The Eyes of the Master

By Patricia Marks

As the Bible is the book of preference for me, I began to wonder what brought the people in the Scriptures to the place where they met the Master. The stories mostly wrote themselves. The hardest person to write about was the demonic from Gadarene. How does a person become so demon-possessed? Why does Jesus say to some, stop sinning? What did they do? They were more than likely doing the same things we are doing today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449765149

Patricia Marks

Patricia Marks was born and raised in Mingo Junction, Ohio. She is married with two children and five grandchildren. She now lives in Belpre, Ohio, with her husband of forty-eight years. Growing up in church, she has always loved the Lord, but best of all, He has always loved her no matter what!

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Mary Magdalene

Jesus seemed like the most joyful person you would ever want to meet. He enjoyed life and was fun. As He walked around Israel, He stopped at the synagogues and taught anyone who would listen. He tried to make them change their minds about the right way to live. He wanted them to live in the kingdom of heaven and not in the earthly realm. Repent. Change your thinking, He would say, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

To prove to the people that the kingdom of heaven was actually on earth, Jesus healed many people suffering infirmitities. Because He healed mostly common people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were supposed to bring people to God, were upset with Him. They hated Him, plain and simple. They hated Him because they were jealous of Him. All the common people ran after Jesus because they loved Him and, better still, He loved them, and they knew it.

I knew it too. The first time Jesus looked at me, I saw love in His eyes—love, not lust like I saw in the eyes of men I had met. This was the real deal, this look of love. I knew He was not lusting after my flesh; He was calling to my inner self, my soul. I could feel the pull. There was no condemnation in Him either—just love—yet I felt unclean because of His purity, but at the same time accepted.

Like I said, Jesus loved people. He fed them and healed them. He wanted people to take from Him. He was happiest when people did exactly that.

There was once a woman who, for twelve years, had had a problem with bleeding ever since the birth of her daughter. It was illegal for her to be out and about, let alone to touch anyone. The Pharisees would have condemned her to death if she had tried to touch one of them. But when she touched the hem of His garment, Jesus stopped and asked, Who touched me? He was surprised and delighted that she was able to take some of His virtue. He smiled at her and hugged her and told her it was her faith that made her well. And she was well. I know her. She came and told me what happened. I was so happy for her.

I wanted to meet Jesus. I wondered if He would be able to help me. But I knew I was the most unworthy person, so I just kind of watched when He was in the area. I wasn’t sick physically, not with an issue of blood or leprosy. My problems started about thirty years before when my little son—my only child—was taken from me and slaughtered by some Roman soldiers. When my husband tried to stop them, they pushed him away. He fell backward and hit his head on a sharp rock. He never regained consciousness and died that night.

I was never the same after that. I suffered from depression. I would take to my bed for days. My in-laws took me in as their daughter. They were rich, and when they died, I inherited their wealth. I don’t know what I would have done for food and shelter if it wasn’t for them. They were wonderful people. They didn’t deserve to lose their only child and grandchild like that.

One day, as I entered the temple, Jesus was there with some fishermen and a tax collector. My emotions were mixed up. I wanted to follow Him, and yet I felt held back in some way. What is this that keeps me from being free to do what I really long to do? I wondered. He saw me, and our eyes met, but I looked away quickly. I felt ashamed.

I knew what kind of person He was. You could see it. You could feel it. You just knew it. He walked over to me, and I could feel my insides churning. Go! He commanded, and something gagged me and then left my body. I could feel it leaving. I gagged again and again until I felt really free. Hallelujah! I was at peace, a peace I couldn’t remember since the day my child and husband were taken and murdered in front of my eyes. I fell down at His feet and just wept and worshipped. Oh, the love that poured into my soul! I knew that He loved me, really loved me. I had never felt loved like that before. I had known the so-called love of men, but this was a different kind of love. It was not sexual; it was holy. I don’t know any other way of explaining it.

From that day on, I followed Jesus when He was in Galilee. I ministered to His needs like I would have administered to my son. If He needed food, I prepared it. If He needed to sleep, I gave Him a blanket. There were other women who followed Him too. We were a troop, and the other women became some of my best friends.

People used to make fun of us, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to be around this man, to listen to Him teach. He was always telling us how good God is. He never talked about our shortcomings but always about the Father’s love for us. We never felt sinful in His presence. He always lifted us up in His own special way. He never condemned us. Unlike the nasty Pharisees and Sadducees, He encouraged us in our walk before God. And my, how we learned from all of His teachings! Just knowing that God was a good father to us made us feel His love—not like the love of our earthly fathers but something higher, higher than all of us put together. Oh, how we yearned after that beauty from heaven that seemed to radiate from Him.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes, who worked for the priests at the temple, were always trying to find fault with Jesus. The priests would send their scribes to try and trip Him up, but He always thwarted their attempts. They would come and try to pull Him down and then go away astounded, saying to their masters that they had never heard anyone like Him. They said that He taught like one who really knew, not like one who was just guessing. How this made the Pharisees angry! After all, they were just guessing; they had no authority in their teachings. They would go back and forth, arguing among themselves. They couldn’t even agree with one another. How silly He made them look!

I must tell you that a lot of them came to believe that He was the Messiah. We common folk were really tired of the priest’s dillydallying around. They never seemed to really help anyone. The priests gave us laws to follow and then waited for us to mess up so they could pounce on us for doing wrong. Jesus’ teaching was like a fresh wind blowing through the temple, clearing out all the cobwebs.

I watched Him one day when a leper came and asked Jesus if He would make him clean. Immediately, Jesus reached out His hand and touched that man. Touched him! I mean, He touched the leprosy. You will be clean, He told the man. And the man was instantly cleansed. Is this not backward? I asked myself. If I were to touch a leper, I would be unclean, just like the leper. But when Jesus touched the leper, it was the unclean who became clean. Yes, I could see that things in the heavenly kingdom were different from the things in the earthly kingdom. How many times had I seen the priests run the lepers off, yelling at them to stay away! Oh yes, the kingdom of heaven had surely come to us. How our hearts leapt for joy within us every time He came near.

Jesus was constantly teaching His followers. Now, there was an unusual bunch of people. Most of them were unlearned, rough men who worked hard to earn a living. A few were educated. He wanted them to learn to do things the heavenly way. I can remember John calling out, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! I let John baptize me. I wanted to feel clean. I wanted more from God but didn’t quite know how to go about getting it. All the fasting and rituals didn’t seem to get me any closer to God. They never left me feeling clean. How did one go about getting close to God anyway?

But when Jesus was around, you felt close to God. You just marveled within yourself and wondered what it was exactly that this man had that no one else seemed to have. Even the high priest didn’t have it. Contrariwise, you felt condemnation in the high priest’s presence. He acted like he was better than you and you were not even worthy of cleaning his shoes. You were insignificant. He even told you that you were born in sin.

But Jesus lifted you up and made you equal with Him, yet you knew He was much greater than even the high priest. Could this man be the Messiah for which we had waited so long? After you wait for something so long, it doesn’t seem real when it arrives.

I have seen the Master tired after a long day of teaching and healing the sick and cleansing the lepers and casting out demons. People would almost tackle Him to get a healing. I don’t know why they acted like that. I guess they were afraid Jesus wouldn’t give them anything if they asked for it nicely. He would have.

He never refused anyone, ever. He gave and gave and gave.

We followed Him as much as we could when He was in Galilee, the other women and I. Sometimes we just couldn’t seem to keep up. The day He fed the five thousand, we were with Him. That day, news came that John had been beheaded by Herod. It seemed to affect Him greatly. I could tell He just wanted to be alone, but the crowds wouldn’t let Him. And He gave up His right to be alone to minister to the crowds.

He had compassion on them that day. That was just the way He was. He healed all who were brought to Him. The disciples came to Him and asked Him to send the multitudes away. They were tired too; it had been a big day. Some of them were John’s disciples, and they were greatly troubled at what Herod had done to John. Jesus said: You can’t send them away hungry. Feed them. That was the day He fed the multitude with just five loaves and two fish. We ate first because we were close to the front. Jesus asked Simeon to take us women across the lake in his boat and that He would come along later. We took one of the leftover baskets of food and gathered up all our stuff and took off for Gennesaret. I remember thinking on the way over how we all were beginning to take the healing He did for granted until we heard the report of Jesus’ setting free the demonic maniac in Gennesaret. Everyone knew about the demonic man. He was famous. Everyone avoided the area because of him. If you were Jewish, you avoided the area also because of the swine in that region. The whole area stank. The very air made you feel unclean. Now, there were a lot of unpleasant smells from all the animals people used day to day, but the stench from the swine at Gennesaret was a hundred times worse. A Jew wouldn’t want to take a chance of becoming defiled from the swine or their droppings. That never stopped the Master. Jesus never hesitated to touch people. The Levites wanting to cause trouble had a really hard time with Jesus. Whatever He touched became clean. How could you say He became defiled when the defilement was gone after His touch?

I remember hearing about the incident with the Gerasene who was like a wild man. He terrified the whole countryside. No one could control him or even chain him. He had demons, just like