on anyone nor does He stay when He is not wanted. Why did the crowds want Him to leave? It crossed my mind that for Jesus to make a difference in the lives of the people around there regarding the possessed man, it had a cost. It cost the herdsman a herd of pigs. I imagine it hit them hard financially. The crowds may have realized that and figured if Jesus was around it might cost them something too and wanted to hold on to their possessions. Perhaps they were simply afraid of Jesus power and had no idea who He was and their fear of the unknown drove them to ask Him to leave.
The man who Jesus freed from the demons wanted to go along with Jesus and serve Him. After all, Jesus gave him his life back and a normal response would be to want to do something in return. But Jesus told him to go home and tell his family what Jesus had done and to talk of His mercy. Notice that Jesus always tells people to go tell of His deeds except the man with leprosy who He instructed to follow the rules of the tine regarding being healed of leprosy.
Let's look at the disciples. Jesus walked along and called them to join Him and follow Him and they did. Jesus selected some of the people in the area to come with Him and do His work. Others who He helped in one way or another, He instructs to go and tell everyone what He had done for them. So, Jesus may call any of us to follow Him, to work for Him and to carry on His mission. On the other hand, if we know Jesus, then He has done something for us. If you were never demon possessed, or ill and healed He still has changed your life and eternity. There is no one who knows Christ that has not had his/her life changed by Him. Therefore, if we have not been called into service then we, just like those in the gospel of Mark, should go and tell everyone of His goodness and mercy and what He has done for us.
What happens when we do? Well, let's look at what happened with this man. What happens when we don't go and tell people? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Kind of a poor response to what He has done for any one of us.
So, it is written that the man went off to visit the Ten Town of that region and proclaimed the great things Jesus had done for Him to the amazement of those who heard.
The Ten Town or the Decapolis were all pagan towns. Knowing that, the man took on quite a challenge to speak to such people. Jesus also knew the area He was in was a strong pagan area and went right to the heart of it all. In a sense, He attacked the most pagan area around head on. He did not attack with armies and weapons. He changed a man's life and sent Him in to tell of what He had done. Simple, yet powerful. Personal testimony carried more power than we give it credit for. Jesus took this simple, healed man and made him a missionary carrying a valuable message. We all are missionaries in our families, schools, workplace, cities, and towns. We have a similar message to carry.
With this simple message of Jesus' mercy and healing power, this missionary went into the towns and told his story. How did it go for him? We will never know this side of heaven but I can tell you this; the Decapolis became the strongest, most central place of the ministry of Christ. This place filled with pagans who worshipped Dagon - the symbol of fertility - teaching their beliefs and celebrating their lifestyle eventually became a powerful home for the ministry of our Lord and this man played a role in making that happen. We should not underestimate the power in our message and story. God has touched each one of us with a story that matters and can change lives. Remember not putting a light under a bushel? Let's not put our story under a bushel for it has the power to bring light into the darkest of places.
Jesus did get into the boat and crossed to the other side of the lake. Again, He was met by crowds. Jesus could not go anywhere. We read many times that He and the disciples didn't even have time to eat. It seems that anytime Jesus was approached by anyone in need, we read something like, "And He had compassion on them." No matter what He had just been through, no matter what He had just endured, no matter where He is trying to get to, He stops out of love and compassion for the lost and hurt and helps them. We never read of people having to make an appointment to receive help. We never read that Jesus tells them He is too busy. Are we too busy? If we are to be Jesus' hands and feet here on earth, should we ever put anything above His mission? Should we ever be too busy to care for one another?
Jesus landed and is met by Jairus (the leader of the synagogue) whose daughter was dying. The man fell at Jesus feet and pleaded with Him to save His daughter. He asked Jesus to place His hands on her and she would be healed. Jesus and the man went off to his house to help his daughter. As always, a huge crowd followed and Jesus was delayed a bit.
We now have a story in a story. The crowds were all pressing in on Jesus. In the crowd, there was a woman who had a bleeding issue for 12 years. Some say it was a menstrual bleeding that never stopped. She "believed" that if she could just get close enough to touch His robe, she would be healed. Her issue was not imaginary or in her head. She had been to doctor after doctor. She spent all her money on doctors who seemed to only make her worse and broke. She was out of resources and out of hope when she heard about Jesus. Being at the end of her rope, she put all her faith in Him.
The woman pushed through the crowd and managed to touch His robe and immediately, her bleeding stopped. She felt in her body, that she had been healed. This was no momentary stop, but a healing. When she immediately felt her healing, Jesus also felt a healing power leave His body. He turned to the crowd and asked who touched Him. His disciples told Him He would never find the person in a crowd this size. While the crowd was huge, Jesus did not give up looking for that person, whoever it may be. The woman was trembling and afraid, yet went to Jesus and told Him it was she that touched His robe. She told Him her story and how He healed her. Jesus offers one of two great comments here. This one to the woman, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over." Powerful words. She had a faith that had grown out of being disappointed by the powers of humanity and turned to Jesus. Jesus delivered because of her faith. We will see in chapter 6 that Jesus is in His home area and was amazed by the lack of faith of those who knew Him. Jesus commented that He could only heal a few people because of their amazing unbelief.
If that woman had not truly placed her faith in Jesus, we might agree, she would never have been healed. It is not that Jesus' power depends on another's faith, but that without faith, a person cannot receive what He has to offer. This encounter with the woman is what delayed Jesus getting to the home of Jairus.
All the while, Jairus is standing there watching this. Can you imagine his thoughts? Could he be thinking about how this stupid woman could cost him the life of his daughter? Did he trust Jesus enough to think that He could handle both situations? Was he growing impatient and angry? Sure enough, messengers arrive to tell them that his daughter has died and that it is no use bothering Jesus now. So, Jairus is going along beleiving. He has placed His faith in Jesus. A woman came along and slowed them down and now his daughter is dead. Where is Jairus now? Has he lost hope because things didn't go as he planned or wanted? Does he accept the situation and want to still go home knowing Jesus has it all under control? Does he give up and walk away from Jesus leaving his faith behind?
Jesus heard what the messengers said to Jairus, (the second of the two great responses) "Don't be afraid, just have faith." Maybe Jesus knew what was going through Jairus' mind. Maybe He could feel Jairus' heart sink, maybe He saw tears in his eyes. Whatever Jesus thought, in a time of the bitterest grief for Jairus, He gave him encouragement and told him to hang on and to just believe.
Jesus sent the crowd away and went forward with Jairus, Peter, James and John. When they got to Jairus' home, it was what anyone would expect. There was crying, sorrow and great suffering. Jesus went right in and asked them what they were all so upset about. He continued to tell them the little girl wasn't dead but only asleep. The response of faith to what Jesus said might have been celebration and excitement. But, those in the house responded with laughter. Jesus sent them all away. He took Jairus and the three disciples into the room where the girl was. He held her hand and told her to get up. The little 12 year old girl (again) immediately stood up and walked around. Then Jesus gave the strict instructions to not tell anyone about what He had done. He also told them to feed her.
One of the days I was studying these verses, something came to my mind. If we think of ourselves as being Jesus to those around us, I can take the story of Jairus' daughter and look at in like this; Being Jesus to others, we can take the message of Christ - the Good News- and wake them up spiritually. However, once we do, we need to feed them. Often, we think of leading someone to the Lord or making the introduction, but neglect keeping an eye on them to make sure they get fed.
Those two powerful verses I mentioned earlier really spoke to me during August. I hope to keep them close to the top of my mind. Let me put them together for you. This is how I like to see them;
"......you're faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over. Don't be afraid, just have faith."
Wouldn't many of us like to see lifelong problems go away like the woman with the bleeding problem? Then we must live in faith. Would not many of us like to have our suffering end? Then we must live in faith. When our faith changes our lives, we can go in peace and we can end suffering. We should try living that way. And the second verse encourages us to do that. We need not be afraid - we just have to live in faith.
Once again;
"......you're faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over. Don't be afraid, just have faith."