Mark 5:19-21

The Voice

Jesus: ¹⁹Stay here; I want you to go back home to your own people and let them see what the Lord has done—how He has had mercy on you.

²⁰So the man went away and began telling this news in the Ten Cities^[a] region; wherever he went, people were amazed by what he told them.

This is the only time in the Gospels when Jesus seems to listen to the pleading of a demon or a demon-possessed person. The demons immediately acknowledge Jesus as all-powerful; the possessed man’s first reaction on seeing Jesus is to fall at His feet and call Him the “Son of the Most High.” Although we can’t know why Jesus listens to their pleading, the effect is clear: the people in that region see firsthand the power of evil and its ultimate destiny, namely, destruction.

Instead of being pleased that they are now free from the terror of the demon-possessed man, the people in the town ask Jesus to leave. After all, the local economy takes a pretty big hit when 2,000 of their choicest pigs rush into the sea.

²¹After Jesus returned across the sea, a large crowd quickly found Him, so He stayed by the sea.

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