Jesus Came to Set Captives Free

The One Whom Demons Fear
(Mark 5:1-20, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, August 20, 2017)

[1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. [2] And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. [3] He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, [4] for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. [5] Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. [6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. [7] And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” [8] For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” [9] And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” [10] And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. [11] Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, [12] and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” [13] So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

[14] The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. [16] And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. [18] As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. [19] And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” [20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

We learn here of a tormented man who lived among the tombs away from other people.  The only contact he had had with the outside world in recent times were the attempts of others to bind him and keep him subdued, likely for both their protection and for his own.  Their efforts had failed, and he had broken free from all restraints with super-human strength, the strength of the Legion of demons who had taken control of him.  People had given up trying to help him.  His only companions now were the unclean spirits that possessed and oppressed him night and day.  He cut himself with stones and yelled out.  This man lived in the worst kind of prison imaginable.  No one had been able to bind his body, for he had always broken free.  Yet his soul was imprisoned, and no one was able to set him free.  How had he ended up like this?  How had he become open to this possession?  Certainly he did not know the true God, for God would never abandon his children to demonic possession like this.  Yet we are not told about his background and what led to his present state.  This man’s state, however he had gotten this way, was greatly to be pitied.  Can we even imagine the absolute horrors he lived through, at all times, with no relief in sight?

Does demon possession still occur in our day?  There is no reason to believe that it does not occur.  I feel that I understand very little about this, but I am sure there are individuals under the control of unclean spirits.  Furthermore, there are other kinds of bondage.  People are in bondage to alcohol, to heroin, to meth.  We have not been called to sit in judgment on those who find their lives in shambles with no apparent way out.  We are called to love and offer hope.  Many people live through daily horrors, with no relief in sight.  Should we not have compassion?  And surely we realize that in our very midst are brothers and sisters who feel trapped by chemical dependency, by pornography and lust, by fear, by craving the approval of those around them, and the list goes on.  Indeed, we might be ashamed to admit that we ourselves feel trapped in these or other destructive habits that do not bring glory to our heavenly Father.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34).  We all have sinned.  Sin is bondage and it leads to death.  The man possessed by a Legion of demons needed radical deliverance, but so does each of us.

Jesus had the previous night shown his authority over the wind and sea when he calmed the storm.  His disciples had responded with fear of him who held such power over the forces of nature.  Now Jesus will exercise his authority over an entire Legion of demons, which would inspire fear in the people of this pagan region called the Gerasenes.  As soon as he stepped out of the boat, Mark tells us the demon-possessed man met him.  Jesus began to command the demons to come out of the man.  Unlike the forces of nature, however, these demons did not immediately obey the command of Jesus.  Rather, they asked Jesus what he and they had to do with one another.  They fully recognized who Jesus was, the Son of the Most High God, and they begged him not to torment them.  Jesus asks the man, “What is your name?”  The demons responded, “My name is Legion, for we are many.  A Legion in the Roman army could have up to 6000 soldiers.  This does not mean there were necessarily 6000 demons controlling the man, but certainly there was an army.  This man’s condition was worse than any other demon-possessed person we see in the gospels.  The demons begged to be sent into a nearby herd of about 2000 pigs.  Luke, in his account, tell us they begged not to be sent into the Abyss (Lk. 8:31).  Jesus granted their request.  The demons left the man, entered the pigs, and the entire heard rushed into the sea and drowned.  The herdsman saw what happened, and ran to tell the locals.  People came and were astounded to see the wild man sitting with Jesus, clothed and sane, and when they heard what Jesus had done, they were terrified of Jesus.  They begged him to leave their region.  Sadly, they did not know that they also were in need of salvation from this Savior who had authority over the powers of evil.  They sent away the only Savior for sinners.  This still happens today.  People sometimes out of fear of God disrupting their lives will refuse the salvation offered in his Son.  They might think life without Christ, although not great, is at least what they are used to and comfortable with.  Yet life without Christ is slavery to sin and ends in eternal death.  All who ask Jesus to leave do not see the chains on their own hearts, nor the key in Jesus’ hand, or they do not want to see.

Despite the rejection he experienced in this region, Jesus still showed them love.  While he departed at their request, he left himself a witness there, the man whom he had delivered.  There is irony here.  Mark uses the word “begged” three times in this account.  When the demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs, he complied.  When the local people begged Jesus to leave their region, again he complied.  But when the man Jesus had saved begged Jesus to take him with him, Jesus refused him.  Instead, he commanded him to tell his friends and family what the Lord had done for him.  The man shared throughout the Decapolis his testimony of what Jesus had done for him (notice that the Lord, or “God” in Luke’s account, is equated with Jesus).  The Decapolis was the region to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee.  It consisted of over ten cities which, although under Roman authority, were largely autonomous.  The region was highly pagan and mostly Gentile.  Mark records that everyone who heard this man’s testimony marveled at what Jesus had done for him.  Thus the man’s testimony was clearly used by God.  One day we will know how many became believers as a result.

If you are in bondage to sin and any manifestation of the powers of darkness, even if not outright demon-possession, there is One who makes the darkness tremble.  Demons fear him, for he is their Lord.  He is a mighty Deliverer, and he can deliver each of us.  It is amazing in this story that Jesus saved this man when nobody, including the man himself, had asked for it.  Sometimes Jesus comes into our lives in dramatic ways when we had not even asked, but there is no guarantee of that.  Yet we have his guarantee that if we call upon him, he will deliver us (Ps. 50:15).  He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8), and to set the captives free (Lk. 4:18).  If the Son sets us free, we shall be free indeed (Jn. 8:36).  When those of who are Christians find ourselves getting caught up in sinful patterns, it may feel that we have fallen back into slavery.  Yet if we are in Christ, we have been set free from sin that we might now serve God (Rom. 6).  Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4).  We must rely on our Deliverer at all times, for we can easily slip back into the things from which we have been freed when we get our focus off of Jesus.  Christ alone is our Savior who has set us free.  Now, like the man whom Jesus set free from such great demonic oppression, let us tell us others what the Lord has done for us.