Saturday, January 25: “Journey Homeward”

Mark 5: 18b-20: “The man who had been demon-possessed was imploring [Jesus] that he might accompany Him. And He did not let him, but He said to him, ‘Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what things Jesus had done for Him; and everyone was amazed.”

The former demoniac probably assumed that Jesus spent His time traveling to far-flung exotic places. Jesus didn’t roll that way. He spent most of His time in Capernaum, with obligatory trips to Jerusalem and Judea. But where would the man be more effective—among strangers who didn’t know him from Adam’s housecat, or at home, where everyone in the ten cities knew of him, and what he had been? They couldn’t deny such an unbelievable story; they were witnesses of it. Now it was time for the man to become a witness to them.