Mark 5
This is going to be a short post by me. LOL! I know, right? Me not talking long? HA!
I will say this though: Giant of a man, possessed by a multitude of demons, chained up on the side of a mountain, crazy and violent. You gotta be either out of your mind to go near this dude, or the Son of God, on a mission to show people the power He was able to wield! Just sayin!
But seriously, this is a great chapter with many cool miracles in it. It just goes to show how Jesus had compassion on people and was willing to heal, or even bring back from the dead. Why aren't we willing to get outside our comfort zones to help people. Here's my question though. Don't be afraid to answer, thinking someone's gonna try and trap you! I honestly just want to know your thoughts.
Why do you think Jesus told so many that he healed not to say anything?
-Robbie
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When He was healing the girl, they laughed at Him because He said she was sleeping. Knowing what we know now, we think, How dare they laugh at the Lord? But you know you would've laughed, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jesus didn't say a word to them; didn't scold them; didn't do anything. He simply healed her and told them not to say anything, when we would've wanted it told everywhere if we had done something great like that.
Don't you think you would've said, "I told you so!" when she got up!
More and more, I realize how different I am than Jesus. And I should be striving daily-minute by minute, actually--to be exactly like Him.
Why Jesus preferred silence after healing. Good question with many possible answers. Just some thoughts for what it's worth.
ReplyDeleteSpreading the word after being healed would have caused larger crowds to follow him. Larger crowds would bring more needs pushing to see or touch him. This would have made it harder for him to teach which I think was his first objective.
Demons were telling who Jesus was. Maybe Jesus did not want people to base their faith on what demons said. Furthermore, seems as though the Pharisees sort of had a theroy like "Jesus serves satan". Can you imagine their thoughts when it seemed as though Jesus and the demons had a long time acquaintance.
"Go home to your friends and(L) tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 20And he went away and began to proclaim in(M) the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
ReplyDeleteI can't begin to imagine how this went down at this guy's house. That after years of no one being able to even co-exist with this man because he had become so crazy and dangerous from the demons that posssessed him to just show up and have this tale to tell. To be completely healed and normal from Jesus' hand. What a testimony!! How could anyone not follow Jesus after seeing this miracle?? I think if something like that happened today it would be met with so many other explainations as to why and how. How sad that we cant take Jesus' miracles and healing at such face value as they did back then. That a man's word was worth so much that he needed no "solid" proof or evidence to make you believe that what he said was true and what happened really happened. Oh to have been a witness to all this. AMAZING!!
We see that Jesus at times says to stay silent, and at times like with the demon possessed man, he says to go and tell others. I think Jesus looked at each situation independantly, and with his divine ability to see the hearts of people, had some reason why he wanted certain people to speak and others not too.
ReplyDeleteNotice though, that with the first two stories, others saw what had happened, and it was already spread what he had done. With Jairus' daughter, he asked everyone, except for a few, to leave the room. In this instance, Jairus was a ruler in the Synogogue, and some of the other ruler's did not believe like Jairus did. I think Jesus must have wanted them to come in after she was raised, and let them "experience" the power of Jesus on their own, and when they walked back in, knowing she was dead, you know their faith would have changed. I would have loved to been in that house when the others walked back in; jaws on the floor, speechless, staggered, in total awe. I can only think that those people, whom Jesus did not tell to stay silent, were the ones who spread the word. Witness to Jesus would have been powerful from these unbelievers.
I totally echo what Phillip said about responding to each situation as independent events.
ReplyDeleteWith the demon-possessed man, people begged Jesus to leave because they were afraid of his power. Maybe Jesus knew how much people could handle. His divinity was all-knowing, so maybe he anticipated the response and knew some people would be drawn to him and others would not. And maybe at times, he did not want/need them to be drawn to him because he may have been overwhelmed with requests for healing, like Amy said.
You also have cases where Jesus said not to spread the word (like the leper who had been waiting by the pool of healing water, if I recall correctly) yet they do anyway. I've always been mystified by this, especially because sometimes Jesus says to spread the word and other times he says not to.
I love the story of faith of the woman who touched Jesus' robe and by faith was healed, so maybe he did not want others to tell because those who were healed came to him in faith, believing without seeing, and those who came to him after he healed or cast out demons would have come because they had seen or heard of his power.
To me,the reference about noone being able to subdue the man with the demons, speaks directly to us. We can try to battle things on our own, feel like we have all of the answers, feel like we, ourselves, can solve all of our problems, as well as the problems of others, but it is Jesus, and Jesus alone that could subdue the man with the demons. It is Jesus and Jesus alone that can subdue us and our demons, and if we feel differently, we will be sorely disappointed.
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ReplyDeleteWhy did Jesus tell so many that he healed to not tell anyone?
ReplyDeleteIn V8:30 Jesus tells his desciples not to tell anyone who he is after Peter confesses Jesus is Christ. But why not go around showing off and becoming famous? Wouldn’t more people believe in him if he publicized his miracles. Wouldn’t more people understand how powerful he is if he displayed it infront of thousands? Wasn’t it his goal to convince everyone in the world at that time he was God?
I feel his goals were to provide salvation for everyone (then, now and those to come) as well as teach and mold his desciples to begin his Church, a Church that would survive and grow for thousands of years. That does not happen by people just hearing about a miracle. I believe He did not conduct miracles to gain multitudes of followers, He did so out of compassion and love.