Monday 1-2-23 Jesus Heals the Demon Possesed Man and Calms the Storm

In one paragraph

Carl walked the group through two back-to-back stories in Mark: Jesus calming a storm on the lake, and Jesus healing a man living among tombs who was possessed by a legion of demons. Both stories kept turning up the same theme: the authority Jesus carries, and the fear that shows up in the people around him even after they see it. The conversation that followed brought in personal stories, a...

Read together

1. Mark 4:35-41 read aloud as the first passage of the evening, Jesus calming the storm
2. Mark 5:1-20 read aloud as the second passage, Jesus healing the demon-possessed man
3. Mark 1:27 quoted to show the crowd's amazement at Jesus teaching with real authority
4. Mark 1:41-42 quoted to illustrate Jesus healing the man with leprosy, moved with compassion
5. Matthew 28:18 quoted to support the point that Jesus truly has all authority in heaven and earth
6. Psalm 34:1-8 recited by a congregation member connecting deliverance from fear to the evening's theme

Talk about it

1. Carl said that Jesus' authority is an 'undeniable theme' running through Mark, showing up over and over. Where have you personally seen or felt that authority, either in scripture or in your own life?
2. The disciples had just watched Jesus calm a storm, and he still asked them, 'Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?' Why do you think fear can hang on even after we have seen God work?
3. Carl described faith not as something we produce on our own but as a gift from God that grows as we yield our will to his. Does that picture of faith match your experience? What does that yielding actually look like for you day to day?
4. The townspeople who witnessed the healing of the demon-possessed man were afraid and begged Jesus to leave, while the healed man begged to stay with Jesus. What do you think made their reactions so different, and which reaction do you identify with more?
5. Jesus told the healed man not to follow him but to go home and tell his family what the Lord had done for him. Carl noted that sometimes Jesus says go and tell, and sometimes he says tell no one, or drop everything and follow me. How do you sit with not always understanding why Jesus calls different people differently?