Specifically, I want to draw your attention to verses 18-20.
"18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled."This man experienced a life change. He had an encounter with Jesus that drastically altered the course of his life. Is it any wonder that he wanted nothing more than to spend every moment after that in the presence of the One who saved him? But Jesus tells him no.
No. Go home.
But not JUST go home. "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." You see, once we experience Jesus, once our lives have been changed by Him, it's not enough to simply want to experience Him for ourselves. He wants us to serve Him by telling others, by living our changed lives in our communities, among our friends and family, and in our workplaces.
And we don't have to have seminary degrees or two decades of salvation behind us to do it. This man had just been delivered from demonic possession by a presence of demons so large that they referred to themselves as Legion. And whether that is a literal number compared to the size of a Roman legion (5,120 legionnaires plus supporting auxiliary troops) or just a figurative amount meaning a lot, there were enough to drive a herd of 2,000 pigs into the sea. This guy was as seriously messed up as a person could be. But he left his encounter with Jesus changed and immediately began to share it with others. Verse 20 says he was proclaiming in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him. The Decapolis was a group of ten cities. This guy spread the message all over his region!
How many would never have heard the message if he had climbed in that boat with Jesus?
I guess that's the point of this post. We love our "mountaintop" experiences with God. Camps, revivals, worship gatherings, retreats, etc. But we spend so much time trying to hold onto or duplicate those times that we never share it with others. We're trying to climb in the boat when Jesus really wants us to go home. The difference for us is that we have an advantage over this man. While not all of us have been saved in such a dramatic fashion (although I would argue that we pay attention to circumstances that often betray the greater miracle that is accomplished when God saves us), we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit. God is with us when we go!
God is interested in so much more than a Sunday morning. He wants us to move from the seat to the street. Get out of the boat. Go home. Share what He's done for you. Let it show in your relationships with those around you. Seize the opportunities that God gives you everyday. You don't have to be a street-corner preacher, you just have to live what you say you believe.
