True Evangelists

DAILY BYTE

Over the last two weeks we’ve been exploring the story of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. As we bring these devotions to a close, our scripture reading today is the final verses of this remarkable story:

“As [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the demons begged him that he might be with him. 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.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.’ (Mark 5:18-20)

There’s an interesting detail in this story that I truly love, and it is this: in Mark’s gospel this Gerasene demoniac becomes the very first evangelist that Jesus commissions. (An evangelist is simply someone who shares the good news of what God has done.) Earlier in the gospel, Jesus had specifically told the leper he had healed NOT to say anything to anyone (Mk 1:44). But in this story we have the very first instance of Jesus specifically telling someone to go and share the good news of what the Lord had done for him.

The man had wanted to go with Jesus. He was willing to leave his community behind. Maybe after all the time he had spent living in the tombs it felt for him that there wasn’t that much for him to go back to in any case. Maybe he knew that there was the wreckage of broken relationships with family and friends for which he was responsible. Maybe he knew that there would always be the stares, the curious looks, the hushed whispers whenever he walked down the street. “Yes, that’s the one who had the demons that finally killed all those pigs. He used to live among the tombs and howl like a dog, you know.” So it’s not that surprising that he wanted to go with Jesus, especially after what Jesus had done for him.

But Jesus refused. Not because he was being mean, but because there was still a further necessary dimension to the man’s restoration. For Jesus it wasn’t enough that he simply be returned to his right mind. Jesus wanted him returned to his rightful place within his community. And so he speaks these gracious, empowering, hope-filled words to the man, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.”

There are three things that Jesus gives this man in this, his very first evangelical commission.

Firstly, he reminds the man that there is a place where he belongs. “Go home,” he says.

Secondly, he reminds the man that there are people to whom he has been given, and who have been given to him. “Go home to your friends.”

Thirdly, he reminds the man that he has a story to tell that can shape the very purpose of his life. “…tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.”

So what about you? What place, what people, and what purpose have been given to you? We are mistaken if we think that being a witness to the good news means going to some far-flung place or making a radical change to everything that we do. Sometimes it will mean that. But more often than not Jesus has a vital purpose for us in the very places where we are, and amongst the very people with whom we live and work. At the heart of this purpose is the willingness to simply share our story of what God has done for us and the mercy God has shown us. Doing so gives full expression to the liberation that Jesus brings to us, and makes us his true evangelists.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord God for this remarkable gospel story, and the many and varied ways in which it speaks into our lives. Thank you for your gracious initiative in stepping into our bruised, broken and bound existence with decisive authority and liberating power. Give us the courage, the willingness and the grace to speak and act in ways that bear faithful witness to the mercy that you have shown us. In the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen.