Healing a Demon-Possessed Man - Mark 5:1-20

Healing a Demon-Possessed Man - Mark 5:1-20

Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

Jesus' arrival in our lives always carries long-lasting implications:  sins are forgiven, bondage is broken, and injustices are corrected.  Jesus didn't come simply so we could go to Heaven, but so He could transform our lives in the here-and-now.  And when Jesus changes lives, it is not only an individual transformation, but it should affect our neighborhoods and communities as well.

In the case of the region of the Gerasenes, the economic implications of Jesus' arrival were so great that they actually asked Him to leave.  Instead of rejoicing that this man had been delivered, all they could see was the loss of so many pigs.  Can you imagine that in the minds of this culture, the value of 2000 pigs was considered greater than the value of a human life?

And yet, perhaps our culture is not so different.

I wonder what would happened if we lived as though Christ had "moved into the neighborhood"?  What would be the societal and economic implications if we lived incarnationally--as the present-day representation of the Body of Christ?  At what point would our culture begin to plead with us to leave?

Your love compels me, Lord, to give as You would give,
To speak as You would speak, to live as You would live.
Your love compels me, Lord, to see as You would see,
To serve as You would serve, to be what You would be.
                          - Doug Holck