Mark 5 - Arising faith
Jesus Christ demonstrated great faith when He went into Decapolis, a place where most of the non-Jewish live there, it is a known gentile area where they raised pigs in that place. Jesus Christ went there with a mission to bring healing & to show mercy without borders. He cast out the unclean spirits which is Legion, in meaning it means many, from the poor tormented man. A man that has no control over his own body but to under total control of the unclean spirit, deemed insane & a social outcast, derived from any dignity & community life.
Lord Jesus Christ did not just perform a power showdown to cast out demons but He demonstrated faith & true belief in who He is in God, He knew that He has the power to do free someone, so He did it in mercy. The man wanted to follow Jesus Christ but was refused & told to proclaim the good news of what had been done by the Lord. This is another perfect example of when one experienced God’s mercy & goodness, our next step is to proclaim it to others in order to glorify God & lead people to Him as well.
The woman in chronic illness of blood flow was also labeled unclean & with the similar situation as the demon-possessed man, she too believed that our Lord Jesus Christ has the power to heal & she was healed after she touched His cloak. As an unclean woman in the Jewish community chronically, she suffered physically, mentally & emotionally as she can’t have a normal social community life. As for the father of the little girl, a synagogue’s leader, believed & had faith that Jesus Christ can save his daughter, so he went to get Jesus Christ even when he knew he’d risk his social status in the Jewish priesthood community & probably will lose his position in the synagogue.
In all these three examples, our Lord Jesus Christ, the unclean spirits & the people were willing to display their faith externally that comes from their belief & took risk. It may not be displayed in normal situations but there are times when desperation arise, faith also rise. It’s an encouragement to not be afraid of troubling times for it is a moment of arising faith.