Lord of All, Even Demons: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 5:1-20)

I can imagine a tagline, “Jesus is the answer to the demons in your life.”  The problem with that sentiment is two-fold: (1) Jesus is not merely an answer for our problems, he is lord of all, and (2) most of us don’t really believe in demons and so it rarely, in our culture, that is, gives us much of a motive to look to Jesus.

But as Jesus has been preaching around Galilee there has certainly been much demonic activity encountered and Jesus has always prevailed against them.  He is Lord of all.  As he ventures into territory even more spiritually dark he encounters the most severe of demonic activity, but it has no chance against him.

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 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. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 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.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 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.

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 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. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 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.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. (Mark 5:1-20, ESV)

The Gerasenes was a place in some ways even less Jewish, more secularized, than the rest of Galilee.  Jesus encounters a man who has been almost totally taken over by demons, speaking through him and demonstrating supernatural strength through him.  When Jesus commands them to come out the demons resist and acknowledge Jesus as Son of the Most High God who has the right and ability to torment them.  They also greatly desire to have some bodily way to impact the world so that they are even willing to inhabit pigs from a nearby Gentile’s herd.

Jesus’ authority over the demons is absolute and when He insists on them coming out of the man they do.  When the man begs to stay with Jesus, the Lord tells him to stay in his community and tell others what the Lord has done for him. This is the opposite of what he has been telling those in more Jewish territories.  It seems there is less danger here of misinterpreting who Jesus is and what his goals are, plus, Jesus may not be spending much time here as compared to more Jewish territories.

Demons are always seeking to influence us and there are various levels of control we give them.  Instead of being fearful though that demons might get to us, our best strategy is to traffic in the truth.  They cannot get a foothold then.  When we catch ourselves telling ourselves or believing lies we are opening ourselves to their influence.  “Resist the devil,” James tells us, “and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).  We do that, he says, by submitting to God.