Mark 5

After feeding the 5,000 people Jesus ended up going to the country of Gerasenes. Traveling on a boat, we entered the shoreline. As soon as he got off the boat, a madman approached him. His clothes were torn and his hands were scratched and full of scars. There were broken shackles and chains on his ankles and hands as he waved them around. He fell before Jesus and asked what he was doing there. Jesus then demanded the spirits to come out of the man. But the man fell before him and begged him to send them into the swine before judgment and called themselves legion (which means “many”).
The swine suddenly became wild and threw themselves into the sea and drowned themselves. Amazed, I later learned the history behind the man. He roamed the tombs and was constantly tormented by the demons. He would bruise himself and hurt himself with stones. The people would try to chain him to the tombs but he would always break them and his wildness couldn’t be untamed. Later they found him clothed and sane, and the people of Gerasenes were confused and in awe at the same time.
But the happiness was short-lived once the people living their heard about the pigs. The herdsman went into the city to tell others what had happened and soon they were begging Jesus to leave. How could they see this demon-possessed man, now transformed into a normal human being, and not want Jesus to stay? To me, this was ridiculous. Losing a couple pigs to demons seemed a much better option that letting the demons torture one of their own. These people had no idea what they were dealing with and in confusion wanted to push this man away. It was sad really, he probably could’ve done so many miracles there if they had wanted him to stay.
But instead Jesus went away quietly, no snide remarks or retorts. He just listened to the people and left. That was it. How could a man not show anger to a city he had helped? How could he just walk away quietly and let them forget his presence? If I were a man with such great powers, I wouldn’t want to leave- I’d want to prove myself to them. But Jesus didn’t do this. This was interesting to me because I wanted to find the source of his humbleness. With that, I followed him on to his next adventure.