In St. Mark’s gospel the usual pattern after Jesus performed a miracle is that he told the healed person not to tell anyone about it. Scholars call this the “messianic secret.” An exception to this occurs when Jesus heals the possessed man in the Gerasene territory (pagan territory on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.) When the formerly possessed man asks to follow Jesus he tells him, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” The difference perhaps lies in the fact that the man’s activities were centered in the Decapolis, a predominately non-Jewish area. There was no danger that Jesus would be looked upon as a king among those people.
