Few questions can appear as esoteric and yet prove as profoundly practical as the question: “Lord, Why am I still here?” It is a question that seminary students with little life experience can talk over into the early hours of the morning as they sip energy drinks. It is a question that the newly minted widower feels throughout the recesses of his soul as he selects a coffin for his beloved bride. And it is a question that Jesus answers in Mark 5:19-20.
A Demonic Setting
These verses in Mark follow Jesus’ victory over the demons who had possessed and tormented a man who lived in “the country of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:1).” Though this man’s neighbors had attempted to restrain him and his demon bosses on multiple occasions, he had proved too powerful for the local neighborhood watch. The Gospel of Mark records, “And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain (Mk 5:3).” He had the strength to pull the chains apart and to break the “shackles into pieces (Mk 5:4).” But what men could not do, Jesus easily could. With the power of his voice, Jesus drove the legion of demons controlling the man into a herd of pigs which the demons then promptly drove off a cliff. Jesus redeemed the man from his sin. In that divine flex, Jesus once again reveals that he was fully God. He alone possesses authority over all powers and principalities.
A Surprising Twist
As Jesus prepares to leave and hop back into his boat, the newly redeemed man requests to go with his savior. The Gospel of Mark reports, “the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him (Mk 5:18).” Having experienced the depths of spiritual darkness and the liberating joy of eternal salvation through Jesus, this man knew Jesus to be Christian’s greatest good. His request mirrors the heart of the merchant in the parable of the pearl of great value, “who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matt 13:45).” In other words, the man rightly and sincerely desires to be with Jesus.
But Jesus refuses his request. The man does not even get his name recorded in the Gospels much less a ticket on Jesus’ boat. In so doing, Jesus provides this new convert and thereby every Christian that wonders about the purpose of their life with the answer to the question: “Lord, why did you leave me here?” The gospel of Mark reports: “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 (Mk 5:19).”
A Glorious Answer
In other words, Jesus leaves behind this man (and every other soul that would prefer the joys of eternity to the sorrows of this life) so that they can proclaim Jesus’s saving mercy. The Gospel of Mark reports that the man does just this: “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled (Mark 5:20).”
Proclaim Christ to the Unbeliever
What was true of that man in Mark 5 proves true of the disciples after Jesus’ ascension and of every Christian left behind since then. The caffeinated seminary students have yet to reach heaven because the Lord calls them to share the gospel with their classmates, family members, and coworkers. Just as the demon-possessed man talked of Jesus’ power over demon, these seminary students can witness to how Jesus triumphs over their pornography addiction, their habitual lying, and their explosive pride. Similarly, the widower is left behind so that he can share his testimony with his grandchildren, with the visitor that comes to his church, and with the nurse that draws his blood. He can reveal that Christ truly never leaves his children even as they walk through the shadow of death. Jesus leaves his children behind so that others “will believe in me through their word. (Jn 17:20).”
Proclaim Christ to the Believer
And while this gospel proclamation possesses a strong evangelistic flavor, it also possesses a sanctifying purpose. Like the demon-possessed man, the apostle Paul also longed to go with Jesus and was told, “No.” Paul recounts in Philippians 1:25 that he will go on living “for your [the Philippians] progress and joy in the faith.”
In other words, those seminary students are still knocking around their library’s stacks because God longs for them to be an encouragement to the guy in their dormitory struggling with depression and a help to the students in their fifth-grade Sunday School class. Similarly, Jesus has left the widowed saint behind so that she might instruct the next generation of young moms in how to love their husbands and in how to parent their children. Paul draws this connection in Titus 2, telling older women “to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled (Ti 2:3b-5).” Jesus who asks the Father in John 17:17 to “Sanctify [his disciples] in the truth; your word is truth” has entrusted the advancement of that word to those left behind. In short, Jesus calls the left behind to relay God’s mercy to both the unbeliever and the believer.
Do Not Despair
Admittedly, the believer may not like where the Lord has left him. The young man may prefer to work in a more urban or rural area or with those that know him better. The widowed saint may prefer to be in heaven like the apostle Paul (Phil 1:14). The couple approaching their nineties may prefer to minister within the context of their family instead of within the context of their nursing home.
Though the believer may not like their station in life, Jesus has no more made a mistake in sending today’s saints to their locations than he did in sending the demon-possessed man back to his home town. The theologian E.B. Powers offers this word of encouragement to those who struggle to joyfully embrace where they have been left: “Sick man you have a place of usefulness for God, not the old place, but his place – the place which is best in the eyes of the all-wise one.” In other words, God has strategically placed every Christian in the setting that will bring the Lord the most glory.
Moreover, the Jesus who rescued the man in Mark 5 from his demon overlords also keeps those left behind from falling back under the influence of demons today. In John 17:15, Jesus prays; “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” In other words, the Jesus through the Father and in conjunction with the Holy Spirit upholds, protects, and blesses those he leaves behind. Jesus is with them “always until the end of the age (Matt 28:20).”
Christians should neither fear nor complain about being left behind but rather join with the demon-possessed man and joyfully share the mercies of their savior with their lost and dying world.
Closing Thoughts
Like the demon-possessed man and the apostle Paul we should all long for heaven as being with Christ is “far better” than any other setting on this earth. As R.C. Sproul once remarked, “The fullness of healing from both sin and disease takes place in heaven.” But the time between that day and now is still of great consequence to the kingdom of heaven. In other words, God has left you in your communities, churches, and homes not because he has made a cosmic mistake but so that you might glorify him through recounting his mercies. Dear perplexed and left behind soul, proclaim Jesus.