Mark 5:1-20 - Who Is Jesus and Why Does He Hate Our Pigs?

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.

I. A Common Condition for All People

a. Bound by something beyond human control

b. We are incapable of freeing ourselves

c. This condition will destroy everyone who has it

Application: Acknowledgement of our condition and helplessness against it

II. A Common Condition for All Creation

a. This story comes on the heels of Jesus calming the storm (even wind and sea obey him)

b. The demons possessing this man were subject to Jesus

Acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity

c. The pigs were subject to Jesus

Could not refuse Jesus’ commands to the demons

Application: Acknowledgement of Jesus’s authority and power over all creation, sin, death

III. Away or Stay, Which Will It Be?

a. The herdsmen and people wanted Jesus to leave

Fear of what might be next

Pigs over people

b. Healed man desired to be with Jesus

Given direction

Lived out his mission

Application: Turn to Jesus, look what Jesus has done