GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:7
Stuck on the Roof
Sometimes God’s help is rejected on the belief that He will do something else. There is an apocryphal story—at least I hope it’s apocryphal—about a man caught in a sudden flood. As the water arose around him, he climbed higher and higher until he was finally on the roof of his house. According to the story, he prayed that God would help him. Shortly thereafter, some people in a canoe came by and called out, “Can we help you?” To which the man shouted back, “No, God will help me.” Shortly thereafter, some people floating by on a log called out, “There’s room here; do you want to come along?” To which the man replied, “No, God will help me.” The water continued to rise until finally he had to stand on the very top of the roof. In desperation, he cried out, “Oh, God, help me.” To his desperate cry, there came a voice from heaven, “I sent you a canoe, and I sent a log. What more do you want Me to do?”
In St. Mark’s account of Jesus, his disciples, and those with them crossing the Sea of Galilee and landing in the region of the Gerasenes, they were met by a naked, screaming man who, coming from the tombs, prostrated himself before Jesus, “And crying out in a great voice, he said, ‘What to me and to you, Jesus, Son of the Highest God? I implore you by God, do not torment me!’” (Mark 5:7)
The troubled man said, “What to me and you,” which is a linguistic, idiomatic statement, some writers hold, of defensive hostility. This statement can be translated as “mind your own business” or “this is no affair of yours.” None of the writers explain how this naked, ostracized, troubled man came to have his theology correct—“Jesus, Son of the Highest God.” But in the end he said, “I implore you by God, do not torment me!” Somewhat akin to the metaphorical man on his roof, this man begged the source of help to leave him alone. The word coming from his mouth (ὁρκίζω, horkizo) can be translated as “command”—“I command you to leave me alone.”
This picture in Mark’s story repeats itself over and over. There are examples of God’s provisions being rejected on the belief that God will provide another way.
Directory