Mark: Give God Praise

1. Additional Scriptural readings suggested: John 3:1-10

2. A short reading:

"Christ sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, "Take up your cross'--in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute He says, 'My yoke is easy and My burden light.' He means both." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 60)

3. Text for meditation (in Italics):

^5:1-13a They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ³ He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; ⁴ for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. ⁷ and he shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." ⁸ For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" ⁹ Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." ¹⁰ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, "Send us into the swine; let us enter them." ^13a So he gave them permission.

^13b-20 And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. ¹⁴ The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. ¹⁷ Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. ¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ But Jesus refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you." ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

4. Reflections: [Note: Verses 13b-20 are not in the Student Book but we need them to fill out the story.] Jesus permitted the demons to enter the swine; they had already been told to leave the man. The man was the devil's tool, then he became Jesus' follower. Isn't this typical? The text does not go into the man's background, as to contributing causes for his possession. Mark focuses our attention on Jesus' authority, as he has been doing all along. I suppose the point is this: no matter what self-destructive things we do or even if we are oppressed by evil in dreadful ways, Jesus can keep our spiritual ship from sinking. After the spirits had left, the once unclean man, now clean and restored, now sat at Jesus' feet, "clothed and in his right mind (the word also means to be "sane)."

The townspeople, who might have been a couple of miles away, according to some calculations, assessed quickly what had gone on and decided that they did not want Jesus around. They had been afraid of the wild man but now they were afraid of the wild man's tamer. They were stunned by the power that changed the wild man. Jesus did not seem to object to the peoples' request. So the Lord and His men begin to get back into the boat. But the delivered man was not frightened at all. In contrast to the townspeoples' fear, this man was full of love and respect. This is what happens when Jesus touches us, isn't it? What we once may have feared, for many people today are apprehensive about submitting to Jesus, we turn out to love, because we know first hand that it is Love that has changed us.

The man's request is good and natural. He wants to be with Jesus all the time. Jesus becomes the clear object of his new passion, of his new freedom. But the Lord denies his request. The new man is to remain at home, witnessing to the power of God to all who will hear. Did you notice that the Lord did not place any restrictions on the man? To some, Jesus had said they should not tell who had helped them, but this man he is free to tell all. The heart of his message is the mercy of God. To talk of God's mercy is sometimes difficult because others do not readily perceive the change in us. They cannot get inside our head. This man was a walking example of deliverance and mercy. He was well known in the district, maybe throughout the land. People could see the change! When we last see him, the new man is proclaiming the mercy of Jesus, and the people were absorbed in what they heard.

5. Questions raised today for personal reflection:

What about those pigs? This story is loaded with social and religious overtones. Those pigs belonged to some Gentile and he was suddenly stripped on an income, at least from that source. I cannot answer this question. Some see in their deaths a moral lesson: this is what the demons wanted to do to the man and want to do to us. Beyond that I cannot go. I do not know what happened later, if some restitution was made, or what. And what was going on with the disciples in all this, I have to leave it with an unknown history.

What is mercy? In this story we understand mercy as God's restoring love given to a person who obviously had done nothing to deserve it. None of us really deserves God's love; it is always a free gift. But Christ had pity for the man, whereas His disciples may well have been repulsed by him. Given the nature of the word "mercy," we can say that God had "intense feelings" for the man possessed with demons. The Gospel announces God's intense feelings of goodwill for all of us, and this is largely the Christian's glory. In the deepest way, God wants the best for us. If only we could live in that mercy.

6. Suggestions for prayer: Since all Christian life, dramatic or what we may call commonplace, is the free gift of God's love, let us pray to the Lord that others will recognize God's mercy extended to them. We now know that God's mercy meant the cross for Jesus, so let us praise God for the depth of His love. In the Beatitudes our Lord told us that if we give mercy we will receive mercy. Let us pray to be eager to be merciful to others, especially those who deserve it least.