A joke gone wrong

It was the right answer but so wrong.

I had a test question that asked where did the legion of demons go after leaving the man?

I was doing ok on the test so I thought I would have some fun with the answer.

The correct answer was Jesus sent the 4,000 demons into about 2,000 pigs nearby and the pigs went down a tall hill into a lake and drowned.

That was the text book answer and this was my answer…

Jesus sent the demons into the pigs and the pigs decided to go swimming even though they not know how to swim and DIED L.

I only got 1 out of 3 points possible on the question.

I went to the teacher and asked why I didn't get full points for this?

They said, "It's a flippant response."

What?

So I asked the question, "What it right?"

Their first comment back was, "It was told in a joking way and I did not appreciate that."

I asked again, "Was the answer right?"

They said, "The answer was right, but the way you answered it wasn't."

I didn't get the two points on that test.

It cracks me up to this day.

Sometimes thing things we do don't have the affect we thought they would.

Jesus did an amazing thing.

This man was bad, sick, injured.

He cut himself and couldn't be restrained, there was so much power in him that he broke whatever chains they put on him.

He was so sick that he would cut himself, he wanted out of this prison of a body he had.

He was demon possessed to the max.

Jesus asked the name of the demon and was told Legion.

Legion has a meaning of 4,000.

In other words there were 4,000 demons in this person.

Jesus got rid of all the demons, and put them into 2,000 pigs.

The pigs did die and this man was finally free.

The people were happy that the demons were out of this man and happy about Jesus, right?

Wrong.

Mark 5:16-17…

"Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well.
Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region."

They were ticked.

2,000 pigs died, that was there way of life, they just lost a ton of money.

Rather than being amazing at the miracle they looked at the money.

They asked Jesus to leave and he did, he never returned to this area again.

Just like my teacher missed the true answer because of the response, the people missed the true miracle because they were caught up in the money.

Do we often miss the point?

Jesus performed a miracle and did we just miss the point?

Do we think about the miracle or the fact some people just turned their back on Christ.

Is our thought, they have what's coming to them for denying Christ or do we think wow, he just healed a very sick man.

Sometimes our own thoughts get in the way of the point.

Jesus ends this section by doing something he doesn't do in the book of Mark often.

He tells this man to tell everyone what happened.

In other sections Jesus tells them not to talk to anyone.

Jesus wants these people to remember what Jesus can do and what he can accomplish.

Jesus can get us out of different situations, even the worst of situations.

What did or can Jesus do for you?

Have a great day.