Proclaim In Decapolis All that Jesus Has Done For You

And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him.  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.-Mark 5:18-20

If you are a Christian and you are farmiliar with the story of the Gadarene Demoniac, as recorded in Mark and Luke, you recognize that the story hinges around one Man, in Matthew it is recorded as two men that were delivered. What of the other man? As Matthew was there and a very detailed scribe, I accept the fact that there were two men. The eyewitness account from Paul to Mark while in prison in Rome focussed on the one man of whom He saw respond to the Savior, Luke records a fine story as a great investigative writer after the fact, focussing in on the one that became a Disciple of the Lord.

In this, we see a farmiliar pattern of those delivered from such a great bondage, even today. Some respond in a way to be very grateful for the deliverance of the Father through the Son (most all of the time through Jesus' representatives in this world). That person was the one who said within thier heart,"If I am delivered from this bondage, nothing will keep me from serving Jesus, the others just take the deliverance as an opportunity to go back into the same sort of bondages, they were in before, never truly giving up the old sensory pleasures and lusts that they love. Like the heart patient that just had a by-pass and a renewed chance at life starting back on a diet of twinkies and lard sandwiches. We don't have to "judge" that man to see he's heading toward trouble again. This story is of the One that was grateful and took his opportunity to become a servant of the most-high Lord.

This man, once delivered, had a very loving and grateful attitude toward his Savior, naturally wanting to be with the One he loved the most, however Christ in this case wanted this man to go back to the ten city region of Decapolis, a Greek region, and proclaim the witness of deliverance to the Gentiles. We know this man believed and was obedient, doing just as Jesus told him to do. What about us?

How many of us have been delivered from such a great bondage and set free from habits that we could not break, apart from the Lord? All of us, as Christians, were delivered from certain death in our re-birth into life eternal. Our Spirit has been renewed so that we may serve the Father whom we love. His Son paid our price through His suffering and death, so that we in turn may not have to serve the wickedness any longer, but are free to willingly serve our Deliverer. We must do as the Gadarene Man was told to do, "Go home and tell all the Lord has done for us, and how He has had compassion us." What this means is not only witnessing with our mouth, but witnessing with our heart. Our life-song must be sung through our actions and deeds. There is no seperation of Christ and business, or work. It is a lifestyle change that must take place in the Christian's life that witnesses Jesus in all that we do,even with our mouth closed, we may still proclaim.