If we are true to ourselves, the people will follow.

Mk 5: 1-20

Mark 5 NIV (biblehub.com)

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

Reflect with me for a moment. Have you ever had the experience of doing something original? Something new to those around you? Perhaps it is work colleagues, or maybe your family. Did you leave a career or relationship that you feel was not right, instead of staying and remaining unhappy, only to find that those close to you react with fright?

This is the experience that Jesus has at the beginning of the 5th Chapter of Mark's Gospel. In verses 1-20, Mark describes a lengthy event where Jesus arrives in Gerasenes and heals a man who was possessed by the devil. Jesus commands that the spirit leaves his body and enters a herd of pigs nearby. Once they are overtaken by the evil spirit, the entire herd run off a cliff-top into the sea and to their deaths. The local people are so overawed by what they have witnessed that they beg Jesus to leave the area.

The end of this particular narrative is perhaps surprising to the reader: surely the people should see the merit of what Jesus does to the demonic spirits, and be grateful for his presence! Just why do they plead with him to leave them?

Clearly, they are scared. Change or newness is frightening to the human spirit. We are beings who value certainty and routine. Having someone amongst them as powerful as our Lord clearly is will of course leave them fearful that he may not be a positive presence, and certainly that their world has changed. Remember Jesus was alive when farming was central to the town's life; Jesus had just destroyed a valued herd of pigs! This was, therefore, doubly threatening to the town's way of life.

With that in mind, how does that apply to us? Jesus was, as believers know, the single most positive presence in the world to this day. We need to learn that sometimes great change and the natural fear that accompanies it can be a good thing. Jesus listened to the people in one sense: he left Gerasenes immediately. But, before he did, he implored the man that he had cured to spread the word. This is important yet there is a lesson in Jesus leaving: he was confident that His word would spread and that people would make their own minds up about his benevolence.

We must be leaders who are not afraid to try something new, to be insulated from the naysayers and natural opposition, and be confident that our values will shine through despite them. If we are true to ourselves, the people will follow.