The Lord God Almighty

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.

Nothing like this display of power over demons is recorded in Scripture since God Himself threw Satan and all the evil rebelling angels out of heaven.

That was a massive upheaval. That was a sweeping act by God in which He vacated heaven of Satan and a third of the angels.

Thousands, of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand innumerable angels were thrown out of heaven in one moment by the power of God.

There has been no display like that until this. This is the most extreme encounter with the powers of supernatural wickedness anywhere in Scripture. [2]

And there won’t be another display like this until Christ fully sets up His Kingdom and binds Satan and all the demons and throws them into the Lake of Fire.

If He is the true Messiah, if He is the Lord of heaven come down, He must be able to conquer Satan.

or He cannot bring the everlasting Kingdom.

He must have power over the natural world [1]

This kind of power over the kingdom of darkness is only possible when God is wielding it … whether it’s in the casting out of heaven, or the casting into the Lake of Fire, or here casting thousands of demons out of one man, this is the power of God on display.

Now this is part of Mark’s proof. If you go back to his purpose, 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark is writing the history of Jesus to prove He is the Son of God.

What the prophets said is that He, the Messiah, is going to come and restore the earth and lion will lie down with lamb and the desert will blossom like a rose, etc., etc. There will be a restored, rejuvenated, restructured earth that will approximate the Garden of Eden.[3]

Introduction

Christ’s encounter with the demoniac took place the morning following his calming of the great night storm on the Sea of Galilee.

It’s probably just barely dawn.

They have just tied up their boats. Maybe a little dock was available there and immediately at the water’s edge a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met them. “They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.”

Jesus came straight from his confrontation with the storm in nature

to confront an equally violent storm in human nature.

The region of the Gerasenes, on the other side of the lake from the strictly Jewish area, was a place where Gentiles and Jews co-mingled, an unsavory place according to Jewish thinking.[4]

The Demon Possessed Man

The fierce strength of this demon-possessed man is reiterated in 5:5: No one had the strength to “subdue” him.

The Greek word used here (damazo) is used for taming a wild animal and is better translated, “no one was able to bind him.” Obviously this demoniac roams free because all attempts to constrain him have failed. He is one tough customer, and only a power more potent than iron bars and chains will bridle him.

He is banished as an outcast from society and must dwell with those whose sleep will not be disturbed by his shrieks echoing through the night as he lacerates his body with stones.

He is a microcosm of the whole of creation, inarticulately groaning for redemption.

Romans 8:22 ESV

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

He is condemned to live out his days alone amid the decaying bones of the dead, with no one who loves him and no one to love. Malignant spirits always deface humanity and destroy life.[5]

He is sleepless. He is restless. He is wandering out … in and out of the tombs, in and out of the mountains, driven into the wilderness, the desert by the demons, tormented.

This is a living hell. This is a taste of hell, completely subsumed to demonic power and presence.

Nothing good, nothing left, no escape, no rest, no sleep, this is hell. And looking for relief, he grabs stones and unsuccessfully attempting his own life, hacks away at his flesh with stones meant to cut.[6]

The Encounter with Unclean Spirits

Mark 5:6–13 (ESV)

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.

Jesus was telling the evil spirit to come out of the man (5:8), which meets with evasive tactics. Unlike humans, who cannot quite fathom the reality of the divine breaking into human history (4:41), evil spirits always recognize Jesus’ divine origin.

(1:24; 3:11; see James 2:19) and quake in his presence.

They know that they are pitted against vastly superior firepower.[7]

An engrossing battle of wits between Jesus and the demons unfolds as the evil spirits worry about being forced to leave their familiar surroundings. It would make sense from a Jewish perspective for demons to be most at home in this pagan setting. They perceive it to be their territory,

but the kingdom of God manifest in Jesus’ ministry is laying claim to all the earth. There is no place where Satan is safe.

It was popular belief in the first century that evil spirits were not content to wander aimlessly about. They abhor a vacuum and want to inhabit something. A human host is best; wanting that, a bunch of pigs will do.

Anything is better than wandering in dry places (Matt. 12:43; Luke 11:24) or being consigned to the sea if you are a land demon.8 The evil spirits therefore request to be sent into an enormously large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside.

These demons create fits of frenzy in whatever they inhabit, and the very thing they want to avert happens.

The united legionary force is broken up as the pigs, an animal without a herd instinct, begin to stampede, leaping down the bank and into the waters, where both they and the evil spirits are destroyed.

The destructive power of the sea that almost sank the disciples’ boat now swallows up the pigs.

Jesus, who has just demonstrated his dominion over the sea (4:39, 41; compare Pss. 65:7; 88:9; 106:9; 107:23–32), does not need to know the names of the evil spirits in order to drive them out. The kamikaze demons “fall victim to their own designs and tumble headlong into chaos.”11 “The joke is on them.”12

Unclean spirits and unclean animals are both wiped out in one fell swoop, and a human being is cleansed. [8]

The Encounter with the Townspeople

Mark 5:14–17 (ESV) when jesus is in town the extraordinary happens

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.

when Jesus makes his presence felt not everyone rejoices some are afraid of what it could mean. when Roe v Wade is overturned some are afraid and would rather the work of demons and death continue that the presence of Jesus and life....

is the fear really of not having access to abortion services or is the fear after all underneath it all a fear of Christ of Jesus and his rule, his kingdom

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.

they prefer the work of demons in their midst

When the community arrives, they are not frightened by what has happened to the pigs but by seeing this man now clothed and in his right mind!

They do not rejoice at his recovery but are afraid.

What is so scary about seeing a person sitting at the feet of Jesus?

The community had desperately tried to tame him with chains and fetters, all to no avail. Now Jesus frees him from the chains of demons with a word. The disciples have also expressed fear at Jesus’ manifestation of great power (4:41) and wondered who this one with them is.

These townspeople do not seem to care that Jesus has such power; they just want him gone.

Instead of giving him the key to the city, they give him a cold shoulder.

The demons had begged Jesus to let them stay in the region (5:10); the townspeople now beg Jesus to leave the region.

They are more comfortable with the malevolent forces that take captive human beings and destroy animals than they are with the one who can expel them.

They can cope with the odd demon-possessed wild man who terrorizes the neighborhood with random acts of violence. But they want to keep someone with Jesus’ power at lake’s length—on the other side of the sea.

we can only conclude that...

They must consider Jesus more dangerous and worrisome than the demons.

Demons tend to keep to their own turf, but who can control someone with such power as Jesus possesses? If its Roe v Wade today what will it be tomorrow?

As Jesus had granted the request of the demons, he now also grants the request of the community to leave them.

This community becomes another example of the outsiders who see but do not see, who hear what happens but who do not hear (4:10–12).

They do not recognize the help that Jesus offers

and do not invite him to stay or bring their sick and demonized to him (8:16; 9:32).

They chase off the source of their deliverance and salvation. People can tolerate religion as long as it does not cost them something. [9]

Engaging a possessed community

Mark goes into detail about how others tried to overpower this man (5:3–4) and then describes how those who converged on the scene

begging Jesus to leave their neighborhood.

These details do not simply add color to the narrative but indicate that this incident also has to do with Jesus’ encounter with the community.

It is a community that beats, chains, and dehumanizes other human beings.

It knows only how to use force, how to crack down on madmen, and how to protect its property. But this community fears someone like Jesus, who wields a different kind of power.

It expresses total indifference to the restoration of a human being to wholeness, particularly if they deem the cost too high. It prefers pigs to the healing of individual demoniacs.

The passage also reveals something about the societal nature of evil. Societies are no less possessed in their angry punishment of poor wretches who are discarded on the waste heap of humanity for interfering with normal society.

This community opts for violent solutions to problems that solve nothing and only compound the agony. They ignore Jesus’ way of compassion and mercy. they opt for killing babies; they opt for mutilating children’s sex organs, the opt for glamorizing, having an attraction in the village, glorifying destruction in their midst

This facet of the account, which reveals a society possessed by violence and money, should not be ignored[10]

Jesus’ Instructions to the Restored Man

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.

The community has begged Jesus to leave them (5:17); this man begs to be with Jesus (5:18).

Another surprising twist in the account comes when Jesus declines his petition—the only request that he does not grant in this story.

While Jesus’ dismissal of this man may seem like bad news, it can only be good news for one who yearned for the warmth of family, for a sense of place and identity, and for a sense of purpose.

Jesus sends him to his own house so that he can be restored to his family.

Jesus also reverses his usual demand of silence by telling the man to spread the news how God has mercied him.

Why?

Is it because he does not fear a messianic upsurge in the midst of Gentiles or because this place needs some witness to begin sowing the word?

Jesus may grant the community’s wishes for him to leave, but he leaves this disturbing evidence of his presence. The infamous man with the legion remains to proclaim how he has been delivered by God’s mercy.

The upshot is that the preaching of the gospel about Jesus expands into the Decapolis.

The splash created by the testimony of the man is more effective in divulging who Jesus is than the splash created by the demons in the pigs.

Go home

He says, go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you. Here He identifies Himself as the Lord. And how He had mercy on you.

What does it take to be able to witness for the power of Christ? The fact that He’s worked in your life, right? From the moment you were converted, from the moment you were transformed, you inherited immediately the responsibility to proclaim the name of Christ.

Go to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you and how He had mercy on you.

True faith shows itself in … what?… obedience.

“And he went away, verse 20, and he began to proclaim in Decapolis.” Decapolis … Luke says the whole city. Well that would be the first point. Mark adds Decapolis … Decapolis is a region of ten cities, hence deca, a league of ten Greek-influenced towns east of the Jordan. And he worked his way through ten cities.

This man who knew nothing but a testimony that would be absolutely only possible to explain by the power of God in Christ.

What was the response to his testimony?

Back to 5:20, the end of the verse,

“Everybody was amazed, to admire with wonder. Here’s the first missionary Jesus ever sent out. Does that tell you a little bit about grace?

Remember Isaiah, he said, “Don’t send me, I’m a man of unclean lips?” Well this man could have said, “Don’t send me, whoa … I’ve got a terrible reputation. If I get anywhere near people, they’re going to run.” This is grace upon grace, is it not? Transformation changes everything. And he was obedient.

What did he know?

You say, “Well, maybe I’d be more obedient if I knew more.” Huh, what did he know?

He knew he had been transformed. If you’re a Christian, you know that, don’t you? Then you’re responsible to be as faithful as he was.[12]

[1]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [2]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [3]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [4]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 118). Crossway Books. [5]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 202–203). Zondervan Publishing House. [6]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [7]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (p. 203). Zondervan Publishing House. 8 T. Sol. 5:11 pleads: “Do not condemn me to water.” 11 Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred: Poetics of Violence in Mark (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994), 93. 12 Minear, Mark, 74. [8]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 204–205). Zondervan Publishing House. [9]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 205–206). Zondervan Publishing House. [10]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 212–213). Zondervan Publishing House. [11]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (p. 208). Zondervan Publishing House. [12]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You.

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