let me get this straight, you don't want me to follow you?

In the Gospels, Jesus is constantly doing stuff that throws people for a loop. There's the one time he actually pays his taxes by sending Peter fishing! There's another time when Jesus lets a prostitute wash his hair with her perfume. (I've never thought about it before, but probably the perfume that she used to attract men in her business endevors.) Like I said he's always doing things that are a bit suprising.

Perhaps you've heard the story about when Jesus met the man with a Legion of demons. He, of course, cast the demons from the man and into a herd of pigs. This is not the suprise. The suprise is when the guy asks Jesus if he can become his disciple Jesus says no. Instead he directs the poor guy to go home and tell everybody what has happened to him. So the man goes to the Decapolis and begins to tell his story; and everybody is amazed! 

The next time Jesus comes back to this area in chapter, large crowds come out to see him and the bring their sick to him to be healed. How did they know about Jesus? Well, perhaps the guy who had been so dramatically changed. Maybe this is what Jesus intended? How would these people have ever heard the good news that Jesus was here if the man had followed Jesus? 

I one time heard this story described as, "Maybe Jesus doesn't want you to follow him..." which is very unnerving. Where will you go that Jesus is not going. Where will you go that nobody else will go. Where does the truth of God take us?