Mark 5:14-20
The first part of chapter 5 in the book of Mark introduces us to a man who is possessed by a legion of demons and lives in a cave, tormented. Jesus healed the man by sending the demons into nearby pigs shortly before they killed themselves. While there’s a lot to unpack with Jesus’s miracle of healing this man, I want to focus on verses 14-20. After Jesus heals the man, we’re taken to the townspeople who witness what happened:
“Now, the herdsmen fled to the nearby villages, telling everyone what they saw as they ran through the countryside, and everyone came out to see what had happened. When they found Jesus, they saw the demonized man sitting there, properly clothed, and in his right mind. Seeing what had happened to the man who had thousands of demons, the people were terrified. Those who had witnessed this miracle reported the news to the people and included what had happened to the pigs. Then they asked Jesus to leave their region. And as Jesus began to get into the boat to depart, …[he said to the man,] ‘Go back to your home and to your family and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had mercy on you.’ So the man left and went into the region of Jordan and parts of Syria to tell everyone he met about what Jesus had done for him, and all the people marveled!” (Mark 5:14-20 TPT)
The people who witnessed the miracle were so terrified they asked Jesus to leave while the healed man’s hometown marveled at the man’s transformation. The first group saw the horror of demonic possession and couldn’t separate that from the great wonder of Jesus’s healing power while the second group didn’t witness the horror or transformation and rejoiced.
I think we can be like that first group sometimes. Too often, the church or individual Christian turns away from people with what we deem as too much ugliness in their life. We’ll show up though if Jesus makes a change, but even that can be too much. Healing often isn’t comfortable. You can’t get rid of the ugliness of demonic possession, drug addiction, infidelity, or any sin-filled life and expect it to be a pretty process.
Yet they still decided that the ugliness of healing was more important than the healed man or his Healer.
A legion of demons equals about 2,000 and there were about 2,000 pigs. One-for-one, so it was meant to be. They witnessed 2,000 pigs charge into a steep bank and drown. Maybe they were horrified because they were animal rights activists or they couldn’t wait to make a bunch of BLTs for their family reunion. Either way, that had to be a horrific sight to see for multiple reasons. I mean, that’s Wilbur’s entire family, all their friends, and all their friends’ families. Even still, when the people saw the demonized man in his right mind, they couldn’t get over the more uncomfortable, hard to accept parts of what they’d witnessed. They put two and two together that Jesus did the miracle because they asked him to leave, so they knew what they’d witnessed. Yet they still decided that the ugliness of healing was more important than the healed man or his Healer.
In your own life when you witness acts of God, sometimes these acts are strategically destructive and horrifying to the naked eye. We won’t always see this process, so the result by itself is sweet, but don’t let your near-sightedness override God’s glory. Push past your need for comfort and regularity - expanding your boundaries to allow yourself to see God’s works are not only fulfilling for you but those around you.
*Off-topic* Feel free to skip this, but I found it interesting. Some people debate that it’s Jesus’s fault the pigs died, while some believe the pigs don’t matter regardless. However, there are other theories out there: some argue that because pigs can swim, this supports their theory that they chose to drown of their own volition in order to prevent the demons from continuing to torment the town, similar to how Balaam’s donkey in Numbers 22 chose to save Balaam from being killed and eventually knocks some sense into Balaam by actually talking. What do you think? Let me know!