Mark 5:1 Meaning and Explanation

This landing completes the stormy night crossing of Mark 4:35-41. Jesus had said, "Let us pass over unto the other side," and neither wind nor wave could cancel that word. The far shore is the country of the Gadarenes, part of the Decapolis -- a region of Greek cities, pig herds, and pagan worship that most teachers in Israel would never have chosen to visit.

Mark wants us to feel the deliberateness of the journey. Jesus crossed a storm to reach a coastline that would soon ask him to leave, and he did it, as the next verses show, for one tormented man. No shore is too far, too dark, or too unclean for him to land on. He still crosses whatever lies between himself and a person in need.