Friend, are you the angry people or the grateful man? I think there are so many times in our lives where we have a choice regarding which story to tell after Jesus moves. After he intervenes and heals. We can tell the story of what he took away, or we can tell the story of what he gave.

Here’s one of my secrets:

Some mornings for my abiding time with Christ, I simply open up my Bible, see where it lands, and begin reading.

It’s SOOOO spiritual, right? 

But the truth is that when I tell you that abiding with Christ is sometimes all about just doing it—no matter what that looks like—I bang that drum because I have to live out that truth just as much as you. This morning was one of those mornings where I knew I just had to do it, no matter what it looked like.

So I opened my Bible and it landed on Mark 5. I began reading, and quietly asked God to reveal to me something new. He did. And I believe I’m supposed to share it with you.

But get ready to be challenged. So here it goes.

Mark 5 is all about the demon-possessed man that approaches Jesus. When Jesus asks him his name, we get the famous response: “My name is Legion, for we are many.” Jesus quickly commands the demons to leave the man, and as you might remember, he sends them into a heard of pigs. The pigs then jump off a cliff.

And here’s where things really get interesting. I love how Eugene Peterson sums up what happens next in his own words:

Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man.

Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe—and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the demon-delivered man begged to go along, but he wouldn’t let him. Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.

OK, let me explain what the Holy Spirit really had me hone in. It has to do with the stories told by the people who were tending the pigs, and the story told by the man who was healed.

See, what’s interesting to me is that there were two competing stories that came out of the same action. Jesus healed a man who was in desperate need. He was alive, but he wasn’t living. But that healing came at a cost: the pigs.

Now, some people I believe incorrectly assume that Jesus sent the demons into the pigs because Jews weren’t supposed to associate with unclean animals, and pigs were unclean.

Read More