A Demon Possessed Man Meets Jesus

Mark 5:1-21 New King James Version

Mark 5:1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

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Mark 5:2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

Mark 5:3 who had his dwelling among the tombs;

1. You will face a stormbefore you find a solution (Mark 4:35-39).

a. Mark 4:35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

b. Mark 4:36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.

c. Mark 4:37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.

d. Mark 4:38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

e. Mark 4:39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

2. You cannot fix spiritualproblems with natural solutions (Mark 5:3-5).

a. Mark 5:3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains,

b. Mark 5:4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.

c. Mark 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

3. You need clarity, not confusion, to find a solution (Mark 5:6-9).

a. Mark 5:6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.

b. Mark 5:7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

i. Mark 1:23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,

ii. Mark 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

c. Mark 5:7b I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

i. The use of ὁρκίζω by the demon is surprising, since the term is more normally associated with the exorcist, who binds the demon by oath to come out, as in Acts 19:13.[1]

d. Mark 5:8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!”

i. Mark’s aside10 explains that this was not just an assumption: the imperfect tense indicates that Jesus had already taken the initiative, and that v. 7 represents one side of a protracted dialogue, with the demons trying to resist the exorcist’s authority[2]

e. Mark 5:9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

i. The significance of the ‘name’ Λεγιών need not focus on the actual number of troops in a Roman legion (theoretically 6,000; contrast the number of pigs, specified as 2,000 in v. 13), so much as on the character of a legion as a large body of troops acting in concert;11 Jesus is not confronted by one demon, but by an army of them.[3]

ii. There is some variety in the gender by which they are designated (πολλοί, v. 9; λέγοντες, v. 12; but αὐτά, v. 10; ἐξελθόντα τὰ πνεύματα τὰ ἀκάθαρτα, v. 13), so that it is not clear whether the subject of παρεκάλει here is the demons (singular verb after neuter plural subject, understood) or the man.[4]

4. You may not like Jesus’solution (Mark 5:10-17).

a. Mark 5:10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

b. Mark 5:11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.

c. Mark 5:12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.”

d. Mark 5:13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

e. Mark 5:14 So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened.

f. Mark 5:15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.

g. Mark 5:16 And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.

h. Mark 5:17 Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.

5. You must start your solution at home (Mark 5:18-20).

a. Mark 5:18 And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him.

i. Mark 3:14 Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach,

b. Mark 5:19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

c. Mark 5:20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.

Jesus came for only one person.

1. Mark 5:1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

2. Mark 5:21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea.

[1] France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 228). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press. 10 Commentators seem to have an irresistible tendency to take any such ‘aside’ as an indication of an originally composite story, inelegantly stitched together (cf. on 2:10 above). In this pericope the ‘parenthesis’ of vv. 3–5 and the ‘unnecessary’ repetition in v. 16, together with this ‘aside’, are frequently invoked to justify such a conclusion. But it is not at all out of character for a storyteller to insert a piece of useful information to provide essential (or interesting) background, or to enable the hearer more easily to follow the development of the story, and repetition is a regular stock-in-trade of effective storytelling. The whole pericope reads well as a unity, provided that it is understood as a well-told story rather than the meticulous product of a scholar’s desk. [2] France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 229). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press. 11 H. C. Waetjen, Reordering, 115–17, suggests that the name represents not the number of soldiers but their function as the agents of ‘colonialism’, which ‘creates an atmosphere of living death which fosters a systemic breakdown of the human personality’. [3] France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 229). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press. [4] France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (pp. 229–230). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.