Read It

This is another odd passage that grates against our sensibilities. I'm not going to list all of the things I find odd about it; no doubt you have your own. It stands in contrast to so much of what we experience in a modernized, mechanized, medicated culture. However, looking past the oddities, two things about this passage capture my attention.

First, I notice that the people from the surrounding area that came to witness the amazing restoration of a man who was once quite insane quickly got over their amazement. In fact, they asked Jesus to leave town. Part of this may be the awe and fear of a power that they could not grasp, that turned their sensibilities upside-down and confronted them with an act of kindness and mercy that they simply had no way of grasping. However, I can't help but notice the comment made by Mark - they heard, not just about the man, but also about the pigs. I have to wonder if, recognizing the cost of mercy, they decided it was rather too high. Were they more concerned about their financial losses than about seeing one who was in bondage brought to freedom and wholeness?

The second thing that I have to notice is that, when the man asks to follow, Jesus turns him down. Instead, he is sent back to tell of the amazing thing that has happened to him. And where is he sent back? No doubt to the very people who were more concerned about pigs than about his restoration, who chained him and bound him and turned their backs as he made his home in the tombs. And I have to wonder about the faith of this man who, as the story goes, followed Jesus relentlessly after a chance meeting that turned his life upside down. I wonder at the faith of this man, who the story does not even name, and at the callousness of those who had no compassion on him, and I ask myself - who in this story do I most resemble?