WHY DID HE CROSS THE LAKE?

Cyndi comes from a difficult family life. Her parents fight, her siblings bring different drugs into the house, and they often have the police or social services knocking on the door. Cyndi drinks a lot, tries the various drugs her family have and spends many of her nights with guys she doesn’t really want to be with. So she finds being on her own less painful. On her bad days, her thoughts always become dark and hopeless.

When Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee after a long day, a hopeless guy in a dark mood met them. Possessed by demons, this man had often been chained up, but he snapped the chains and lived “among the tombs and in the hills” (MARK 5:5).

Jesus stepped in to this man’s life with a radical change. While others tried to imprison the man to protect themselves, Jesus drove out the demons, freeing him to reach out to others. “Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man . . . Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region” (VV.16-17). Perhaps the peopled feared Jesus’ power, shown both in driving out demons and changing this man’s life.

But the man himself wanted to follow Jesus (V.18). Jesus replied, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you” (V.19). Then we read that Jesus crossed back over the lake (V.21)! Apparently Jesus only crossed the lake to transform and free this one, hopeless case. The guy who was in a desperate mess and had no one looking out for him was Jesus’ sole focus!