And he suffered him not, but says to him, Go to thine home to thine own people, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and has had mercy on thee.
A man had lived among the tombs, out of control and destroying himself. Now he is quiet and healed. He asks for the one thing that seems natural — to stay with his Deliverer — but Jesus says no, and sends him home to the people he had terrified.
The man's wish was right. But the Lord had work for him in the very place the people wanted Him to leave. This sets the pattern for every Christian living between Christ's departure and His return.
The healed man is quiet. He wants to be with Jesus, who is going away, but he is not allowed to. He must go and tell others what God has done for him. This is where the disciples and all Christians stand after the Lord left this world. They want to go and be with Him, but He sends them back into the world to tell about the blessed work the Lord has done in them. From their own experience they can say what the grace and the power of Jesus are.
The refusal is a delay, not a denial. He will get what he wanted. Meanwhile there is something worth doing.
In due time his desire will have a glorious answer. We know that Christ died for believers so that we might live together with Him, and very soon we will be forever with the Lord. In the meantime we have the privilege of being for Him in a scene from which He has been rejected.
Notice how narrow the assignment is. Not the world, not strangers — his own household and circle.
Note it well, dear friends; we easily forget this instruction. It is not only, Go to the world, or, Go to every creature. It is, "Go home to your friends." Why is it often so hard to speak to our friends? Why are people who are bold with strangers so timid before their household and relatives? We shrink from the comparison our friends are so ready and sure to make. They test our words — however clear, good, and sweet — by what they can so easily find out from our daily ways. An inconsistent walk makes a coward, at least in front of "our friends."
The choice of audience was deliberate. The same people who had seen the worst of him were the ones best placed to weigh the change. And the region that had just asked Jesus to leave still kept a witness.
Here was a district that asked to be rid of the ministry of the incarnate Son of God. The lowly Nazarene granted that insulting request... If the deep darkness of Decapolis did not grasp the shining of the Light of life, it should still have a light-bearer in the man He had healed... His home he had formerly abandoned for the burial caves. His friends he had outraged by his violence. His household circle, including these friends and acquaintances, had seen his wild behaviour under the power of the demons. The Lord now told him to go back to them, so that they could judge for themselves how real the change in him was.
The man was told to report what "the Lord" had done for him. Notice the name he used when he went out and told it.
"And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled." So may we — not only at the great things done, but at the simple faith shown. "The Lord" for him was "Jesus."
The message has two halves: what was done, and the heart behind it. The second is what keeps the report from being mere self-display.
What was the result? "All men did marvel." The more we realise our utter ruin under the power of Satan and what Christ has done for us, and the compassion shown toward us, the more we may marvel.
This errand was not a lesser substitute for real ministry. It was the thing itself, in seed form.
The man owned the right of the Lord to direct his movements, and obeyed His commands. So he became a preacher of Christ in the ten cities of Decapolis. His testimony there was like the preaching of the gospel today. Preaching is not itself a miracle, but at its heart it is testimony founded on a divine work.
- Delivered. His ruin under Satan's power was total. So was the change. That contrast is his whole message.
- Denied. His wish to stay with Jesus was right. It gets its answer when we are forever with the Lord. Until then, the no fills the time with service.
- Dispatched. Not to strangers, but to his own house. Those people can test his words against his daily life. They are also the ones we most often dodge.
- Declared. Two things to report: what the Lord did, and His mercy. The man had given himself over to Satan, so his rescue was mercy as well as power.
- Decapolis. A region that asked Christ to leave still kept a light-bearer. Testimony founded on a real work of God reaches places that refused the Preacher Himself.
And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all wondered.
The healed man asked to stay with Jesus. Jesus said no and sent him home — and the man turned that errand into a preaching tour across ten cities. Why did the Lord leave a witness in a district that had just asked Him to go, and what did that witness say?
The people of the region begged Jesus to leave, and He agreed. But He did not leave them with nothing. One writer draws out what stayed behind:
He was to be a worker for Christ, and where could he be a better witness for Him than in the country where he was so well known? He would give that man the singular honour of witnessing in Decapolis for the rejected and absent One... The Lord left the country, but the fame of His work, and a worker for Him, remained behind. He might leave, but the record of His power could not be blotted out.
Another writer sees a larger pattern here. Christ withdraws where He is not wanted, and the healed man takes His place as a witness.
The world begs Jesus to leave. It wants its own ease, which is more disturbed by the presence and power of God than by a legion of demons. So He goes away. The healed man... longed to be with Him. But the Lord sends him back into the world that He Himself left, to be a witness of the grace and power he had experienced.
Jesus sent him home to his own friends. One writer asks why that is the hardest place to speak:
How is it that there is often such difficulty in speaking to our friends? Why are people who are bold with strangers so shy in front of their own household, relatives and acquaintances? It often tells a tale worth keeping in mind. We shrink from the comparison our friends are so ready and sure to make. They test our words — however clear and good and sweet — by what they have every chance to see in our daily ways. An inconsistent walk makes a coward, at least in front of "our friends."
The command named his household; his obedience covered a whole region:
He was obedient to the Lord's words and began to publish in Decapolis (the ten cities of the area) the greatness of what the Lord Jesus had done for him. He did not go only to his close friends. He seems to have treated almost everyone he met as a friend, and this made a very real impression on all.
Notice the change of name between the command and the report:
"Tell them," said the Saviour, "how much the Lord has done for you." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. And so may we wonder — not only at the great things done, but at the simple faith shown. "The Lord" for him was "Jesus."
Mark uses a strong word for what the man did: to proclaim as a herald. Yet no one had appointed him to anything:
The other word, kerusso, means to proclaim as a herald. It has no connection at all with office and authority, or with regularly assembled congregations — no more than the word for preaching good news has. Scripture uses it of the Lord and the apostles... but just as freely of others too. So it is applied in Mark 5:20 to the man set free from demons.
The verse ends with amazement. One writer weighs what that reaction is worth:
The testimony about the miracle created a sensation in the district, for we read that "everyone marveled." That is man's way with things he can neither understand nor copy. But such a feeling does not touch either the heart or the conscience.
Later Jesus came back through that same district. One writer notes what happened, without claiming to explain it:
Later on (7:31) the Lord came again into Decapolis. This time the people welcomed His presence. Was this change the result of that man's work? We do not know. But the Lord's reply to that man surely held a lesson for the time. It taught the disciples, and us too, that those who have themselves tasted divine grace fill the ranks of true workers for an absent Lord.
- Rescued — his story starts with mercy received, not zeal worked up. Workers for an absent Lord come from those who have tasted grace themselves.
- Redirected — his wish to stay with Jesus was good. But the Lord had work for him first, in the country that had sent Jesus away.
- Home — his errand began with his own household and friends, the people who can check our words against our daily life.
- Ten cities — he treated everyone he met as a friend, and the errand widened from one household to a whole district.
- Marvel — the crowds were amazed, and amazement alone touches neither heart nor conscience. What lasted was one man still telling the story in the district that sent Jesus away.