GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:20
Proclaim Good News
In one of our houses, the neighbors had a little dachshund in a small pen in their backyard. Our boys took food to the dog and petted her. One day, one of the boys came into the living room with his arms folded around the puppy. “Dad,” he said in an excited tone of voice, “have I got good news—they gave us Tiny.” During the next sixteen or so years, Tiny was part of the family. She usually slept with the boys, had her own food spot, and often traveled with us.
A student came into my office one day. Her eyes were bright, and she had a broad smile. I could see that she wanted to say something. “What’s up?” I asked to start the conversation. “You won’t believe it,” she said. “Try me,” I offered. She said that she had received a letter offering her the job for which she had applied. She was excited to tell someone the good news.
In St. Mark’s account of Jesus’ healing of the man with an unclean spirit in the region of the Gerasenes—the stampede of a couple thousand pigs into the sea, and the people of the region imploring, almost demanding, that Jesus leave their area—the writer said that the now-healed man wanted to leave with Jesus. Jesus, however, told the man to go to his own home and tell people what happened to him. “And he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.” (Mark 5:20)
The Decapolis—ten cities mostly east of the Sea of Galilee—were multiethnic, consisting largely of Jews, Romans, and Greeks. The recently healed man’s good news amazed people in this region. There were likely several reasons for this amazement—a man driven from society, living among tombs, naked, and harming himself, was now coherent, dressed, and telling everyone about a miracle wrought at the command of Jesus. Church history and tradition mostly leave this story there—the facts speak for themselves—and our curiosity goes wanting.
This believer’s proclamation that amazed people consisted of what the Father, through Jesus’ command, did for him, so it should always be.
Directory