A Man In Agony – Read Mark 5:1-20
Contemplation
We arrive at the other side of the lake. There’s a man in the hills – over near the pig farms. Everyone stays away from him because he screams and hurts himself. He is in great pain. People don’t know what to do with him and he frightens them – so they tie him up but this doesn’t work either because he breaks the things they tie him up with. Here we are on the hillside with the sea behind us at the bottom of a high cliff – the pigs are grunting in the background and the smell of pigs and slops – and the man’s fear. Jesus is not afraid and the man seems to stop long enough to notice him, he even bows in front of him – shaggy, naked, starved, bleeding, frightened. Whatever the things are that are causing the pain, there are a lot of them. Suddenly the man is calm and peaceful and now it’s the pigs in the field that seem agitated. Squeals and the roar of hooves and the pigs have run off the cliff into the lake. Now there are people all around us. Now it’s villagers who are scared and the man who is calm. “Go away – please!” But the man is so grateful. “Please, let me come with you!” “No, it’s all right now. I am always near and you have enough to do here. Look at all the people who need to hear what has happened!”
What are my struggles?
Have I felt pain like the man, where everything I do seems to make it worse?
Can Jesus be there?
How does my relationship with Jesus affect others?
Who do I need to tell?