The Key Question
Mark 5: “When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region” (5:15-17)
Let me give you some information on this story.
Jesus finds his way to the region called Gerasenes and he comes across a mad possessed by a demon … in fact, many demons … the demon identifies himself as LEGION – “because we are many.” This man was so strong that no one could catch, control or chain him down!
Jesus casts out the demons and sends them into a group of 2000 pigs … then these pigs end up running into the lake and dying.
After a gestation period of only 4 months, a pig gives birth to an average of 10 piglets, though litter size may, on occasion, be as large as 30. Growth is rapid. In a 6-month period, piglets of 1.2 kilograms can potentially increase in weight by 5,000 percent. This growth translates into a higher return for energy invested than for other domesticated animals.
And that is why the owners of the pigs where upset … owners were upset because INCOME was lost. In fact, today a good pig (meaning lean) has a value of about $75.99 per pig. Multiply that by 2000 and you get about $151,000 … more than 2.5 times the average yearly household income in the US. Ouch! That’s a lot of cash!!
So these guys were a little mad as you can imagine and so they ask Jesus to leave immediately.
Crazy, right? Man is set free from demons, but they lost a huge amount of finances!
Here’s the question I want us to ask ourselves today – Do we really want Jesus to show up in our lives? What if Jesus showing up in a region, a city or a church cost you $150,000.00? Would you be mad or happy that it was just JESUS!!!
You see, Jesus is going to challenge our assumptions … our beliefs … our hopes and our dreams … especially if they are solely ours!
