Mark 5 tells of one of Jesus’ more dramatic exorcisms: a man with a “legion” of demons, who lived among the tombs, couldn’t be restrained even with chains, and ran around screaming and cutting himself with stones. Jesus casts the demons out of the man, but permits them to enter a nearby herd of pigs, which pigs immediately run down a hill into the sea and drown.

The man who’s been freed from this demonic oppression, not surprisingly, wants to join Jesus and the disciples. Jesus’ reply to him is kind of surprising.

As [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Lots of times when people become Christians, or when Christians begin to take Jesus more seriously, they can get restless. Could I really be serving God in the job I’m in, in the house I’m in? Sometimes we begin to think that to really serve God, to really be radically committed to Jesus, we need to hang it all up and go into some kind of vocational ministry.

Sometimes, for some people, that’s true. If God’s calling you to step out, then you better step out!

But a lot of the time, he wants us to do exactly what he told this man: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” If everybody becomes a pastor, the people at your office or in your class or playgroup or squash team or neighborhood might not have anyone to tell them how great God’s mercy is.