As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. (Mark 5: 18-20)

He went to the Decapolis. These were ten Greek trading cities along the edge of the great desert.

Was this unnamed Gentile, former demoniac - someone so thoroughly lost he did not ask for healing - the first evangelist?

The man was commissioned to tell of God's mercy. The Greek is eleeo or eleos. Outside the Bible this is most often translated as pity or compassion.

In the present generation both mercy and pity can be burdened with seriously negative connotations. Compassion may also be sliding into a sadly shallow meaning.

In his Rhetoric Aristotle offered, "Compassion may be defined as a feeling of pain caused by the sight of some evil - destructive or painful - which befalls one who does not deserve it, and which we might expect to befall ourselves or some friend of ours, and moreover to befall us soon."

In compassion we recognize ourselves in others, we love others as ourselves, we act on behalf of others as we act on our own behalf.

Jesus instructed the man to tell of God's compassion.