Mark 5:18

Mar_5:18; Mar_5:20

Prayed Him that he might be with Him.

The unanswered prayer

I. The probable reason that led this restored demoniac to offer this prayer.

1. A vague but very dreadful fear may have taken possession of him that, perhaps, in the absence of Christ, his deliverer, these demoniac powers might again regain the mastery over him. Fear, the salutary fear, of going astray may often assist the soul; it may be, and has often been our wisdom to be afraid of the possibility of departure from Christ.

2. And there may have been, who can doubt that there was, a depth of gratitude in his heart towards Christ, that, perhaps, he thought could only be expressed by his becoming His disciple.

II. Some or the probable reasons that led to the refusal of this prayer by our Saviour. Go home to thy friends, etc.

1. Because, perhaps, it was better for the healed Gadarene to be a living witness of Christs goodness and power amongst his countrymen.

2. Because young converts are generally unfit to choose their spiritual vocation. Many, in the freshness of their love, are as impetuous and misguided as a mountain stream bursting from its hidden prison. (W. G. Barrett.)

Witnessing for Christ

In general, every man who believes himself to be a Christian, is bound to make such public acknowledgment that men shall know the source of his godly life. Every man who is conscious that his character has been brought under the power of the Spirit of God, is bound to let men know that the life which is flowing out from him now is not his own natural life, but one which proceeds from the Spirit of God. This would seem too obvious for remark, did not facts show that multitudes of men endeavour to live Christianly, but are very cautious about saying that they are Christians-and from shame-faced reasons, sometimes; from reasons of fear, sometimes; from reasons of pride, sometimes. Men who are endeavouring to live Christianly say, often, Let my example speak, and not my lips. Why should not a mans lips and example both speak? Why should not a man interpret his example? Why should a man leave it to be inferred, in this world, that he is still living simply by the power of his own will? Why should he leave it for men to point to him, and say, There is a man of a well-regulated life who holds his temper aright; but see, it is on account of the household that he has around him; it is on account of the companionship that he keeps; it is on account of the valorous purpose which he has fashioned in his own mind-thus giving credit to these secondary causes, and not to that Divine inspiration, that power from on high, which gives to all secondary causes their efficiency? (H. W. Beecher.)

Personal testimony appreciated

Two men come together, one of whom is shrunk and crippled with a rheumatic affection, and the other of whom is walking in health and comfort; and the well man says to the other, My friend, I know how to pity you. I spent fifteen as wretched years as any man ever spent in the world. I, too, was a miserable cripple, in the same way that you are. And the man with rheumatism at once says, You were? He sees him walk; he sees how lithe and nimble he is; he sees that he can straighten out his limbs, and that his joints are not swollen; he sees that he is in the enjoyment of all his bodily power; and he is eager to know more about it. Yes, I was as bad off as you are, and I suffered everything. Tell me what cured you. There is nothing that a man wants to hear so much as the history of one who has been cured, if he too is a sufferer. (H. W. Beecher.)

Personal testimony hindered by the fear of subsequent failure

When a watchmaker sets a watch, he almost always stops it first, in order to get the second hand right; and then, at the right second, he gives it a turn, and starts it. But suppose, having stopped a watch, he should lay it down, and should not start it till he knew whether it would keep time or not, how long would he wait? There are a great many men who are set exactly right, and all that is wanted is, that they should start, and go on and keep time. But no, they are not going to tick until they know whether they are going to continue right or not. And what is needed is, that somebody, out of his own experience, should say to them, You are under an illusion. Your reasoning is false. You are being held back by a misconception. You have enough sense of sin to act as a motive. If you have wind enough to fill a sail, you have enough to start a voyage with. You do not need to wait for a gale before you go out of the harbour. If you have enough wind to get steerage way, start! And if a man has enough feeling to give him an impulse forward, let him move. After that he will have more and more feeling. (H. W. Beecher.)

Personal testimony permits others to share the joys of the Christian experience

I was as much struck, when I travelled in England, with the stinginess of the people there, in respect to their gardens, as with anything else. It was afterwards explained to me, as owing partly to conditions of climate, and partly to the notions of the people. I travelled two miles along a park shut in by a fence, that was probably twelve feet high, of solid brick and coped with stone. On the other side were all sorts of trees and shrubs, and though I was skirting along within a few feet of them, I could not see a single one of them. There were fine gardens in which almost all the fruits in the world were cultivated, either under glass, or against walls, or out in the open air; and a man might smell something in the air; but what it came from, he had to imagine. There were plants and shrubs drooping to the ground with gorgeous blossoms, and there might just as well as not have been an open iron fence, so that every poor beggar child might look through and see the flowers, and feel that he had an ownership in them, and congratulate himself, and say, Are not these mine? Oh! I like to see the little wretches of the street go and stand before a rich mans house, and look over into his grounds, and feast their eyes on the trees, and shrubs, and plants, and piebald beds, and magnificent blossoms, and luscious fruit, and comfort themselves with the thought that they can see everything that the rich man owns; and I like to hear them tell what they would do if they were only rich. And I always feel as though, if a man has a fine garden, it is mean for him to build around it a close fence, so that nobody but himself and his friends can enjoy it. But oh! it is a great deal meaner, when the Lord has made a garden of Eden in your soul, for you to build around it a great dumb wall so close and so high that nobody can look through it or over it, and nobody can hear the birds singing in it. And yet, there are persons who carry a heart full of sweet, gardenesque experiences all the way through life, only letting here and there a very confidential friend know anything about the wealth that is in them. (H. W. Beecher.)

The gospel a living Christ in living men

Why, then, did Christ refuse to allow the man to go with Him? Be was calling disciples, and the very watchword almost was, Follow Me. But now, here was one that wanted to follow Him, doubtless from the best motives, and He says, Go home. Why? Well, for the best reason in the world, I think. The mans nature was so transformed, the very radiancy of his joy was such a moral power, that not in one of the twelve disciples was there probably so much of the gospel as this man had in his new experience; and He sends him out thus to make known the Christ; to glow before men with trust, with gratitude, and with love. He was a glorious manifestation of the transforming power of the gospel upon the human soul, and that was the power that Christ came to institute in this world. It was because he was a gospel. The gospel never can be preached. The gospel can never be spoken. It is a thing that must be lived. It defies letters. It is a living soul in a Christ-like estate. That is the gospel. That can be manifested, but it cannot be described. No philosophy can unfold it. No symbols can demonstrate it. It is life centred on love, inflamed by the conscious presence of the Divine and the eternal. That is the real power of the gospel. (H. W. Beecher.)

The power of God working through man upon men

This condition of the human soul carries with it a mysterious power which all ages and nations have associated with the Divine presence. A man living in that high state of purity, rapture, and love, always seems sacred. He is like a man standing apart and standing above, and seems to have been one informed with the Divine presence. That is always efficacious upon the imagination of men, whether they are brutal, vulgar, or heathen. Anything that seems to represent the near presence of God stops them, binds them, electrifies them. A great soul carrying itself greatly in the sweetness and putty of love, in the power of intelligence, and with all other implements in its hand and around about it, suggests more nearly the sense of Divine presence than any other thing in this world. When the human faculties are centred upon love, and all of them are inflamed by it; when conscience, reason, knowledge, the will power, all skill, all taste, and all culture are the bodyguards of this central element of Christian love, they are really, by their own nature, what electricity is by its nature, or what light is by its nature. They are infectious. If you want to move upon the human mind, that is the one force that all men everywhere and always yield to. The glowing enthusiastic soul, even in its lowest moods, and from its lowest faculties, has great contagious power. If you raise man higher along the levels of wisdom and of social excellence, still more powerful is he; if you give him the dimensions of a hero and make him a patriot, and give him the disinterestedness of a glowing love of country and a love of mankind, still higher he rises and wider is the circle that he shines upon; but if you give him the ineffable presence of God, if God is associated in his thought and perception, as in his own consciousness with the eternities, if he has in himself all the vigour of Divine inspiration and walks so among men, there is no other power like Divine-crowned power, no sordid power, no philosophic power, no aesthetic power, no artistic power. Nothing on earth is like God in a man. (H. W. Beecher.)

Men too opaque to let the gospel through them

Time and time again I have felt as though I were a window through which the sun straggled to come. You may remember those old bulls-eye windows, with the glass bulging in the centre so that the sun could not get through them except in twilight. I have felt that the natural man in me was so strong that not half the light of the gospel came through. Or, as you have seen, in an attic long unvisited by the broom, the only windows, jutting out from under the gable, have been taken possession of by dust and spiders, until a veil is woven over them, and the sun outside cannot get inside except as twilight! So men, cumbered with care and worldly conditions, and all manner of worldly ambitions, attempting to preach the doctrinal Christianity, are too opaque, or too nearly opaque, to let the gospel through. (H. W. Beecher.)

The testimony of a gospel life within the reach of every variety of talent

This issue comes home to all souls alike. It is the solvent of the difficulties which we feel in diversities of talent. One Christian man says, How can I be expected to do much good? I am not eloquent, I am not an apostle, I am not Apollos, I am not a Paul. Another man says, I should be very glad if I were a man of affairs; I should like to live a Christian life in the conduct of affairs; but I have no ability. Now, the gospel force belongs to every man alike. If you are low in life, you are susceptible of living like Christ. If you are very high in life, you are susceptible of living a Christ-like life. If you are wise and educated, that is the life for you. If you are ignorant, that is just as much the life for you. It does not lie in those gifts that the world prizes, and justly prizes, too. It is something deeper than that, far more interior than that; and it is clothed by the creative idea of God with an influence over mens souls greater than any other. Wherever you are; whether you are poor, obscure, mean, even sick and bedridden, or in places of conspicuity, the highest, the lowest, and the middle, all come to a gracious unity. Not only that, but they all feel resting upon them the sweet obligations of the duty of loving Christ, of being like Christ, of loving our fellow men. When we shall become communal, whenever the coronal faculties of the human soul are in ascendency and in sympathetic unity, the world will not linger another eighteen hundred years before it will be illumined. The new heavens will come, and the new earth. (H. W. Beecher.)

The apostle to the Gadarenes

Things must have looked perplexing enough to this poor man! Go home to thy friends! But, Lord, I have no friend but Thee. I have been an outcast now these many years-a dweller in unclean sepulchres, abhorred of men. What have men done for me but bind me in chains and fetters of iron? But Thy hand hath loosed my bonds of pain, and bound me with Thy love. Let me be with Thee where Thou art! But still from that most gracious One came the inexorable Go back-back to thy friends and thy fathers house. Go, tell them what the Lord hath done for thee. What? I, Lord? I, so disused to rational speech? whose lips and tongue were but now the organs of demoniac blasphemy? I, just rallying from the rending of the exorcised fiends? I, surrounded by a hostile people that have just warned away my Lord and Saviour from their coasts? And can I hope that they will hear my words, who turn a deaf and rebellious ear to Thee? Nay, Lord, I entreat Thee let me be with Thee, there sitting at Thy feet clothed and in my right mind, that men may look and point at me and glorify my Lord, my Saviour! Let them go, whose zeal to tell of Thee even Thy interdict cannot repress-there be many such, send them! But let me be near Thee, be with Thee, and gaze, and love, and be silent, and adore! Was ever a stronger argument of prayer? And yet the little boat moves off, and Christ departs, and the grateful believer is left alone to do the work for which he seems so insufficient and unfit! How like Christs dealing is to His Fathers! To translate the story into the terms of our daily life it shows us-

I. That the path of duty which Christ has marked out for us may be the opposite of that which we naturally think and ardently desire. All our natural aptitudes, as we estimate them, yea, our purest and highest religious aspirations, may draw us toward a certain line of conduct, while on the other hand the manifest indications of Gods Word and providence inexorably close up that way and wave us off in another direction.

II. When religious privilege and religious duty seem to conflict, the duty is to be preferred above the privilege.

III. Duty, preferred and followed instead of privilege, becomes itself the supreme privilege. The interests of the soul are very great, but they are not supreme. The supreme interests are those of the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and whoso, forgetting the interests of his own soul, shall follow after these, shall surely find that all things beside are added unto him. (L. W. Bacon.)

Going home-a Christmas story

I. What they are to tell. Personal experience. A story of free grace. A story filled with gratitude.

II. Why they are to tell it. For the Masters sake. To make others glad.

III. How is this story to be told?

1. Truthfully.

2. Humbly.

3. Earnestly.

4. Devoutly. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The refused request

It was a natural prayer of gratitude and sweetness. Why, when Christ giants the bad prayer of the people, does He deny the good prayer of the restored sufferer?

I. Mercy to the man himself.

1. To teach him to walk by faith, not by sight.

2. To leave his fears of a return of his affliction unsanctioned.

3. To indicate that Christs work was perfect, not in danger of relapse.

4. To suggest that a distant Christ, if trusted, is as strong to save as a Christ who is nigh at hand.

II. Mercy to the gergesenes. The presence of the Lord oppressed them. The presence of a disciple among them was

(1) a link to Him, and

(2) a testimony of Him. So the man is left, a living gospel, seeing whom, others may reflect, repent, and ultimately believe.

III. Mercy to the family of the restored man. His family had suffered much pain, and probably poverty; let them have the pleasure of seeing his health and peace, and the advantage of his care. For wife and childrens comfort he should return. How thoughtful is Christ of our best interests, even when He is crossing our wishes! How merciful in leaving an evangelist with those on whom some would have called down fire from heaven! (R. Glover.)

Christs disinterestedness

Do you ever find, among all the persons whom Christ miraculously cured, a single one whom He retained to be afterwards near Him as His disciple, His attendant, His votary?…Where now is your worldly friend who will behave himself towards you in this fashion? So far from it, no sooner has he done you any service, however trifling, than he immediately lays a claim upon you for your daily attendance upon him. He requires you to be henceforth always at his elbow, and to be giving him continually every possible proof of your gratitude, of your devoted and even slavish attachment to his person. (Segneri.)

The home missionary

A converted man should be a missionary to his fellow men.

I. Christian missionary work, the duty of every converted man, should be undertaken

(1) out of gratitude to God;

(2) from regard to human need,

(3) to promote the glory of Christ.

II. Christian effort should begin at home.

III. Christian usefulness must be based on personal experience.

IV. Christian obedience will be crowned with the reward of success. (H. Phillips.)

The mission of the saved

Men saved from Satan-

1. Beg to sit at Jesus feet, clothed, and in their right mind.

2. Ask to be with Him always, and never to cease from personal attendance upon Him.

3. Go at His bidding, and publish abroad what great things He has done for them.

4. Henceforth have nothing to do but to live for Jesus and for Him alone. Come, ye despisers, and see yourselves as in a looking glass. The opposite of all this is true of you. Look until you see yourselves transformed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The restored demoniac

I. An interesting prayer which notwithstanding was rejected,

1. The prayer itself-To be with Christ. Was not this the end of Christs mission, that He might collect souls to Himself? Gather them out of the world, etc. It seems evidently a wise and proper prayer, a pious prayer, the sign of a gracious state of soul.

2. The probable reasons by which this prayer was dictated. It might be the result

(1) Of holy cautiousness and fear.

(2) From grateful love to Jesus.

(3) From a desire to know more of Christ.

3. The refusal of this request. But Christ sent him away. However wise and proper and pious the mans petition appears, Jesus determined and directed otherwise; his suit could not be granted. Here let us pause and learn

(1) how necessary to be taught rightly to pray. We know not what we should pray for.

(2) We should learn to be satisfied with the Lords good pleasure whether He grants our requests or not.

II. An important command which was piously obeyed. Jesus sent him, etc.

1. The nature of the command. He was to be a personal witness for Christ; a monument of Christs power and compassion. He could testify

(1) to the enthronement of reason.

(2) To emancipation from the thraldom of evil spirits.

(3) To restoration to happiness.

(4) To the Author of his deliverance, Jesus.

2. The obedience which was rendered.

(1) It was prompt and immediate. He did not cavil, nor reason, nor refuse.

(2) It was decided and public. Not afraid, nor ashamed.

Application:

1. The end of our conversion is more than our own salvation.

(1) We must testify to and for the benefit of others.

(2) We must glorify Christ.

2. The converted should not consult merely their own comfort.

3. Christian obedience is unquestioning and exact.

4. The hearts desires of the saints shall be granted in a future state. Be with Jesus forever, etc. (J. Burns, D. D. , LL. D.)

At the feet of Jesus

Two grand features in the close of the parable.

I. The position in which the man was found.

1. How interesting is this spectacle. It was the place of nearness to Jesus and intimate communion with Him. Perhaps he selected this place also as the site of safety, or, he may have been seeking that instruction which was requisite to guide and to direct him.

2. What took place in the case of the demoniac is only a fore-light of what will take place in the case of all creation.

II. The petition that he might be allowed to remain with him or to accompany him. Why?

1. Because he might have recollected the fact of which the words are the description (Mat_12:43). If we have obtained anything from Christ for which we feel thankful, we shall be jealous lest we lose it.

2. To give expression to the deep love that he felt to Him.

III. The actual answer that Christ gave him. Explain the seeming contradiction between this and Luk_8:56 and others. We have in this indirect but striking evidence of the divinity of the character of Jesus. A mere, common wonder worker would have been too glad of having a living specimen of his great power to accompany him into all lands, etc. We have these great lessons taught us! That he that receives the largest blessing from Christ is bound to go and be the largest and most untiring distributor of that blessing. We receive not for ourselves, but for diffusion, etc.

2. That the way, if you are Christians, to be with Christ, and to be with Him most closely, is to go out and labour for Christ with the greatest diligence. We are never so near to Christ as when, in His spirit and in His name, we are doing His work and fulfilling His will.

3. That labouring for Christ, according to Christs command, is the very way to enjoy the greatest happiness that results from being with Christ. Labour for Christ and happiness from Christ are twins that are never separated.

4. That as Christ, in hearing the demoniac, had an object beyond him, so, in healing us, He has an object beyond us.

5. But there is something very instructive, too, in the place that the Saviour bade this recovered demoniac go to. Go to the sphere in which providence has placed you, and into that sphere bring the glorious riches with which grace has enriched you … Test your missionary powers at home before you try them in the school, etc. The little home, the family, is the fountain that feeds with a pure and noble population the large home, which is the country. Let us begin at home, but let us not stop there.

6. Conceive, if you can, the return of the man to his home-the picture realized in his reception. (J. Caroming, D. D.)

The power of home in regenerating society

Loyalty, and love, and happiness in Britains homes, will make loyalty, and happiness, and love be reflected from Britains altars and from Britains shores. There may be a mob, or there may be slaves; but let statesmen recollect there cannot be a people unless there be a home. I repeat, there may be in a country slaves, or there may be mobs, but there cannot be in a country a people, the people, unless it be a country of holy and happy homes. And he that helps to elevate, sustain, ennoble, and sanctify the homes of a country, contributes more to its glory, its beauty, its permanence, than all its legislators, its laws, its literature, its science, its poetry together. Our Lord began at the first home that was found at Bethabara beyond Jordan-the home of Andrew and Peter; and starting from it, he carried the glorious gospel of which he was the author into the home of Mary and Martha at Bethany, of Cornelius the centurion, of Lydia, of the gaoler of Philippi, of Crispus, and finally of Timothy; and these consecrated and converted homes became multiplying foci amid the worlds darkness, till the scattered and ever multiplying lights shall be gathered one day into one broad blaze, that shall illuminate and make glad the wide world. Let us begin at home, but let us not stop there. It is groups of homes that make a congregation; it is clusters of congregations that make a country. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

The return of the cured demoniac

He went home, and proclaimed not only there, but in all Decapolis, what God had done for him. Conceive, if you can, the picture realized in his reception. He turns his face quietly to his home the first time, perhaps, for years-the first time, at least, that he recollects. One child of his, looking from the casement, sees the father return, and gives the alarm: every door is doubly bolted; the mother and children cling together in one group, lest the supposed still fierce demoniac, who had so often torn and assailed them before, should again tear and utterly destroy them. But a second child, looking, calls out, My father is clothed; before he was not clothed at all. A third child shouts to the mother, My father is not only clothed, but he comes home so quietly, so beautifully, that he looks as when he dandled us upon his knee, kissed us, and told us sweet and interesting stories: can this be he? A fourth exclaims, It is my father, and he seems so gentle, and so quiet, and so beautiful-come, my mother, and see. The mother, not believing it to be true, but wishing it were so, runs and looks with sceptical belief; and lo! it is the dead one alive, it is the lost one found, it is the naked one clothed, it is the demon-possessed one, holy, happy, peaceful; and when he comes and mingles with that glad and welcoming household, the group upon the threshold grows too beautiful before my imagination for me to attempt to delineate, and its hearts are too happy for human language to express. The father crosses the threshold, and the inmates welcome him home to their fireside. The father gathers his children around him, while his wife sits and listens, and is not weary with listening the whole day and the whole night, as he tells them how One who proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah, who is the Prophet promised to the fathers, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, spake to him, exorcised the demons, and restored him to his right mind, and made him happy. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

Work for Christ the way to retain the vision of Him

A poor monk, who, in spite of his cowl, seems from the fact to have been one of Gods hidden ones, was one day, according to a mediaeval legend, meditating in his cell. A glorious vision burst upon him, it is recorded, with the brilliancy of noon-day, and revealed in its bosom the Man of Sorrows, the acquainted with grief. The monk was gazing on the spectacle charmed, delighted, adoring. The convent bell rang; and that bell was the daily signal for the monk to go to the poor that were crowding round the convent gate, and distribute bread and fragments of food among them. The monk hesitated whether he should remain to enjoy the splendid apocalypse, or should go out to do the daily drudgery that belonged to him. At last he decided on the latter; he left the vision with regret, and went out at the bidding of the bell to distribute the alms, and bread, and crumbs among the poor. He returned, of course expecting that, because of his not seeming to appreciate it, the vision would be darkened; but to his surprise, when he returned, the vision was there still, and on his expressing his amazement that his apparent want of appreciating it and being thankful for it should be overlooked, and that the vision should still continue in augmented splendour, a voice came from the lips of the Saviour it revealed, which said, If you had stayed, I had not. This may be a legend but it teaches a great lesson-that active duty in Christs name and for Christs sake is the way to retain the vision of His peace in all its permanence and power. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

The three prayers

Here are three prayers, the prayer of the devils, of the Gadarenes, and of the demoniac who had been restored. The first prayer was answered, and the devils obtained their wish; the second was complied with, but the last was refused, though all he asked was permission to be with Christ; surely there must be something very instructive in all this, otherwise it would not have been registered.

I. And all the devils besought Jesus, saying, send us into the swine. Here, the devils acknowledge the power of Christ over them; they cannot injure even a brute without leave. This is orthodox so far as it goes, and even beyond the creed of many who profess themselves Christians. None of the devils in hell disbelieve the divinity of Christ. But cannot faith save us? It can, but not such faith as is purely a conviction of truth. All Christians know that their speculative surpasses their experimental and practical religion. But will devils pray? and will they be heard? Yes-and forthwith Jesus gave them leave. Their request was founded on malice and mischief, in order to render Christ obnoxious to the Gadarenes, through the spoiling of their goods. Permission was given in judgment. Satan killed the children of Job; but Job triumphed in his trial. The same permission was given to Satan to tempt the Gadarenes, how different the result; he destroyed their property and them with it. The gold will endure the furnace, the dross will not.

II. They saw the poor wretch dispossessed and instead of bringing all their sick to be healed besought Jesus to depart. How dreadful was this prayer! Oh, if you were of Moses you would say, If Thy presence go not with us, suffer us not to go up hence. David said, Cast me not away from Thy presence. You need the Saviours presence as much as the earth needs the sun; in adversity, death, judgment. Observe, you may pray thus without words, actions speak louder than words. When you would tell a man to be off, it is done without speaking; an eye, a finger, nay, but turning your back will effect it. God interprets your meaning, he translates your actions into intelligible language. Wonder not if God takes you at your word; He punishes sin with sin; sealing mens eyes when they will not see; withdrawing grace that is neglected.

III. The poor patient prayed to be with Christ.

1. His prayer arose from fear.

2. From gratitude.

3. From love. Everyone who has obtained grace prays, Lord, show me Thy glory.

Learn:

1. To think correctly of answers to prayers-that God may hear in wrath, or refuse a petition in kindness. God can distinguish our welfare from our wishes.

2. There is no ostentation in the miracle. The pure benevolence of Jesus terminated with the individual. The religion of Jesus Christ calls us into the world, as well as out of it. It calls us out, as to its spirit and maxims, in, as the sphere of activity, and place of trial. The idea of living among the wretched Gadarenes must have been uncomfortable to the renewed mind of the poor man, yet he is directed to go, without murmuring or gainsaying; not, indeed, in the spirit of the Pharisee, nor of the rigid professor, who, while he confesses a man can have nothing, except it be given him from above, is occupied all the day in maligning and censuring his neighbours; but to display the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ in his conduct and conversation, to relate his recovery, to honour the Physician, and to direct others unto Him. Oh, if there were a history of all whom the Saviour has made whole, what a work would it be. (W. Jay.)

Home piety a proof of real religion

He that is not relatively godly, is not really so; a man who is bad at home is bad throughout, and this reminds me of a wise reply of Whitfield to the question Is such a one a good man? How should I know that? I never lived with him. (W. Jay.)

The recovered demoniac

I. The mans request. We cannot wonder that his mind should shrink at the thought of the devils returning in the absence of our Lord. He may have heard of such cases. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man … the last state of that man is worse than the first. Thus the soul rescued from Satan is frequently for a time unable to rejoice, but appears to receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. Our feelings, after any unexpected deliverance or event, are such that we find it difficult to believe its reality. Go, tell the mother who has heard of the shipwreck of her child, that her son who was dead is alive again, she is with difficulty persuaded of its truth. And when so much is at stake we should fear for those who do not sometimes fear for themselves. Can the Christian, harassed by rising corruption, beset with temptation, feel no concern?

II. Our Lords answer. We might have supposed, after the great salvation Jesus had wrought for him, He would not have been reluctant to grant him any favour, especially when the request was dictated by gratitude.

1. The reply showed the modesty of the Saviour.

2. Also His compassion for the mans friends. Mercy to one member of the family should be an encouragement to all the rest.

3. And the great object which every man truly converted to God will keep perpetually in view is, the promotion of the Divine glory, and the extension of the Redeemers kingdom, in the salvation of those around him. The wife of his bosom, the parent, the brother, or the child; reason, as well as affection, points out these as the first objects of our concern. Religion does not petrify the feelings, and make us to be so absorbed in seeking our own safety, as to be indifferent to the fate of those about us; the grace of God does not annihilate the sympathies, or snap the bonds of nature; no, it strengthens and refines those sympathies, deepens the channel in which the affections flow, and purifies and consecrates the stream. But are there not some, who, instead of entreating Jesus that they may go with Him, are saying of the world and of the flesh, We have loved these, and after them we will go? But, fellow sinners, be persuaded it is the way of transgression, it is hard. (S. Bridge, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 5:18-20. He that had been possessed, prayed that he might be with him — To enjoy the further benefit of his instructions. Perhaps he feared lest, if Jesus left him, he should relapse into his former condition, the terrors of which he dreaded. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not — Judging it proper to leave him in that country as a witness of the power and goodness of his deliverer, and of the folly and wickedness of these Gadarenes, who rejected such a Saviour. Go home to thy friends — To thy relations and neighbours; and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee — This was peculiarly needful there, where Christ did not go in person. He began to publish in Decapolis, &c. — Not only at home, but in all that country where Jesus himself did not come.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mark

THE LORD OF DEMONS

A REFUSED REQUEST

Mar 5:18 - Mar 5:19.

There are three requests, singularly contrasted with each other, made to Christ in the course of this miracle of healing the Gadarene demoniac. The evil spirits ask to be permitted to go into the swine; the men of the country, caring more for their swine than their Saviour, beg Him to take Himself away, and relieve them of His unwelcome presence; the demoniac beseeches Him to be allowed to stop beside Him. Two of the requests are granted; one is refused. The one that was refused is the one that we might have expected to be granted.

Christ forces Himself upon no man, and so, when they besought Him to go, He went, and took salvation with Him in the boat. Christ withdraws Himself from no man who desires Him. ‘Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, and said, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.’

Now, do you not think that if we put these three petitions and their diverse answers together, and look especially at this last one, where the natural wish was refused, we ought to be able to learn some lessons? The first thing I would notice is, the clinging of the healed man to his Healer.

Think of him half an hour before, a raging maniac; now all at once conscious of a strange new sanity and calmness; instead of lashing himself about, and cutting himself with stones, and rending his chains and fetters, ‘sitting clothed, and in his right mind,’ at the feet of Jesus. No wonder that he feared that when the Healer went the demons would come back-no wonder that he besought Him that he might still keep within that quiet sacred circle of light which streamed from His presence, across the border of which no evil thing could pass. Love bound him to his Benefactor; dread made him shudder at the thought of losing his sole Protector, and being again left, in that partly heathen land, solitary, to battle with the strong foes that had so long rioted in his house of life. And so ‘he begged that he might be with Him.’

That poor heathen man-for you must remember that this miracle was not wrought on the sacred soil of Palestine-that poor heathen man, just having caught a glimpse of how calm and blessed life might be, is the type of us all. And there is something wrong with us if our love does not, like his, desire above all things the presence of Jesus Christ; and if our consciousness of impotence does not, in like manner, drive us to long that our sole Deliverer shall not be far away from us. Merchant-ships in time of war, like a flock of timid birds, keep as near as they can to the armed convoy, for the only safety from the guns of the enemy’s cruisers is in keeping close to their strong protector. The traveller upon some rough, unknown road, in the dark, holds on by his guide’s skirts or hand, and feels that if he loses touch he loses the possibility of safety. A child clings to his parent when dangers are round him. The convalescent patient does not like to part with his doctor. And if we rightly learned who it is that has cured us, and what is the condition of our continuing whole and sound, like this man we shall pray that He may suffer us to be with Him. Fill the heart with Christ, and there is no room for the many evil spirits that make up the legion that torments it The empty heart invites the devils, and they come back, Even if it is ‘swept and garnished,’ and brought into respectability, propriety, and morality, they come back, There is only one way to keep them out; when the ark is in the Temple, Dagon will be lying, like the brute form that he is, a stump upon the threshold. The condition of our security is close contact with Jesus Christ. If we know the facts of life, the temptations that ring us round, the weakness of these wayward wills of ours, and the strength of this intrusive and masterful flesh and sense that we have to rule, we shall know and feel that our only safety is our Master’s presence.

Further, note the strange refusal.

Jesus Christ went through the world, or at least the little corner of it which His earthly career occupied, seeking for men that desired to have Him, and it is impossible that He should have put away any soul that desired to be present with Him. Yet, though His one aim was to draw men to Him, and the prospect that He should be able to exercise a stronger attraction over a wider area reconciled Him to the prospect of the Cross, so that He said in triumph, ‘I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me,’ he meets this heathen man, feeble in his crude and recent sanity, with a flat refusal. ‘He suffered him not.’ Most probably the reason for the strange and apparently anomalous dealing with such a desire was to be found in the man’s temperament. Most likely it was the best thing for him that he should stop quietly in his own house, and have no continuance of the excitement and perpetual change which would have necessarily been his lot if he had been allowed to go with Jesus Christ. We may be quite sure that when the Lord with one hand seemed to put him away, He was really, with a stronger attraction, drawing him to Himself; and that the peculiarity of the method of treatment was determined with exclusive reference to the real necessities of the person who was subject to it.

But yet, underlying the special case, and capable of being stated in the most general terms, lies this thought, that Jesus Christ’s presence, the substance of the demoniac’s desire, may be as completely, and, in some cases, will be more completely, realised amongst the secularities of ordinary life than amidst the sanctities of outward communion and companionship with Him. Jesus was beginning here to wean the man from his sensuous dependence upon His localised and material presence. It was good for him, and it is good for us all, to ‘feel our feet,’ so to speak. Responsibility laid, and felt to be laid, upon us is a steadying and ennobling influence. And it was better that the demoniac should learn to stand calmly, when apparently alone, than that he should childishly be relying on the mere external presence of his Deliverer.

Be sure of this, that when the Lord went away across the lake, He left His heart and His thoughts, and His care and His power over there, on the heathen side of the sea; and that when ‘the people thronged Him’ on the other side, and the poor woman pressed through the crowd, that virtue might come to her by her touch, virtue was at the same time raying out across the water to the solitary newly healed demoniac, to sustain him too.

And so we may all learn that we may have, and it depends upon ourselves whether we do or do not have, all protection all companionship, and all the sweetness of Christ’s companionship and the security of Christ’s protection just as completely when we are at home amongst our friends-that is to say, when we are about our daily work, and in the secularities of our calling or profession-as when we are in the ‘secret place of the Most High’ and holding fellowship with a present Christ. Oh, to carry Him with us into every duty, to realise Him in all circumstances, to see the light of His face shine amidst the darkness of calamity, and the pointing of His directing finger showing us our road amidst all perplexities of life! Brethren, that is possible. When Jesus Christ ‘suffered him not to go with Him,’ Jesus Christ stayed behind with the man.

Lastly, we have here the duty enjoined.

‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.’ The man went home and translated the injunction into word and deed. As I said, the reason for the peculiarity of his treatment, in his request being refused, was probably his peculiar temperament. So again I would say the reason for the commandment laid upon him, which is also anomalous, was probably the peculiarity of his disposition. Usually our Lord was careful to enjoin silence upon those whom He benefited by His miraculous cures. That injunction of silence was largely owing to His desire not to create or fan the flame of popular excitement. But that risk was chiefly to be guarded against in the land of Israel, and here, where we have a miracle upon Gentile soil, there was not the same occasion for avoiding talk and notoriety.

But probably the main reason for the exceptional commandment to go and publish abroad what the Lord had done was to be found in the simple fact that this man’s malady and his disposition were such that external work of some sort was the best thing to prevent him from relapsing into his former condition. His declaration to everybody of his cure would help to confirm his cure; and whilst he was speaking about being healed, he would more and more realise to himself that he was healed. Having work to do would take him out of himself, which no doubt was a great security against the recurrence of the evil from which he had been delivered. But however that may be, look at the plain lesson that lies here. Every healed man should be a witness to his Healer; and there is no better way of witnessing than by our lives, by the elevation manifested in our aims, by our aversion from all low, earthly, gross things, by the conspicuous-not made conspicuous by us, conspicuous because it cannot be hid-concentration and devotion, and unselfishness and Christlikeness of our daily lives to show that we are really healed. If we manifest these things in our conduct, then, when we say ‘it was Jesus Christ that healed me,’ people will be apt to believe us. But if this man had gone away into the mountains and amongst the tombs as he used to do, and had continued all the former characteristics of his devil-ridden life, who would have believed him when he talked about being healed? And who ought to believe you when you say, ‘Christ is my Saviour,’ if your lives are, to all outward seeming, exactly what they were before? The sphere in which the healed man’s witness was to be borne tested the reality of his healing. ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them.’ I wonder how many Christian professors there are who would be least easily believed by those who live in the same house with them, if they said that Jesus had cast their devils out of them. It is a great mistake to take recent converts, especially if they have been very profligate beforehand, and to hawk them about the country as trophies of God’s converting power. Let them stop at home, and bethink themselves, and get sober and confirmed, and let their changed lives prove the reality of Christ’s healing power. They can speak to some purpose after that.

Further, remember that there is no better way for keeping out devils than working for Jesus Christ. Many a man finds that the true cure-say, for instance, of doubts that buzz about him and disturb him, is to go away and talk to some one about his Saviour. Work for Jesus amongst people that do not know Him is a wonderful sieve for sifting out the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. And when we go to other people, and tell them of that Lord, and see how the message is sometimes received, and what it sometimes does, we come away with confirmed faith.

But, in any case, it is better to work for Him than to sit alone, thinking about Him. The two things have to go together; and I know very well that there is a great danger, in the present day, of exaggeration, and insisting too exclusively upon the duty of Christian work whilst neglecting to insist upon the duty of Christian meditation. But, on the other hand, it blows the cobwebs out of a man’s brain; it puts vigour into him, it releases him from himself, and gives him something better to think about, when he listens to the Master’s voice, ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord hath done for thee.’

‘Master! it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles. Stay here; let us enjoy ourselves up in the clouds, with Moses and Elias; and never mind about what goes on below.’ But there was a demoniac boy down there that needed to be healed; and the father was at his wits’ end, and the disciples were at theirs because they could not heal him. And so Jesus Christ turned His back upon the Mount of Transfiguration, and the company of the blessed two, and the Voice that said, ‘This is My beloved Son,’ and hurried down where human woes called Him, and found that He was as near God, and so did Peter and James and John, as when up there amid the glory.

‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them’; and you will find that to do that is the best way to realise the desire which seemed to be put aside, the desire for the presence of Christ. For be sure that wherever He may not be, He always is where a man, in obedience to Him, is doing His commandments. So when He said, ‘Go home to thy friends,’ He was answering the request that He seamed to reject, and when the Gadarene obeyed, he would find, to his astonishment and his grateful wonder, that the Lord had not gone away in the boat, but was with him still. ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. Lo! I am with you always.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:18 Unlike his neighbors (5:17), the man experienced God’s grace and wanted to go with him (literally to be with him; see 3:14).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 5:18. Μετʼ αὐτοῦ, with Him) The cross had allured the man by its sweetness from his own relatives. The powerful influence of Jesus had possession of him. [And so now on that account he had it in his power to be of the greater use to his relatives.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 5:18 . ἐμβαίνοντος , embarking, the same day? Jesus had probably intended to stay some days on the eastern shore as on the hill (Mar 3:13 ), to let the crowd disperse. ἵνα μετʼ αὐτοῦ ᾖ : an object clause after verb of exhorting with ἵνα , and subjunctive instead of infinitive as often in N. T., that he might be with Him (recalling Mar 3:14 ). The man desired to become a regular disciple. Victor of Ant., Theophy., Grotius, and partly Schanz think his motive was fear lest the demons might return.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. And when he was come …] Rather, when He was in the act of stepping into the ship.

that he might be with him] Either (i) in a spirit of deepest gratitude longing to be with his Benefactor, or (ii) fearing lest the many enemies, from whom he had been delivered, should return. Comp. Mat_12:44-45.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And When he was come into the ship,.... For at the request of these men, who were unworthy of his presence, and of any favour from him, either by his doctrine, or miracles, he turned back to the sea side again; and as he was about to take ship,

he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that he might be with him: for when Jesus turned his back upon the Gadarenes, and returned to the sea shore, this poor man, who had received so great a benefit by him, rose up and followed him; and when he perceived that he was entering on ship board, in order to go over into another country, earnestly entreated he might go over with him in the ship, and continue with him: which he did, partly to testify his great love to him, and the grateful sense he had of the mercy he had received from him; and partly, that be might enjoy his presence, and have his protection: for he might fear, that when he was gone, and should he remain in that country, the devils would repossess him with greater rage and fury. So gracious souls who know Christ, and have received out of his fulness, and grace for grace, earnestly desire to be with him, to enjoy communion with him, receive instruction from him, and be always under his care, influence, and protection. For to be with Christ, is to have his gracious presence; to have nearness to him, and fellowship with him; to have familiarity and acquaintance with him, yet more and more; to be guided with his counsel, and upheld with the right hand of his righteousness: than which, nothing can be more desirable to those that spiritually and savingly know him: for such desires arise from the knowledge they have of his personal glories and excellencies, as the Son of God; and as mediator? he has all power to protect them, all strength to support them, all grace to supply them, all wisdom to direct them, all provisions to feed them, and all blessings of grace and glory to bestow upon them; and from the gracious experience they have had of his favour and lovingkindness, which is better than life; and from the sense they have of their need of him; for without him they can do nothing; they cannot perform any duty aright, nor withstand any temptation, or bear up under any affliction: they are sensible of the blessed effects of his presence; they know it brings light to their souls in darkness; that it quickens them when dead and lifeless in their frames and duties, and enlivens their spirits when dull and heavy; that it comforts and rejoices their hearts, and puts more joy and gladness into them, than any outward blessing whatever; that it removes their fears, and emboldens, them against their enemies, and is their safety and defence; that it makes ordinances pleasant and delightful, and gives contentment in the meanest state; there is nothing enjoyed by them in this life which gives them the pleasure and satisfaction that does: and hence it is that they often desire even to depart out of this world, that they may be with Christ, which is far better; and indeed, if the presence of Christ is so sweet and desirable now, what will the, everlasting, and uninterrupted enjoyment of his presence be in the world to come? for in his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.

Ver. 18. Prayed him that he might be with him] This poor man had tasted how good the Lord is, and desired therefore to abide with him; when his countrymen of Gadara had only seen his power, and were therefore glad to be rid of him.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That he might be with him; i.e. as one of his disciples. St. Ambrose says Christ did not grant his request, lest they might think that he sought to be glorified by men, in having always in his company a man out of whom he had cast so many devils. Christ himself seems to give us another reason, that the man might go, and publish in his own country the miracles done by Jesus. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

18. Prayed him that he might be with him — How different is the grateful man from his former furious self!

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 18-20. And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with devils besought him that he might he with him. It was natural that he should desire this. It would be grateful and soothing to him to be near to Christ, from whom he had received so great a benefit and yet hoped for more. And he suffered him not, but saith unto him; Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Our Lord here takes a different course from what lie so often took. He saw, no doubt, that this restored demoniac was fitted for missionary work; and there was no reason to apprehend any inconvenience to himself in consequence from a people who wished to get rid of him. And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis in Decapolis, i.e. through the whole district of the ten citieshow great things Jesus had done for him. This would bring him into contact alike with Gentiles and with Jews; and so this dispossessed demoniac became a missionary to both Jew and Gentile. Here he planted the standard of the cross.

Vers. 18-20. Desire and duty.

There was wonderful variety in the methods of treatment adopted by our Lord in dealing with those who surrounded him. He touched the eyes of the blind; he garb his hand to those prostrate by illness or stricken with death; he sometimes spoke the word of healing first, and sometimes the word of pardon, always suiting himself to the special condition of each, according to his perfect knowledge of his deepest need. The same completeness of knowledge and of consideration reveals itself in his intercourse with those who had been blessed, and were now among his followers. Some were urged to follow him, others were discouraged by a presentation of difficulties. A beautiful example of this is given by Luke, (Luk_9:57-62) in his account of those who spoke to our Lord just before he crossed the lake. The same gracious consideration of what was really best for one of his followers is seen here. And his disciples now do not all require the same treatment, nor have they all the same work to do or the same sphere to fill.

I THE CONVERT"S DESIRE. (Ver. 18) "When Jesus was come into the ship," or, more correctly (Revised Version), "as he was entering into the boat," the delivered demoniac prayed that he might be with him. It was a natural desire, and a right one, although all the motives which prompted it were possibly not worthy. As in us, so in him, there was a mingling of the noble with the ignoble. let us see what actuated him.

1. Admiration. No wonder that he sat at the feet of this Mighty One, and gazed upon him with adoring love. Angels bow before him; the redeemed cast their crowns at his feet. Reverence and awe are too rarely felt now. Proud self-sufficiency characterizes the civilized world, and even the professedly Christian Church. It is well to know, but it is better to adore. Consciousness of ignorance and weakness, in the presence of God, leads to worship. let reverence characterize our search into the Divine Word, our utterances in God"s name, our approaches to his throne.

2. Gratitude. Having received salvation, this man longed to prove his thankfulness, and he naturally thought that an opportunity would be found, while following Jesus, to defend his reputation or to do him some lowly service. Under the old economy many thank-offerings were presented. The firstfruits of the fields and flocks were offered to the Lord, and any special blessing received from him called forth special acknowledgment. Show how thank-offerings have dice out of the Church, and how they might be profitably revived. Point out various modes of showing thankfulness to God.

3. Self-distrust. Near the Deliverer he was safe, but might there not be some relapse when he was gone? A right feeling on his part and on ours. See the teaching of our Lord in John 15 on the necessity of the branch abiding in the vine.

4. Fear. The people were greatly excited. They had begged Christ to go out of their coasts, lest he should destroy more of their possessions. It was not improbable that they would wreak their vengeance on a man whose deliverance had been the cause of their loss. They did not believe, as Christ did, that it was better that any lower creatures should perish if only one human soul was rescued. But this is in harmony with all God"s works, in which the less is being constantly destroyed for the preservation and sustenance of the greater. The luxuriant growth of the fields is cut down that the cattle may live; myriads of creatures in the air and in the sea are devoured by those higher in the scale of creation than themselves; living creatures are slain that we may be fed and clothed. In harmony with all this, the destruction of the swine was the accompaniment of, or the shadow cast by, the redemption of the man. And high above all these mysteries rises the cross of Calvary, on which the highest life was given as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. In this event we can see glimpses of Divine righteousness and pity; but these people of Gadara shut their eyes to them, and were angry at their loss. Amongst them this man must "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

II THE CONVERT"S DUTY. (Ver. 19)

1. His work was to begin at home. "Go home to thy friends." His presence there would be a constant sermon. In the truest sense he was "a living epistle." Sane instead of mad, holy instead of unclean, gentle instead of raving; he was "a new creation." All true work for God should commence in the home. Self-control and self-sacrifice, gentleness and patience, purity and truth, in the domestic circle will make the home a temple of God.

2. His work was to be found among old acquaintances. Some had scorned him, others had hated and perhaps ill-treated him. But resentment was to be conquered in him by God"s grace, and to those who knew him at his worst he was now to speak for Christ. Such witness-bearing is the most difficult, but the most effective. John the Baptist told the penitents around him, whether publicans or soldiers, to go back to their old spheres, and prove repentance by changed life and spirit amid the old temptations.

3. His work was to be quiet and unostentatious. Perhaps Christ saw that publicity would injure him spiritually, for it does injure some; or it may be that the excitement involved in following the Lord would be unsafe for him so soon after his restoration. For some reason he had assigned to him a quiet work, which was not the less true and effective. Luke says that he was to show "how great things God had done for him," as if the witness bearing was to be in living rather than in talking. Speak of the quiet spheres in which many can still serve God.

4. His work was to spread and grow. The home was too small a sphere for such gratitude as his. He published the fame of the Lord in "all Decapolis." This was not wrong, or forbidden, for there were not the reasons for restraint of testimony in Peraea which existed in Galilee. It was a natural and legitimate enlargement of commission. Similarly the apostles were to preach to all nations, but to begin in Jerusalem. He who is faithful with a few things is made ruler over many things, sometimes on earth, and invariably in heaven. A.R.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. ix, 1; Luke viii, 37;

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Christ gives further evidence of His mercy:

v. 18. And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with Him.

v. 19. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

v. 20. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel.

Jesus embarked again" He went into the boat. Since the people of the region showed such a hostile spirit from the start and did not consider themselves worthy of eternal life, He left them with the animals they loved more. But one there was that had felt more than a bodily healing in himself, the former demoniac. He begged the Lord, while the latter was embarking, to be permitted to be with Him, to become a regular disciple. It was not the fear of the return of the demons that caused the plea, but the knowledge that here was a Healer of the soul as well as of the body. But Jesus refused his petition, since He had a different plan in mind. His time of mercy for the people of this region had not yet come to an end. He commissioned this man to be the first heathen preacher. He should return to his home and to his relatives, giving them a full account of the help which he had experienced, and above all of the mercy of Jesus. Of all the blessings and benefits which we praise as the gift of the Lord the greatest is that of His mercy in Jesus Christ the Savior. And the man did even more than the Lord had given him to perform. Beginning, no doubt, in his own family circle, he became a messenger throughout that entire country. The Decapolis, or the region of the ten cities, was that part of Palestine that lay southeast and east of the Sea of Galilee, including parts of Perea and Gaulanitis. Throughout this region he proclaimed his message, seconded undoubtedly by the other demoniac. And the heathen population, which for the most part inhabited this country, was deeply impressed. They all were filled with wonder. Whether there was any other result is not related. At any rate, they had the opportunity of learning to know the great Prophet, who was willing and anxious to give them the assurance of His everlasting grace and mercy and thus to fulfill the object of the Gospel in them. It is ever thus that the message of the great miracles of God for the salvation of men arouses curiosity and wonder. But the Gospel also always works, at least in some people, a cheerful assent and acceptance of the news that will save their souls.

Demoniac Possession

Concerning possession by demoniacs and its healing we have reports only in the first three gospels, while John makes no mention of these miracles of Jesus. It is peculiar, also, that the narratives of the healing of people possessed with evil spirits are confined to the ministry of Christ in Galilee. In all accounts there is no instance of a miracle of this kind during the last part of the Lord’s life, in Judea. Mark, who gives the most complete account of these healings, mentions four cases: the healing of the demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum, 1:23-27; Luk 4:1-44; the healing of the Gadarene, 5:1-13; Mat 8:1-34; Luk 8:1-56; the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, 7:24-30; Mat 15:1-39; the healing of the boy with the dumb spirit, whose father had first brought him to the disciples. a lunatic, 9:17-29; Mat 17:1-27; Luk 9:1-62. Mark also, besides mentioning the fact that Jesus cast out many devils, 1:34, speaks of the healing of Mary Magdalene, from whom the Lord cast out seven devils, 16:9. Details of this healing are not given in the Scriptures. The other evangelists mention or describe the following cases: the healing of the dumb man that was possessed with a devil, Mat 9:32-33; the healing of one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb, Mat 12:22; the healing of the woman that had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself, Luk 13:11.

In many cases the details are not given. "He suffered not the devils to speak," Mar 1:34; "He cast out devils," 1:39; "unclean spirits fell down before Him," 3:11-12. We are told also that the Lord gave His disciples power over unclean spirits, Mar 6:7, and that the latter cast out many devils, v. 13. The seventy returned with the report that even the devils were subject to them through the Lord’s name, Luk 10:17; and Christ gave His disciples the final promise, before His ascension: "In My name shall they cast out devils," Mar 16:17.

In general, it may be said that in all these cases only such symptoms are named as are found also in the case of the usual sicknesses: deaf, dumb, blind, epileptic, lame, and insane. But there are three points which plainly distinguish the cases mentioned in the gospels from ordinary diseases with similar symptoms: They say things which they cannot possibly know in the natural order of things, namely, that Jesus is the Son of the most high God, that He is the Son of God, etc. ; they possess supernatural strength, they cannot be held with chains and fetters; in the case of the Gadarene demoniacs, they caused the whole herd of swine to cast themselves into the sea.

In addition to this, it should be noted that Mark distinguishes the demoniacs from the ordinary sick people by the words: "He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils," 1:34, and: "They brought unto Him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils," v. 32. It would therefore not be correct to say that these demoniacs were simply ill, and that the devil had received permission from God to transmit to them a special disease, as in the case of Job. The healing of demoniacs implied more than that. It meant actually that people were possessed by evil spirits that tormented them in some peculiar fashion, made them ill, caused them to do and say things which they would not have thought of otherwise, and in other ways vented their spite on them, and that Jesus drove these spirits out.

In regard to the question whether this peculiar malady, possession of evil spirits, is still found in our days, and especially, whether this is true in individual cases, it is best to hold opinion and judgment in abeyance. People have confessed in some cases that they could actually feel the power of the devil, who also tormented them in their body in a most excruciating manner. But we have no Scriptural ground for assuming the existence of this form of disease in our days. But that is true and cannot be denied, that Satan takes possession of the heart and mind of man, makes him spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God. He has his constant work in the children of unbelief, and also makes use of every opportunity to hurt and harm us in our body and in our earthly possessions, in so far as God permits this, either as a divine punishment or as a fatherly chastisement.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the demon-possessed man

Though the man is no longer demon-possessed, he is still described in this way. AT: "the man who had been demon-possessed"

But Jesus did not permit him

What Jesus did not allow the man to do can be stated clearly. AT: "But he did not allow the man to come with them" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Decapolis

This is the name of a region that means Ten Cities. It is located to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. (See: How to Translate Names)

everyone was amazed

It may be helpful to state why the people were amazed. AT: "all the people who heard what the man said were amazed" (See: Ellipsis)

translationWords

demon-possessed

people group

lord

mercy

preach

Jesus

amazed

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

18. ἐμβαίνοντος ([982][983][984][985][986] rather than ἐμβάντος ([987][988][989][982] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[983] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[984] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[985] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mar 1:17 to Mar 6:31, Mar 8:5 to Mar 12:29, Mar 13:19 to Mar 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[986] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[987] Codex Basiliensis. 8th cent. At Basle.

[988] Codex Boreelianus. Once in the possession of John Boreel. 9th cent. At Utrecht. Contains Mk 1–41; Mar 2:8-23; Mar 3:5 to Mar 11:6; Mar 11:27 to Mar 14:54; Mar 15:6-39; Mar 16:19-20.

[989] odex Seidelianus I. 9th or 10th cent. Contains Mar 1:13 to Mar 14:18; Mar 14:25 to Mar 16:20.

18. ἐμβαίνοντος αὐτοῦ … αὐτόν. See crit. note. For the constr. see on Mar 5:2. Mt. omits this incident.

ὁ δαιμονισθείς. No longer ὁ δαιμονιζόμενος.

ἵνα μετʼ αὐτοῦ ᾖ. The man fears the populace who had treated him with such rigour, and who were so hostile to his Deliverer. He naturally clings to the latter. For ἵνα see on Mar 3:9.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18.] and Theophyl. suppose that he feared a fresh incursion of the evil spirits.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. ἑμβαινοντος—As he was entering. The present part. denotes action contemporaneous with that of the principal verb.

ἐμβαίνοντος, instead of ἐμβάντος, was come, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א ABCDKLM ΔΠ 1, 33, 124, most mss. Lat. Vet. Vulg.

ὁ δαιμονισθε0ίς—He who had been possessed with demons. The aor. part. denotes a state preceding the action of the principal verb.2

ἵνα μετʼ αὐτοῦ ᾖ—that he may be with him.3

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When he was come [εμβαινοντος] . The participle is in the present tense. Not after he had embarked, but while he was in the act. Hence Rev., rightly, as he was entering. With this corresponds the graphic imperfect parekalei : While he was stepping into the boat the restored man was beseeching him.

That [ινα] . In order that. Not the subject but the aim of the entreaty.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.