They Sent Him Away! 1

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And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

Mark 5 ¹⁷ 

For the first time in West Africa, a tumor was successfully removed from a 39-year-old Ghanaian policeman’s brain right here in May 2023[1]. He’d been sent to the psychiatric hospital because he saw things differently. For instance, seeing a goat as a piece of stone got him into problems. And they thought he was a psychiatric case for several years. When they realized the psychiatric drugs, – the tranquilizers, stabilizers, nebulizers, and other ‘lizers’ were not producing the desired effect, they decided on further tests at the Korle-bu Hospital Teaching Hospital. That’s when the doctors realized that it was a brain tumor! With that knowledge, they could solve the riddle.

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The Mark 5 account of the demoniac in Gedaserens is the most engaging of all the accounts. According to Mark, Jesus had just come through calming a storm on the sea. Then there was another storm waiting on land. It is so with God’s children[2].

The demon-possessed man was not as fortunate as our policeman above. Those were the ancient days. He had broken his fetters on several occasions at the seashore. No tranquilizers or stabilizers in those days, my friend. And he suffered greatly. He had no human nor even animal rights to claim. So his humanity could be violated anyhow at anytime. But Jesus dealt with it!

I hope you invite Jesus, who calmed the external storm, on the sea, and also the internal storm, inside the demoniac, to calm every storm in your life.

Jesus calmed the storm in the man alright. However, when the investors saw their investment go down the cliff in the form of pigs, they asked Jesus to leave. He had become a threat to their financial fortunes. Interestingly, Deuteronomy 8:18 tells us that it is God who enables us to get wealthy!

Please leave our coast, they said.

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There were several things they could have considered. For instance, their troubler, the madman was now in his right mind; this Holy Man could heal their sick and raise their dead; He would teach them the right principles to life; He could forgive them their sins and grant them eternal life.

But they said, Please leave.

To them, their investments were more important than eternal life. Today, people would rather ask Jesus to please leave than to listen to Him and be honest, and hardworking. Please leave they would say so they can cheat on their spouses even behind the computer with porn. Please leave Lord, don’t be looking over my shoulder. They would say Jesus should leave because they are tired of trying to live godly lives. They would rather He left, so He doesn’t remind them that they have an obligation to worship God according to the truths they have gotten, according to their conscience.

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Take a good look in the mirror. Say this to the person staring back at you, “Why have you asked Jesus to leave?” “Didn’t it occur to you that He loves you and is still willing to help you all the way if only you would allow it?”

Life or eternity? Which do you prefer? Choose wisely.

Please shoot off your comments below and I will gladly respond. Blessings!

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[1] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/First-awake-brain-surgery-in-West-Africa-conducted-at-Ridge-Hospital-on-patriotic-police-officer-1775903#:~:text=The%20awake%20brain%20surgery%20was,a%20tumour%20in%20his%20brain.

[2] https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1307&context=jams