Minding the Mission
Never judge a book by the chapter you came in on. We’ve heard it, but do we live it? In Mark 5:1–20, Jesus shows us what it looks like to meet someone in their mess—and still see the miracle.
He lived among the tombs. Not in a home, not in community, but in isolation—cutting himself, crying out, chained by others, and tormented from within. The people of the town had written him off. To them, he was the crazy one. Demon-possessed. Too far gone. His chapter was dark, messy, loud… and it scared them.
But then Jesus stepped out of the boat.
Where others saw a lost cause, Jesus saw a mission. Where others saw bondage, Jesus saw potential. He didn’t flinch at the man’s screams or run from his brokenness. Jesus commanded the darkness to leave—not with a fight, but with authority.
The man they feared, Jesus freed.
A Storm & A Story
It starts with a boat ride across a stormy sea. Jesus had just calmed the chaos on the water (Mark 4:35–41), but now He’s about to confront chaos of another kind—on land. When He steps ashore in the region of the Gerasenes, a man rushes toward Him, wild-eyed and wounded. He’s infamous in town. He lives among the dead, cries out day and night, and no one can chain him anymore. But where the world saw a menace, Jesus saw a mission.
And when the crowd returned, they didn’t find the same man they had labeled and locked away. They found him clothed, calm, and in his right mind. They found a testimony sitting where torment once was. But instead of celebrating, fear gripped them again. Not because of what the man had done—this time, because of what Jesus had done.
Too often we meet people mid-story and assume it’s the end. We judge based on their pain, their past, their present struggle. But Jesus never defines us by the chapter He meets us in. He brings healing, mercy, and new narrative.
And here's the twist: the man wanted to go with Jesus, to leave the scene of his shame. But Jesus sent him back—not as a victim, but as a message of redemption.
Chains & Confrontation
Darkness doesn’t define destiny. This man wasn’t just struggling—he was suffering. Night and day, he screamed in the tombs, cut himself with stones, and frightened anyone who came close. The people had given up. They had tried everything—chains, isolation, silence. Nothing worked.
But Jesus didn’t come to contain him.
Jesus came to change him.
When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he didn’t run away—he ran to Him. The unclean spirits within him recognized authority:
“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
Even demons know the difference between religion and real power.
Jesus asks him, “What is your name?”
The response? “Legion, for we are many.”
A Roman legion was up to 6,000 soldiers. This man wasn’t battling one thing—he was battling everything. And yet, Jesus doesn’t flinch. He commands the demons to leave, grants their request to enter a herd of pigs, and in a dramatic scene, 2,000 pigs rush into the sea and drown.
Suddenly, the man is free. Quiet. Whole.
Clothed & Called
When the townspeople show up, they’re stunned. The man they feared is now fully in his right mind—dressed and at peace. And what do they do? They beg Jesus to leave. Sometimes people are more comfortable with your chaos than your change.
The healed man, now full of hope, begs to go with Jesus. But Jesus does something unexpected: He sends him home.
“Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”
The very community that cast him out would become the mission field of his testimony. So don’t judge a book by the chapter you came in on. Jesus turns the formerly possessed man into the first missionary to the Gentiles in the Decapolis.
Did you know that Decapolis comes from two Greek words:
"Deca" meaning ten
"Polis" meaning city
The Decapolis was a group of ten cities located on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, mainly in what is now modern-day Jordan, Syria, and Israel. These cities were heavily influenced by Greek and Roman culture—they were centers of Hellenistic philosophy, pagan worship, and Roman governance. Because of this, Jewish people often avoided them, viewing them as unclean or spiritually compromised.
When Jesus sends the formerly demon-possessed man to go and share what God had done for him, He sends him into the Decapolis (Mark 5:20). That’s huge because:
Jesus was planting the Gospel in Gentile territory—this was evangelism outside the Jewish world.
The man became the first missionary to the Gentiles, even before Paul.
It shows that no place is too far and no people group too foreign for Jesus to reach.
God doesn’t bring people out just to leave them standing still.
He brings them out so they can walk back in—into their communities, their families, their circles—with purpose, with power, and with light.
