An encounter with an unbeliever

“Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” Jesus to the Gadarene demoniac Mark 5:19.

We have recently come through missions month at the church and have been thankful to the Lord to be involved with worldwide evangelism. But we are a long way removed in our Canadian scene from the Four Spiritual Law days when evangelism was a pretty big deal. There are reasons for this of course. Canadian leadership has led us inexorably away from Judeo Christian values, removing faith from the public arena and even making enemies out of our ‘one way to heaven’ stand. We are also individually less sure of our ‘one way to heaven’ stand and so are quieter these days about the need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. This doesn’t change the facts.

In light of that I think about Jesus’ encounter with the demon possessed man in the area of the Gadarenes. The east side of the Sea of Galilee was called the Decapolis (deca=ten, polis=city) – a pagan Hellenistic area – geographically close to the Jewish north side of the Sea, but culturally and religiously as far as the moon to the earth. No good Jew would go to this pagan place (where they raised pigs for food!), but Jesus took his disciples there.

We don’t know exactly where this story took place, but the ancient city of Hippos is right on the edge of the Sea on a high hill (current Golan heights). A pagan city of 25,000 in Jesus’ day, it was the headquarters for the 6th Roman legion which had a boar’s head as its mascot.

Jesus was not afraid to enter this milieu and was immediately confronted by this wild demon possessed man (Matthew speaks of two men). He was a caricature of all that Hellenism (and us) valued: he was wild and free, well built and strong, naked, unbound by convention. But what Satan had actually done was make him a prisoner – feared and alone. Whenever you see humans debased or destroyed, you know who is behind that initiative – the lord of Legion. But very soon Jesus was in charge of it all and Legion is groveling at his feet and happy to be sent into a herd of pigs. This is the difference that Jesus makes!!

Naturally, this delivered man wanted to follow Jesus as disciple, but the Lord told him to go home and tell everyone what Jesus had done in his life – to tell his encounter with Jesus. It is clear that he did this. In Jesus’ return to the Decapolis in Mark 6 a small group met him. When he returned again in Mark 7 there was a crowd, and when he again visited there in Mark 8 there was a large crowd.  During the Byzantine empire there were seven Christian churches in Hippos and the bishop of Hippos was one of the leaders that drafted the Nicene creed in 325 AD. Here are the ruins facing the Sea…

We don’t win the world by advertising, comfortable seats, hip music or political force. We win the world by introducing people to Jesus. We simply tell our story when the Spirit gives an opportunity. Jesus is the same today as he was then – he has great power to save!

Pastor Leon Throness

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