Wild Man

An excerpt from my Devotional:

"When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet Him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones" (Mark 5:2-5).

Then Jesus healed him and sent the demons into a nearby herd of pigs."When [the townspeople] 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" (Mark 5:15)."

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with Him. 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.' 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" (Mark 5:18-20).

One interaction with the God of the universe completely changed a wild man. Unable to alter his condition on his own, the miraculous intervention of Jesus transformed a tormented man into a man full of peace and clarity of mind. Understandably, that man wanted nothing more than to go with Jesus.

Yet Jesus told him instead to tell others about God's work in his life.

My comments:

I think there's a lot that can be taken from this. For one, the man was possessed by a number of demons. They consumed his life and neither he nor those around him could fix the problem. Only Jesus could do that. Jesus is able to free us from all of our demons and all of our sins and all of our temptations. We can't. Also, God asked this man to spread the word so that others might know of Jesus' power. He was called to not merely move on with his life, but use his past as a means by which to share the truth, and even more amazingly, share the truth with his family, friends and neighbors.

Something to think about.