Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 5:17
And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
17. to depart out of their coasts ] Many were doubtless annoyed at the losses they had already sustained, and feared greater losses might follow. “And their prayer was heard: He did depart; He took them at their word; and let them alone” (cf. Exo 10:28-29). Trench on the Miracles, p. 177.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 5:17
To depart out of their coasts.
The Saviour sacrificed rather than sinful gain
A great many men cannot afford to have Christ. Here is a man who is renting his buildings for the most obscene and abominable purposes in the world; his revenues depend upon lust and vice; and, if the Spirit of God comes to regenerate him, he cannot afford to have Christ with him. If he does, he must reform his whole revenue system, and lose much possession; and he beseeches Christ to depart out of his coast, he does not want Him. There are a great many men who are trafficking in intoxicating liquors in such a way that they know in their own secret consciences that they are living upon the destruction of their fellow men; and they cannot afford to give up their traffic for the sake of becoming Christians; and when the power of the Holy Ghost is upon them, they beseech Christ to depart out of their coast. They have the opportunity of reformation and rejuvenation; life, and immortality, and glory, are within their reach; but there are the swine. In order that they may sit at the feet of Christ, they must lose their herds of unclean beasts, they must lose their unjust profits and wicked pleasures; but, rather than lose these, they will sacrifice the Saviour. So it was in this case. There was no doubt as to the miracle, and its beneficence. There was a man before them in whom the power of God had been made manifest, and they began to pray Christ, through whose instrumentality this power had been made manifest, to depart out of their coast. One would suppose that they would have besought Him to remain, and go on with His works of mercy; but no, they prayed Him to depart. (H. W. Beecher.)
Regret for contempt of religion
Alas! how many will, when too late, regret their neglect of, or contempt for, religion! A few years ago, the Prime Minister of England stepped across Downing Street with a friend, who wanted some information from one of the Government officials. They entered the particular office, and on inquiring for the Head of the Department they were curtly told to wait by an insolent young clerk, who did not even look up from his newspaper, and presently added an order to wait outside. When the principal official returned, he was thunderstruck to find the Head of the Government sitting with his friend on the steps of the stone staircase! Equally surprised was the clerk, when, to his dismay, he learned by his dismissal the result of his careless insolence. In earthly things men bitterly regret chances lost or thrown away, and yet we treat with indifference our opportunities in the spiritual life! With slow and sorrowful steps the compassionate Saviour obeyed these requests, and departed from those souls whom He would have so gladly blessed. (W. Hardman, M. A.)
The man with an unclean spirit
In view of this narrative, which we have thus very briefly traced, I remark-
1. We are tempted to undervalue man just as much as these men were. The point of the narrative was that they were supposed to be civilized; that they believed themselves to be religious; that they beheld the miracle that Christ wrought upon this man; and that their ideas of the worth of a man were so low and so vulgar, that they were not in the slightest degree impressed with the mans restoration. There is no point where we need the application of the grace of God more continuously than in impressing us with a sense of the Divine value of men. We believe in the value of poets; of philosophers; of orators; of men that have something pleasing to our taste, dazzling to our intellect, and stimulating to our affections; of eminent men; of men of power, that produce impressions upon us. We believe in manhood that shows itself in attractive forms. But, for man, independent of circumstances, simply as a creature of God, as an heir of immortality, and as one that has all the future in him-a future illustrious as heaven or painful as hell-for man as man, how little feeling have we! We walk the streets with contempt for this one, and with loathing for that one. We despise the poor sinners-the children of vice and crime-that we see on every side of us.
2. There are thousands of men yet that are opposed to any reformation of morals that would conflict with the physical prosperity, or the supposed physical prosperity, of the community in which they dwell. Men are numerous, in every city or section of the country, who vote for their physical welfare against their spiritual. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
17. And they began to pray him todepart out of their coastsWas it the owners only of thevaluable property now lost to them that did this? Alas, no! For Luke(Lu 8:37) says, “Then thewhole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besoughtHim to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear.”The evil spirits had thus, alas! their object. Irritated, the peoplecould not suffer His presence; yet awe-struck, they dared not orderHim off: so they entreat Him to withdraw, andHe takes them attheir word.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they began to pray him,…. That is, the inhabitants of the city of Gadara, and of the villages round about, very earnestly importuned him
to depart out of their coasts; fearing, lest for their sins, some sorer judgment should fall upon them, than the loss of their swine; since they perceived he was a person of great power and authority; which shows great ignorance and worldly mindedness: they knew not how great a person they had among them; that he was the Son of God, and Saviour of the world: they might have known from the miracles wrought, that he was a very wonderful and extraordinary person; but then they considered him as one endued with great power, rather, to do them hurt than good; as one sent to scourge them for their sins, than to save them from them: such very contrary notions have carnal men of Christ; they are afraid of being sufferers, or losers by him: they do not care to part with their swinish lusts for him; these they prefer to a Saviour, and love the world, and the things of it, more than he, and therefore are not worthy of him;
[See comments on Mt 8:34].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To depart from their borders ( ). Once before the people of Nazareth had driven Jesus out of the city (Lu 4:16-31). Soon they will do it again on his return there (Mark 6:1-6; Matt 13:54-58). Here in Decapolis pagan influence was strong and the owners of the hogs cared more for the loss of their property than for the healing of the wild demoniac. In the clash between business and spiritual welfare business came first with them as often today. All three Gospels tell of the request for Jesus to leave. They feared the power of Jesus and wanted no further interference with their business affairs.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And they began to pray Him,” (kai erksanto parakalein auton) “And they (the people of the area of Gadara) began to appeal to Him, beseech, or beg Him,” to leave, as Pharaoh begged Moses concerning Israel, Exo 12:29-32.
2) “To depart out of their coasts.” (apelthein apo ton horion auton) “To depart or leave their territory;” Job 21:14; Luk 5:8; Act 16:39.
They let Him know that He was not wanted or welcome, disclosing their depraved greed, that they cared more for an herd of pigs than the temporal and eternal welfare of lost men, 1Ti 6:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17. They pray him to depart They considered the salvation of the man as a poor compensation for the loss of their pigs. A man who drives away devils must be himself driven away. So do men hug the disease and hate the physician. Skeptics at the present day agree with the Gadarenes and repudiate Jesus, because the demons destroyed the swine. They began to pray We have here three prayers from three very different sources. The devils pray, and their prayers are granted, but to their own final discomfiture. The Gadarenes pray, and their prayer too is granted; for the Lord departs and leaves them to their own abandonment. The delivered man prays to be with Christ; his prayer is not heard, but a better lot is assigned, a lot of home duty, which if he will fulfil, he shall be with his Lord forever.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
Ver. 17. And they began, &c. ] See Trapp on “ Mat 8:34 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
pray. See note on “besought”, Mar 5:10, and compare Mar 5:18.
out of = away from. Greek. apo. App-104.
coasts = borders.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mar 5:7, Mar 1:24, Gen 26:16, Deu 5:25, 1Ki 17:18, Job 21:14, Job 21:15, Mat 8:34, Luk 5:8, Luk 8:37, Act 16:39
Reciprocal: Exo 14:12 – Let us alone Mat 16:4 – And he Mar 5:18 – prayed Act 13:50 – and expelled
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Chapter 32.
The Gadarenes and the Healed Man
“And they began to pray Him to depart out of their coasts. And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with Him. 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. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.”-Mar 5:17-20.
Let us return to the story of the Gerasene (as the R.V. reads) demoniac. So far I have confined myself to the actual healing, dwelling more especially on the man’s pitiable plight; the failure of all human efforts to deal with him; and then the complete cure effected by the power of Christ All of this I have described as a parable of the inability of man to deal with the hurt and plague of sin, and of Jesus Christ’s power to save to the uttermost. Now, there are all kinds of curious questions raised by the manner in which the man’s cure was effected, all of which are learnedly and lengthily discussed by the commentators. I do not, however, intend to spend time upon those questions. Those who are interested in the problem of demonic possession, and wonder how devils can take possession of swine, had better refer to works discussing these things. My object is to get out of the narrative the lessons and truths that have some practical bearing upon our life to-day. And so I am going to pass by the method of the healing, in order to call your attention to what happened afterwards. There is food for study and thought; there are lessons of warning and inspiration to be derived from a consideration of the conduct, first, of the Gerasenes and secondly, of the healed demoniac.
The conduct of the Gerasenes.
First let us study for a moment the conduct of the Gerasenes as it is here described for us. When the swineherds had recovered from their first stupefaction at the sight of the herd rushing down the steep place into the sea, they fled, and began telling in the city and in the country what had come to pass. The result was that the people went surging and crowding out, to see things for themselves. The amazing sight that confronted them was the spectacle of him that had been possessed with devils sitting, clothed and in his right mind. The man, who had made night hideous with his cries, who had made the road impassable by his fierceness, who had defied every effort made to tame and bind him-that man was now sitting there before their very eyes, obviously restored to moral soundness and bodily health.
What might have been.
Now what would you expect as the effect upon the observers of such a sight? Would you not have supposed that the vision of a human being saved, a human soul restored, would have stirred them to rapture and praise? If they had such a thing as a Doxology in those days, I should have expected that at the sight of this healed and restored man it would have broken spontaneously from their lips.
I should have expected next to read that these people at once proceeded to scour the city and the villages around for every possessed person, and every sick person, and every leprous person in their coasts and brought them to Jesus, in order that the saving power which had redeemed this demoniac might be exercised upon the others also.
That was what happened at Capernaum. Our Lord healed a lunatic man in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. The news of that gracious deed flew like wild fire through the town, and “at even, when the sun did set”-it was against their Sabbath law to do so earlier,-“they brought unto Him all that were sick, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door” (i. 32, R.V.). And that is what I should have expected to read about Gerasa.
-And was not.
But what a different story it is that the Evangelist tells! Instead of begging Him to wait until they brought to Him other sufferers, upon whom to exercise His healing power, the people besought Him to depart out of their borders. They begged Jesus Christ to go! Is not this an amazing, is it not, indeed, almost an incredible, thing? And yet it was by no means an unusual thing. Gerasa was not the only place where they wanted to get rid of Christ. “He came unto His own,” says John, “and His own received Him not.” (Joh 1:11). That was literally fulfilled in our Lord’s experience. He went to Nazareth, eager to preach the Gospel to His townsmen, and to do amongst them the works He had done elsewhere; but the upshot of His visit was this, that His townsfolk took Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, in order that they might cast Him down headlong (Luk 4:29). He went once to a Samaritan village; they would not receive Him, because His face was as though He were journeying toward Jerusalem (Luke ix, 53). He went to Jerusalem itself-they would have none of Him. So resolved were they to get rid of Him, that they nailed Him to the bitter tree. No; this was no unusual experience of Jesus. These Gerasenes were not alone in their folly. The Nazarenes, the Samaritans, the dwellers in Jerusalem, they all told Jesus to depart.
A Folly also of To-day.
Why our Lord was Rejected.
But I do not know that I need go back to New Testament times for any illustrations. This is not alone an ancient folly. It is a folly of to-day. There are men and women amongst us who prefer Christ’s room to His company, and who beg Him to depart out of their borders. They did that amazing and incredible thing in Gerasa long ago; and they continue to do that amazing and incredible thing still. Jesus comes with His offer of salvation. He comes offering to restore men to moral soundness and health. He is the only one who can do this great thing. And yet men beseech Him to depart, they turn Him out of their lives.
Now what was it that made the Gerasenes long to get rid of Christ? I think Mar 5:16 supplies the key. “And they that saw it declared unto them how it befel him that was possessed with devils” (R.V.). Now I believe, if this story had ended at that point, these people would have hailed Christ as a public benefactor, and would have besought Him to stay. But the story did not end there. “They declared unto them how it befel him that was possessed with devils, and concerning the swine.” That settled the matter. As soon as they heard the news concerning the swine, they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders. The restoration of the man was as nothing to them, compared to the loss of the swine, and so they begged Jesus to go, because He interfered with their business. It is quite probable that the keeping of swine was forbidden to these people. For to the Jew, the pig, you all remember, was an unclean animal. If these people were Jews, as quite likely they were, they had engaged in a forbidden trade for the sake of the profit of it. And they were not going to have that trade interfered with. They preferred their chance of gain to their chance of the Kingdom; they preferred their swine to Christ. Like Esau, they preferred their mess of pottage to the birthright.
-A Cause Operative To-day.
These Gerasenes have had multitudes of followers. You remember how Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen in Ephesus tried to kill the apostle Paul, and to prevent the preaching of the Gospel. It was interfering with their business. And they were having no Christ preached in Ephesus who interfered with their trade. And again there is no need to go back to New Testament times, for this same thing happens still. Preachers of Christ in the open air have again and again been obstructed on the ground that they interfered with trade.
Many a business man has bowed Jesus out of his establishment, because His presence interferes with his trade; many a merchant has bowed Him out of his office because He interferes with his profits; many a young fellow has bowed Him out of his life because He interferes with his pleasures. They have told Him to go. And if you enquire how it is men can be so foolish as to drive away One who has such blessings to bestow, you will find that the reason is always something sordid, unholy, unclean; it always concerns the swine. They think more of the world than of the soul, more of gain than of God.
The Appeal and its Result
“They began to beseech Him to depart” (Mar 5:17, R.V.), and Jesus went. He will not force His presence upon people against their will. If He is to enter anywhere, the door must be opened for Him. If He is to stay anywhere, He must be made welcome. He will take possession of no man’s heart by storm. The puniest man behind the ramparts of his will can defy the Almighty Son of God. They besought Him to depart. They slammed the door in His face in Gerasa. So He went, and He never came back. Gerasa knew not the day of its visitation. It kept its swine, and lost its soul. O Gerasa, Gerasa, if thou hadst known, even thou, the things which belong unto peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes! Let us see to it that we ourselves recognise the day of our visitation. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2Co 6:2).
The Healed Man and his Plea.
But if the Gerasenes wanted to get rid of Jesus, there was one man who wanted for evermore to keep by His side. “And as He was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with devils besought Him that he might be with Him (Mar 5:18, E.V.). The Gerasenes felt they would never be happy and at ease until Jesus was gone; this man felt he could be happy nowhere else, save in the presence of his Lord. What are we to make of this request? Some commentators suggest that fear is partly accountable for it. The man feared, they say, that, once out of the presence of Jesus, the foul spirits from whose power he had been emancipated would come back again. He felt it was only the Person who delivered him who could also keep him. And if the healed man did think so, he was perfectly right in so thinking. For all is not done when a man is “saved”; all is not finished by one act of deliverance; the saved man needs keeping, or else his last estate may be worse than the first. Just as a man is saved, so also he must be kept by the power of Christ. If this was the man’s motive, the only mistake he made was in thinking that to be near Christ he had always to be in His physical presence. Left alone in Gerasa, Jesus would be with him still, and he would find himself kept by the power of God unto Salvation.
The Prompting of Love.
But I think what prompted this request was not so much fear as love. You remember how in his gratitude to Peter and John the lame man whom they had healed clung to them. In the same way this man clung to Jesus. He felt he was no longer his own. He felt the manhood and strength which had been restored to him belonged now to the Saviour who restored them. He wanted to dedicate his recovered faculties and sanity to the service of Jesus. “He besought Him that he might be with Him.” Yes, I believe it was love, overflowing gratitude and love, that prompted this request. You can understand it, can you not? Have you never sung in a rapture of thankfulness, as you contemplated the Cross, “For ever here my rest shall be, close to Thy bleeding side?” Have you never sung, when you have thought of Christ’s amazing love, “Take myself, and I will be, ever only, all for Thee!” It was exactly the same feeling that prompted this healed man to beseech Christ that he might be with Him. It was the request of a grateful and adoring love. Yet, though the request beyond doubt brought joy to the heart of Jesus, because it spoke of love, it was a request He did not grant. “He suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee” (Mar 5:19, R.V.).
The Lord’s Command: Its mercy.
What shall we say about this command of our Lord? (1) Well, to begin with, what a revelation it is of His mercy! The Gerasenes had besought Him to depart. But He will not leave without leaving a witness behind. Usually He laid upon the objects of His healing power the command to tell no man. It is the opposite command He gives to this healed demoniac. “Tell,” He said to him, “how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” And I believe the variation in the command is due to His desire to give the Gerasenes another chance. They were driving Him away. He will leave this man behind, a monument of His redeeming mercy, and bid him tell the people the amazing story of his restoration. Perchance some would listen and repent. So the healed man became Christ’s evangelist. He “began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel” (Mar 5:20). And, as Bishop Chadwick says, when all men did marvel, we may hope that some were won.
-Its Call to Action.
(2) I see in this command a hint that the Christian life is not one of rapture and communion simply, but one of action and service also. This healed man asked for a privilege. Christ laid upon him a duty. He asked that he might be “with Him”; instead, He sent him forth to preach to his family and his friends and neighbours. The Christian life is not simply something to enjoy; it is also something to do. It is not rapture simply, it is service also. Peter, when he saw the Lord’s glory on the holy mount, cried, “It is good for us to be here,” and he was for building three tabernacles, that they might abide there for ever. But in a short hour or two Jesus was leading the way down from the mount to the plain, with its surging crowd and its human suffering, and its crying need for help. To sit at the Lord’s feet and hear His word is a great and blessed privilege, but it does not sum up the whole of Christian duty. We have not only to receive, we have also to give. Christ will not suffer us to be always with Him; He will have us go and tell. Go and tell-that is the duty He lays upon the healed and saved soul. “Go and tell how great things the Lord hath done for thee and how He had mercy on thee.” It is not fine sermons He expects of us; for that work He has His own called and chosen men. What He wants of us is testimony, the simple statement of what He has done for us, and how He has had mercy on us.
The Appeal to Ourselves.
Have we given this testimony? If some doctor had healed you of a great and terrible disease, you would make it your business to trumpet that fact abroad. Have you published the fact that you know of One who can restore the soul? Have you gone and told? And where shall you begin your telling? Where this man began it Go to thy house unto thy friends. That is the place to begin-at your own fireside, under your own roof-tree. You need not wait for some great opening to occur, for some special opportunity to offer. The opening you need is to your hand. The opportunity you require is at your door. Begin at home. Not all the preaching in the world will have such effect upon the children as the simple recital by father or mother of the great things God has done for them, and how He has had mercy on them.
“They besought Him to depart out of their borders… He besought Him that he might be with Him.” What contrasted feelings Christ does inspire! The Gerasenes and the healed demoniac stand between them for all mankind. For some hate Him, and some love Him. Some say, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” and others say with adoring hearts, “Thou, O Christ, art all I want.” Which do we?
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
7
No harm had been done to the unfortunate man, hence the only conclusion possible is they were afraid some more of them would lose their swine.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 5:17. To depart out of their borders. See on Mat 8:34. That Evangelist omits all the incidents of Mar 5:15-16; Mar 5:18-20.