The man in the tombs (Mark 5) was an unlikely prospect for any great thing. The people had often sought to bind him in chains, but no one could subdue him. Probably he was a source of anguish and concern to his family and friends, or ridicule, laughter, and fear for many others. Legion dwelt in him. When the legion was cast out, this man went and proclaimed in Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.
The man is introduced in a truly pitiful condition. He had an unclean
spirit. His dwelling was among the tombs in the countryside near the sea. No one could bind him, even with chains, breaking the binding fetters. No
one could tame him. Continually he was in the mountains and among the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
As Jesus left the boat after arriving in the area, the man ran to Him and worshipped Him. Jesus responded by immediately rebuking the unclean spirit and commanding that it leave the man. The legion was granted permission and it entered into a herd of about two thousand swine, and the entire herd ran violently into the sea and was drowned.
The herdsmen fled and told in the city and countryside what had happened, and the people went to see what was done. They came to Jesus and
were afraid seeing the previously possessed man now clothed and rational. Their fear caused them to reject Jesus and to beseech Him to leave their coast.
Jesus did leave, but as He came to the ship the man who had been possessed desired to go with Him. Previously in Mark, Jesus had called Peter and Andrew, James and John, and Levi from his tax collecting, and said, "Follow Me." Each of these had done that. This man requested the same. Jesus refused and sent him on a different task - "Go to your house unto your friends, ant tell them how great things the Lord had done for you, and how he had mercy on you," (Mark 5:9).
How very unlikely it had been that this man would be the one to tell Decapolis of Jesus and His marvelous works. God has, however, frequently used men who seemed unlikely in the beginning. Moses considered himself "slow of speech and of a slow tongue." But God sent him to Egypt to Pharoah and to the huge task of leading all Israel out and on to Canaan. David was the youngest son of Jesse, and when Samuel called Jesse and his sons to anoint one as king, David was left at home to tend the sheep. Esther was an orpahend child, raised by an uncle, of a captive people dwelling in a foreign land: God used her to save all Israel. Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen; Levi, a tax collector; Paul, a zealous Pharisee and persecutor of Christians. How unlikely they were! How much we are like them! They were shepherds, fishermen, tax collectors, orphans, even men demon-possessed; we are farmers, pipefitters, mechanics. One is as unlikely as the other, but God can use us. Remember that His "strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). We "live with Him by the power of God" (2 Corinthians 13:4). We are all sinners, hopelessness without Him, but he has "once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, ...I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:5,6).
We are all so unlikely. God is so powerful. It is through His power that we labor, and it is to His glory when great things come. By ourselves we are powerless. Jesus told this man of Mark 5 to go, and of His proclamation, Mark 5:20 states, "all men marvelled." Jesus has told us to go. Do we go and by His power? The more unlikely a candidate for greatness you seem to be, the more gloriously and powerfully God can use you.
