"What A Terrific Plan"

"The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest."  Matthew 9:37-38
 
In both Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39 we find the same account of Jesus setting a man free from demons. It was well known that he was so bad that he had to live in the tombs and they tried to contained him by binding him with chains.  After Jesus set him free of the demons it says that when the crowd came to see what had happened to him they ... found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. Luke 8:35

Instead of being amazed it says that they ...begged Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned. Luke 8:37  In the next verse it tells us that the man begged Jesus to let him go with Him. Jesus' response is a little surprising since everywhere else He is using words like, "Follow me."  Instead, in this case He tells him, "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:39

We know that he was obedient to what Jesus had asked him to do, not only because of what it says in this verse about him going his way and proclaiming but because of the effect he had on the whole area.  In Matthew 14:34-36 we see that when Jesus returns He receives a different reaction.  In both the Mark and Luke accounts the people begged Jesus to leave because of their fear, but here in Matthew15:35-36 it says, ... that when the men of that place recognize Jesus, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

We know that he was a faithful witness just as Jesus had asked, because this time when Jesus showed up they didn't 'show Him the door.' This time they recognized Him and spread the word to get anybody and everybody with a need to come!  Even though this man would have preferred to get in the boat and go with Jesus, Jesus had a different plan for him! He sent him home to a place he hadn't been able to be for a long while. His plan not only set the man free but it restored him to his family and in the process a whole region was impacted for the kingdom!

"For I know the plans that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11  This man reaped a harvest because he was obedient to Jesus' plan and became a walking, talking, living testimony of what Jesus had done for him in his own hometown!  What a terrific plan!