Mark 5:1-20

Love Life: Hear / Pray / Go / Connect

Between Kelly Deboer giving my wife sourdough starter and teaching her how to make bread and all these Lucky Charm marshmallows, the church might need to increase our budget to invest in the Gold Plan Edition for my health insurance provider. On top of all that, someone gifted me tickets to Lynden Christian Pancake Day this next saturday for all you can eat pancakes!

The last listed fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control. This is speeding up my process of sanctification! (did find one or two non “marshmallows” in the mix.

Have a human moment here.

Kids give your parents “the look”…puppy dog eyes.

Puppie Dog Eyes - kids… leaning upon your sympathy. It is also a recognition of authority. It is also an attempt to be manipulative. But it is so cute!

Everybody and every being that encounters Jesus in Mark 5:1-20 isn’t necessarily doing puppy eyes to Jesus, but they are falling down before Him, begging Him individually and collectively to grant them their ultimate desires. It is scary sometimes what we ultimately want.

They aren’t necessarily trying to manipulate Him, but they all clearly recognize who the One is Who is in charge and Who elicits obedience.

That is probably the biggest lesson we can learn from this text. Jesus is in charge and He elicits obedience. He is to be obeyed no matter if you are a demon or demon possessed.

Mark 5:1–20 (ESV)

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.

Pray

The man who fell down. (1-6)

Mark 5:1 (ESV)

1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.

Last week we talked about the symbolism of what it means to “cross to the other side of the sea.” We are meant to think about disobedient Jonah who was initially unwilling to take God’s message across a body of water in order to preach to a pagan nation. Here Jesus gets in a boat and seems to be very eager to do what Jonah initially failed to do.

Now remember Jesus is having a “very successful” ministry in the Galilee in the Land of Israel. I put it in air quotes because it wasn’t without opposition, but never-the-less it was successful. He had power to heal people and change peoples lives and it was on display for all to the see to the degree that people from all over Israel were willing to relocate to be a part of what He was doing.

Why leave? Why not just stay and soak in the glory? Why risk it? Don’t mess with success, right?

Why try to expand the rule and reign of God outside of the border of Israel?

Here is why. Israel was not chosen by God to be a blessing to itself, it was chosen to be a blessing to the entire world. Since its inception God told Abram…

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

1 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

and even later on,

Genesis 22:18 (ESV)

18 in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

The promise of a blessing that can come to the nations was through a singular “offspring.” This is an argument that Paul makes in Galatians 3 of his epistle. So here is Jesus, a singular offspring of the patriarch Abraham, deliberately willing to go be a blessing as far as the curse is found. Jesus intentionally enter into foreign territory to announce the good news of His Kingdom and demonstrate its, and His power and the very moment He reaches the shoreline an opportunity presents itself.

Mark 5:2–5 (ESV)

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.

As soon as Jesus “steps out” of the boat on the shore line of a foreign region, the bell rings and the turf war begins as “immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.”

Look at the condition of this man. As I was considering this man this week, the word that kept coming to mind was: “Pathetic.”

I know this is strong language, but this man is pathetic. He is in misery. It is a sad scene. His condition has aroused the pity of everyone in the region, but no one could do anything about it. This is such a vulnerable, naked, isolated and self-destructive man.

It is NOT the way humans should be functioning. This is the opposite of flourishing. This is evidence of the curse. It is pathetic.

And Jesus, intentionally moves toward this man in his pathetic condition with His Kingdom, other worldly power to heal Him when everyone else, including himself, had tried and failed.

What no one else could do, Jesus was going to do for the man who “fell down before Him.”

But let’s just notice a few things:

This guys comes from “out of the tombs” because he lived “among the tombs.” We was living as a dead man. He had a heartbeat yes, but it is like he is a walking dead man. And this walking dead man, that had obviously been in contact with dead things, as he dwelt in a graveyard.

Now, for a good Jew like Jesus, contact with the dead or with graves is a really big “no no.” You will unclean and need to start a 7 day purification process in isolation (Num. 31:19).

This man approaching Jesus was unclean.

And it wasn’t as if people hadn’t tried to help this man before. They used chains to restrain him. He twisted the metal links apart. They used hardened steel shackles to no avail. He smashed and crushed them, breaking them apart.

And look how all consumingly extensive his torment was. Mark says it was, “night and day.” That’s code language for all the time. And look at the location of his torment. It is “among the tombs” which were under the ground and torment continued even when he was way above sea level on a mountain.

All of this lead him to want to “destroy himself.” He wanted to bring and end to his unbearable existence.

He was “self-injuring.” He took sharp objects like stones and dug into his own flesh probably in the vain hope of trying to cope with the pain of his strong emotions, and intense pressure from unrelenting and upsetting relational problems in his life. His feelings were too difficult to bear, and so he would bear down on his body and cut himself in a vain attempt to feel something and watch the pent up rage and sorrow and rejection and emptiness of his life, flow away in a crimson river.

None of those attempts for relief worked and so he let go the self-help and social help rope and looked up and…

Mark 5:6 (ESV)

6 …he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.

Jesus was His only hope and so he ran away from the tombs and the self torment and he fell down before Jesus on the shoreline. Now let’s move on in the text to read about…

The demons who begged. (7-13)

Mark 5:7–10 (ESV)

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.

Ok, now we are able to discern the underlying cause of this man’s pathetic condition. There are demons involved. Not demon, but demon (s). There is way more to say from this text that we won’t cover, but let’s acknowledge, what I sense is the most major concept that we need to consider.

We cannot laugh off the idea of demonic influence or even demonic possession just because we are 21st century Americans who are to intelligent, sophisticated, enlightened, to actually believe they might influence us. If that is your mindset, your mindset is evidence of them being more influential than you are giving them credit for.

This man seems to have given active control of his volition and ego over to the demonic horde identified with the moniker, “Legion.”

This is a term used in Roman culture to refer to a grouping of troops for the Roman army that numbered in the thousands! We can’t assume too much about the actually number just because of a cultural term that was used in the day, but what is blatantly safe to assume is that there were numerous demonic entities whose intent was to make this man’s life miserable and pathetic to the degree that He wanted to self-injure, with the hopes of him eventually totally destroying himself like the pigs that they would be commanded to inhabit that would jump off the cliffs into a sea that would destroy them.

This is B A D bad.

Satan and his villainous lackey’s are more in number and more in influence than we probably give them credit for. Do not under estimate their prevalence and casually diminish their influence.

The one thing these demons get right is they recognize their puny status in front of the one they call, “Son of the Most High God.”

Listen. Even the demons seem to recognize the futility of effort to be in opposition to the “Most High God.”

God has no rival. He has no equal. Now and forever God reigns. His is the Kingdom, the power and the glory. His name is above all names.

He is not in any type of competition with other “lower case” “g” gods. The region that Jesus finds himself in does have multiple, Roman deities to account for, but even this demon possessed Gentile recognizes the superlative nature of Who Jesus is.

He speaks along the same lines as Nebuchadnezzar once did as he…

Daniel 3:26 (ESV)

26 …came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

Most High God proved His dominance over the laws of nature and delivered His people out of inescapable, certain suffering and death. Nebuchadnezzar knew it and so does this Legion of demons. Jesus is the “Son of the Most High God” and so…

Mark 5:10 (ESV)

10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

These demons might be servants of Satan, but they are submitting to the intentions of the Son.

Then Mark continues on to say,

Mark 5:11 (ESV)

11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,

This is great! If we thought interacting with a man living among the tombs was unclean, if you throw a herd of pigs in the mix, this is basically as unclean as you can get.

And yet, look at what the demons are literally “begging” Jesus to do in the next few verses.

Mark 5:12 (ESV)

12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”

The demons beg Jesus to allow them to “enter into” what was considered an “unclean animal.” This once again just shows their self-destructive pride, foolishness and total depravity. Rather than being the presence of the Son of the Most High God, they desired entrance into that which the Most High God deemed unclean.

This is so twisted and demented.

Mark 5:13 (ESV)

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.

And Jesus allows them to pursue their ultimate desires and it ends up destroying thousands of pigs. The intentions of the demons is on display when we see the pigs destroyed by being drowned in the sea.

And we also see Jesus intentions that will one day be ultimately fulfilled when every evil entities is tossed into the Abyss never to rise again. Jesus encounters a legion in a foreign region and despite their intentions to destroy a man, they end up being destroyed.

The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against the Kingdom of the Son of the Most High God.

So we have heard about the man who fell down, the demons who begged, now let’s consider…

The townspeople who also begged. (14-17)

Mark 5:14–17 (ESV)

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.

The only ones that don’t recognize the Kingdom that they had come in contact with when Jesus stepped out of that boat, are these townspeople who don’t want anything to do with Him. If we thought that the man at the beginning of the story was pathetic, how much more so are all these townspeople?

The townspeople collectively saw the tangible evidence of an undeniable miracle that brought about incredible restoration and yet they beg Jesus to go away?

These are the same people that had vainly attempted, to subdue their fellow townsman time and time again and yet failed over and over and over. They “come to Jesus” and see the “completed project” of what they had invested time, money (chains and shackles) and energy (personal collective strength) into and they beg Him to leave after He had accomplished for them that which they couldn’t bring about on their own?

In telling us this story in this way, Mark is splashing an icy cold bucket full of literary irony on or faces as a collective wake up call for all of us to feel and hear.

Don’t be like the townspeople. If you want nothing to do with Jesus and His Kingdoms power you are pathetic. You are choosing misery and eventual destruction.

Don’t be a townsperson.

Now we can speculate why they wanted Jesus to leave. Maybe they were concerned that the economic bottom line was being messed with. Maybe they think the presence of Jesus in their lives would be to financially costly. In their mind, He just destroyed thousands of pigs. Remember, Jesus didn’t destroy the pigs, the demons did. To destroy is the code embedded in demonic DNA.

Maybe they were afraid of His power?

Maybe they had grown comfortable with the crazy guy down by the tombs? Maybe they used him as a favorable comparison tool.

In our fallenness we love to justify ourselves as we focus on the speck in other peoples eyes right? It’s like we are all competition with one another to win the biggest plank in the eye award. We get a false sense of importance when we evaluate ourselves with the “down and outs” around us. “I thank God that I am not like that guy…or girl… or like my sibling, or like my parents, so on and so forth.”

That is wicked. You aren’t compared to people on judgement day, so stop self-justifying yourself now.

You will stand before the Most High God. And these townspeople want nothing to do with Him. Get out of this region, we are begging you.

And the next verse starts with the words, Mark 5:18

Mark 5:18 (ESV)

18 As he was getting into the boat…

If that is what you want, that is what you will get.

Don’t be like the townspeople.

Now the camera pans back to the man who initial fell down before Jesus and now we see that he too was begging Jesus for something, but Jesus didn’t give Him what He wanted.

The man who obeyed. (18-20)

Mark 5:18–20 (ESV)

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.

Here is a guy who had been healed by Jesus and now he is “begging Jesus” just like everyone else in this story. He is begging Jesus that he might be with him. This is a term we have seen already in this Gospel as an invitation to discipleship, but Jesus does not grant that desire? Weird? Why wouldn’t Jesus let this guy develop as a disciple? Why heal and then not train up?

Well the end goal of discipleship is to be crafted into the image of the One doing the discipling.

A disciple puts aside their own personal desires and obediently embraces the will of the One that are attempting to emulate.

mark 4:35 says…

Mark 4:35 ESV

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”

Jesus intentionally went over the sea, out of the land of Israel and into a foreign region in order to expand His Kingdom rule and reign to people who desperately needed it and He heals one man who fell down before Him when He stepped on the shore.

Now Jesus has one man in this region, under His reign who was willing to forgo His own desires in order to obey the desires of the King of the Kingdom. Jesus was going to use this one man to proclaim the Kingdom of the Most High God in a region known as the Decapolis. This one man what going to preach Jesus to the inhabitants of 10 cities. He was willing to do this even though all those townspeople demanded that Jesus get out of hair.

This man didn’t need to enter into some discipleship training program. He was already evidencing His maturity by putting aside His desires and obeying what His King said.

Disciples of Jesus obey what Jesus says. Those who are truly healed by Jesus, put aside their lesser desires and do what He says. When the do this, they showcase their ultimate desire.

The ultimate desire of any disciple is, “may Your Kingdom come, may Your will be done.”

And off this 1 guy goes to proclaim the Kingdom that had come to the region of 10 cities…

Mark 5:20 (ESV)

20 …and everyone marveled.

Applicational Points:

Don’t give up praying for people that seem “to far gone.” Don’t limit the Kingdom’s power by giving up on those who seem unreachable. Yes, I am sure you have tried before, but don’t stop trying to reach them. You might be the 1 person in their life that will be obedient to Jesus and tell them of how much He has done for you. Jesus didn’t get in a boat, weather a storm, battle demons among the tombs and then dismissed by townspeople, so that you throw in the towel. Obey what He has commanded you. To the one that seems “too far gone,” tell them of what He has done for you in hopes that one day they too will marvel.

Are there any life dominating sins that have enchained and shackled you? Do you think there is no freedom from what is currenlty enslaving you? Worry? Fear? Anxiety? Gambling? Substance Abuse? Ever tried to quite pornography? Is your heart regularly ruled by anger? Are you addicted to screens? Do you eat food for comfort to often instead of rightly enjoying it for it’s flavor and sustinance in appropriate propotions? Is your life ruled and dominated by any number of these things and you feel hopeless? Have you ever heard the story of what happened to the Gadrean demoniac who fell down before Jesus? His story is my story. His story is the story of every obedient disciple of Jesus Christ so…

Psalm 66:16 ESV

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

SONG: BLESSED ASSURANCE

Benediction

In this account, no shackle was sufficient to hold this man down. No chain could constrain the man untamable. Not even a gathered group of men were no strong enough to keep this man with an unclean spirit from self destruction. But he fell down before Jesus and received the healing he needed that no other system proved able to provide and he became the showcase for God’s strength and glory as...

Mark 5:20 (ESV)

20 ...he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

But let’s pan the camera out a little further to notice what I am calling the Panoramic point.

There is a bigger story for us to consider. Consider the climax of the Gospel as we witness Jesus with His ripped apart back having flayed from the sharp stones that embedded Roman whips. See Him hanging, naked, isolated, outside of the city at a place nicknamed, “the skull” right next to a bunch of garden tombs. He was becoming sin and bearing sin for us. He became as unclean as unclean can be, so that we could go free.

Discussion Questions

Do you have a tendency to over estimate or underestimate the power of demons?

This week would you consider telling multiple people “how much the Lord has done for you.” Who can you tell? By when will you tell them? How will you tell them? What will you tell them?

Do you think others around you have been given the opportunity to marvel at your obedience to Jesus?

The healed man set aside his own personal desires in order to obey Jesus. To him, obeying Jesus was more important that his experience of Jesus. What are some ways we may need to put our personal desires aside to obey and please Jesus?