“Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”
Jesus did not let him, but said, go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you — the refusal is surprising: Jesus regularly calls people to follow him, but here he sends the liberated man back to his community with a commission. The commission is the man's specific calling: he is uniquely positioned to testify to what has happened, and he has a community — your own people — who need the testimony. The Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you are the Christological content of the commission: Lord-ship and mercy, sovereign power and compassionate action.
Church Fathers on Mark 5:19
Those who were in the ship enquired among themselves, 'What manner of man is this?' and now it is made known Who He is by the testimony of His enemies. For the demoniac came up confessing that He was the Son of God. Proceeding to which circumstance the Evangelist says, 'And they came over unto the other side, &c.'
Geraza is a noted town of Arabia, across the Jordan, near mount Galaad, which the tribe of Manasseh held, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.
Though Matthew says that there were two, Mark and Luke mention one, that you may understand that one of them was a more illustrious person, concerning whose state that country was much afflicted.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!