Mark 5:1-20
We see the core motivations of the people emerge in their response to Jesus’ miracle. The people’s real care is over the loss of wealth from the drowned pigs and not for the healed man. This once pitiful man who roamed around the graves, cutting himself, unable to be restrained by chains, was found by his neighbors sitting at Jesus’ feet with a sober mind. He had lived alone in solitary torment and unspeakable misery, yet now he was healed and the people barely noticed.
The people grew terrified at Jesus’ power, but their fear did not inspire them to glorify God or rejoice that a once raving lunatic was made well. Instead, the people were fearful that Jesus might do even more damage to their wealth and property by performing another miracle.
Now the pigs did represent the loss of a great deal of money, and the town’s economy most likely felt the lost revenue that the pigs would have brought in from the market or at slaughter. But the loss also revealed the hypocrisy of their owners. These pigs couldn’t have been intended for Jewish use, as Jews were forbidden to touch the animals, let alone eat them (Leviticus 5:2). Yet here are Jewish farmers raising the animals as livestock to be sold. And to whom would the people sell them? In all likelihood, these animals were to be raised and sold to their Roman occupiers.
Now even more ironies arise. The demon possessed men and the townspeople suddenly take on reversed roles. The people asked Jesus to leave them because they were afraid of losing more of their possessions, even though those possessions kept them more dependent upon those who enslaved them. Yet here at Jesus’ feet is a man that had been enslaved by a host of demons (Legion) who was now free. So the man’s freedom was disregarded by people fretting over the death of a heard of pigs (that held them chained to their earthly captors) and yet it was the possessed man, the one who had just been out of his mind, who could see what Jesus had done.
That Mark would highlight only one of the possessed men should in no way cause us alarm. The details of Matthew, written hundreds of miles from where Mark was penned and in a completely different language, are otherwise well aligned with Mark’s account and give us great confidence that these events did indeed take place. Mark’s focus on just one of the two men leads us to conclude that it is his response to Jesus’ merciful act that captured his interest. And to Mark, this possessed man did do something highly significant in response to Jesus’ command:
“Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19, emphasis added)
And with a smile we realize that this is exactly what the man did, even as Jesus was trying to deflect praise from himself to his Father:
“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 5:20, emphasis added)
You must log in to post a comment.