Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
Just before this verse, Jesus encountered a man in the region of the Gerasenes — a mostly Gentile, or non-Jewish, area east of the Sea of Galilee — who was possessed by a large number of evil spirits. The man lived among tombs in complete isolation, uncontrollable and tormented. Jesus healed him fully and dramatically. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the man begs to come with Jesus. But Jesus gives him a different assignment entirely: go back home, to your family, and tell them what God has done for you. Rather than following Jesus on the road, the man's mission field was the very place he came from.
Lord, thank you for what you've done in me — even the parts I don't fully understand yet. Give me the courage to go back to the people who know me and tell them honestly what you've done. Let my story be a door that opens something for someone else. Amen.
If you'd been that man, you probably would have wanted his first plan too. Leave behind the place where everyone had watched you unravel. Start clean, somewhere new, with Jesus. There's something deeply appealing about a faith that takes you far from the mess you came from — the people who remember your worst chapters, who have you filed under a label you've been trying to escape. But Jesus sends him back. Not because home is easy, but because home is where his story would land with the most weight. The people who had watched him lose everything were the only ones who could fully understand what restoration looked like. You may not have a story quite like his — wild and dramatic and impossible to explain. But you almost certainly have a home — a family, a neighborhood, a group of people who knew you before. And Jesus' instruction here is striking in its simplicity: go tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Not fix everyone. Not win arguments. Just tell your story — specifically, personally, without dressing it up. Your testimony isn't a program or a strategy. It's a person walking back into familiar rooms and saying: something happened to me, and I can't not tell you.
Jesus typically told people he healed to tell no one, but he told this man to go and tell everyone. What is different about this man's situation, and why might that matter?
Is there something God has done in your life — something real and specific — that you've been reluctant to share with the people closest to you? What's held you back?
The man wanted to follow Jesus by leaving home; Jesus redirected that desire into going back home. Do you think it can sometimes be easier to serve God somewhere far away than right where people already know you? Why?
How does hearing someone's honest, personal story of change affect your relationship with them — and how might sharing yours change something in your closest relationships?
Who is one specific person in your family or immediate community that you could tell this week about something real God has done for you — in plain, honest words?
And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost , and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
Acts 26:29
Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
Daniel 4:37
Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
Jonah 2:1
Jesus did not let him [come], but [instead] He said to him, "Go home to your family and tell them all the great things that the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you."
AMP
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.”
ESV
And He did not let him, but He said to him, 'Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and [how] He had mercy on you.'
NASB
Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
NIV
However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”
NKJV
But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.”
NLT
but he wouldn't let him. Jesus said, "Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you."
MSG