What Is Man? (2)
Scripture Reading — Mark 5:1-20
“Tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
Mark 5:19
Wow, what a perspective! Yesterday we talked about God’s love for human life, and in today’s passage we find that Jesus was willing to sacrifice about two thousand pigs for the well-being of just one person. But the townspeople did not appreciate Jesus’ good intentions in healing the demon-possessed man, so they asked Jesus to leave town.
One might argue that today we can easily spend thousands of dollars for just a simple medical procedure, so the sacrifice of two thousand pigs is not a big deal. But we have to remember that in Jesus’ day those pigs probably represented the livelihood of most of the people in that town. To sacrifice them just for the sanity of a demon-possessed man would have seemed like an enormous waste. But in the eyes of our Lord, this man was a precious creature of his Father God; this was a soul that was worth the sacrifice of his own precious blood on a cross.
Imagine how different the world would be if we could see others as Jesus does. We then would not be judging people (or even ourselves) by their color, education, possessions, and other external standards. Rather, we would see life as a precious gift from God and be ready to tell others about God, as this man did after he was healed. And all the people would be amazed.
Thank you, Father, for creating us as we are, with the potential you have given. Help us to see others as you do and to share the good news of being created in your image. Amen.
About the author — Jimmy Tai-On Lin
Rev. Jimmy Lin is the Chinese ministry leader of The Back to God Hour. With his staff in Palos Heights and Hong Kong, Rev. Lin has ministered to over 1.3 billion Chinese-speaking people around the world for 16 years through radio, literature, CD/DVD, Internet, and text message. His wife, Doris, is one of the translators of Today into the Chinese language, which now has a circulation of more than 45,000 copies.
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