Sermon on Mark 5:1-20, Demons and Jesus

^5:1 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. (NIV)

Introduction

I’m going to be talking about demons today, and how they operate, because our text is about demons who possessed a man and who were cast out by Jesus, healing and saving the man. One of the things I’ve learned about the subject of demons is that there are those who have had experience with demons and have used methods of dealing with them that don’t always look like what we see in Scripture. I’m not saying that I know they are wrong. But there are a lot of subjective ideas about demons that may not be borne out by Scripture. At the same time, Scripture doesn’t say everything there is to say about demons, and perhaps some of what can be learned about them can come from dealing with demon oppressed people. My experience with demons comes out of my counseling experience, and I can’t say that I have all the correct knowledge about them. I have, rather, opinions that I believe are informed by Scripture and experience. That is my caveat or warning for you to be aware that I am not claiming absolute authority for all I believe.

What I do know is that demons exist and have an impact on human lives, and, as our passage today shows, Jesus has absolute authority over demons and their destructive actions in the lives of human beings. The encounter of the demon possessed man with Jesus results in his miraculous healing, a healing that no one else could affect but Jesus.

Our passage teaches us some things about demons and also about Jesus. I ran into an old friend at Costco recently who told me he had seen a girl recently sporting t-shirt that said, “God is dope.” He believed she was associating God with drugs. I told him I believed the girl was actually saying how great God is. In my lingo I would say, “God is cool.” That is what we’re going to see about Jesus. He is just so dang cool. Yeah, “dang” is also part of my lingo.

The first thing I want us to notice in this passage is the setting for this encounter.

^5:1 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.

Jesus has sailed across the northern portion of the Sea of Galilee to a region known as the Gerasenes, an area much more populated with Gentiles than Jews, a place where the influence of the knowledge of God is much diminished. I don’t think, however, that this is the reason he encounters a demon-possessed man, because he has encountered demon-possessed people in Israel among the Jews. But he has landed near a cemetery, and that is a likely habitat for demons.

• Demons find a home in deserted places (Mk 5; Mt 12:43).

Jesus says, in Matthew 12:43, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.” He doesn’t explain why demons would seek such places, or seek rest in such places, and he suggests that they don’t find rest in such places unless they have a body to inhabit. And the man whom Jesus finds here is that dwelling place, and his dwelling place is in the cemetery, the tombs. Of course, not all cemeteries are deserted places, but this one was.

And the man comes to Jesus.

² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 

We’re told in Matthew’s account of this encounter that the man was “so fierce that no one could pass that way,” which suggests that he was facing off with anyone who came near. That would definitely make visiting the grave of your loved one a fearsome prospect. But it could also be that the demon was drawn to Jesus, as they seem to be in some cases.

In Acts 16 we see the demon possessed girl who was a slave of two men who were using her to tell fortunes following Paul and Barnabas around as they are preaching Jesus, telling people that they were messengers of the Most High God who proclaimed His salvation. And demons would at times interrupt Jesus, like when he was speaking in the synagogue, and “act out.”

• Demons are drawn to Jesus.

There is an explanation given by Mark about why the man was living among the tombs and of his erratic and unfriendly behavior.

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. 

The man must have been displaying dangerous behavior, attacking people or some such, because they had tried to fetter him, to no avail.

• Demons can cause erratic behavior (Mk 5:3; Mt 8:28; Lk 8:27).
• Demons can give those they possess superhuman strength (Acts 19:13-16).

In Luke 8:27 we’re also told that the man wore no clothes, certainly an erratic behavior. And we’re shown a situation in Acts 19 where the sons of Sceva, Jews who were supposedly adept at casting out demons, who try to cast a demon out of a man, but he attacks them and is able to beat and subdue several men. Demons can give people super strength.

Not only that, but the man would constantly shriek and cut himself.

⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 

We learn from this that…

• Demons induce self-destructive behavior (Mt 17:15-18 threw boy in fire; Mk 5).

You may recall the father who came to Jesus to have him expel a demon from his young son, whom, he said, often cast his son into the fire. Demons are hateful of humans, are murderous, always seeking to destroy people, though they may insinuate to those they infiltrate, that they will give them strength or superiority.

• Demons are liars (1 Timothy 4:1).

Jesus tells us that Satan is a murderer and the father of lies (John 8), and his demons are no different. A counselee I worked with and who was demonized, not, I believe, totally possessed, indicated that the demons she had in her life convinced her that they would protect her. They didn’t, of course. They would often motivate her to self-abusive behavior.

We learn something else from Jesus’ encounter with this man.

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!” 

Two things stand out.

• Demons identify Jesus and believers (Mk 5:7; 1:24; 3:11; Lk 4:34,41; Ac 16:17; 19:15; Jas 2:19)
• Demons are submissive to Jesus and fearful of Jesus but will try to bargain with Jesus (Mk 5:2,6-10)

This man, or rather the demons in the man, identified Jesus as the Son of God, and knew his name. We saw this when the demon possessed girl in Acts 16 identified Paul and Barnabas as servants of God who brought His message of salvation. And when the sons of Sceva tried to cast a demon out of a man in Acts 19 by Jesus whom Paul preached, the demon, before he attacked them, said, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but I don’t recognize you.”

Further, this man was afraid of Jesus, because he, or should I say, the demons, knew that Jesus was their judge who would consign them to hell at the last judgment, and that he could torment them before that if he so decided.

Are they making the man kneel before Jesus as a way of manipulating Jesus, as they beg him not to torment them? It is certainly possible, because we will see them trying to bargain with Jesus in a bit. But it is also true that demons are submissive to Jesus. As we’re told here by Mark, Jesus had been telling the demons to come out of the man, and they felt the certainty of that and were terrified.

But isn’t it fascinating that they did not immediately obey Jesus? I don’t fully understand this, but there is no doubt Jesus was going to get his way. In my own experience of dealing with demons in a counselee, I believed that I could require them in Jesus’ name to depart, that I had that authority from Him, but when I first tried it, they mocked me and did not depart. I was confused. As I mulled this over, I realized that I didn’t somehow fully believe or have confidence that I had Jesus’ authority to do this and had to really believe that. The next time I tried to command them to leave, they left. They knew Jesus’ authority over them as did I now, and they grudgingly departed. There were times when they argued, and I simply asked Jesus to send them to the abyss if they did not obey, and they obeyed. There were also times when I required them to acknowledge who was their true master, and they always, as if in great pain, acknowledged Jesus was their master.

So, it is not surprising that as Jesus told them to leave, that they temporarily resisted doing that and sought to bargain with Jesus about this. And this moves Jesus to ask the man a question.

⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

Do you notice that Jesus seems to be addressing the man, not the demons, because the text says Jesus asked him the question. But the answer he gets is from the demons, not the man. It seems to me that the legion of demons, a legion being a Roman military term for 5-6,000 soldiers, had one demon among them who was the spokesman for them, perhaps was in authority over them, and he answers Jesus’ question.

• More than one demon can possess a human (Mt 12:45; Lk 8:2)

Jesus speaks elsewhere about how a person might cleanse a demon out of their life only to find it come back with seven demons more wicked than itself (Mt 12:45).

Can this man even speak for himself? Is he even present or conscious to what is going on? We can’t say. The demons’ level of involvement in his life, what we often describe as possessing him, seems total. They answer Jesus’ question, not him. And Jesus learns something from this interaction about what he is dealing with. We know some things about how demons can affect a person.

• Demons can cause muteness (Mt 9:33), blindness (Mt 12:22), physical deformity (Lk 13:11).
• Demons can fully possess an individual (Mk 5; Lk 22:3 Judas), or, short of that, can harass/influence people (1 Ti 4:1).

I believe there are several levels of influence a demon can have on a person. In this man’s case he had given the demons full control. He was, as I explain it, hiding in a kind of subconscious way and letting them handle his life. May I suggest that demons are acting in some way to influence all of us, to a lesser or greater degree. I don’t mean to suggest by this that we all need an exorcism. My experience and training tells me demons attach themselves to lies and falsehoods we believe, usually about ourselves. If I believe I’m unlovable, a demon will camp on that and build a structure in our souls with that lie.

Maybe that was the lie that gave these demons traction in this man’s life. This poor man. Nobody wanted him around. He was kind of like Gollum in the Hobbit, living all by himself, turning all his conversation in on himself, living a miserable life in constant torture of himself. Everybody was afraid of him, except Jesus.

Jesus felt compassion for this man and Jesus could do something to help this man. When, as we saw, the demons didn’t immediately come out when Jesus commanded them to, Jesus called an audible. He didn’t get nervous or fearful like I would. “Oh, no, the demons aren’t obeying me.” Do you remember by whose power Jesus told the Pharisees he cast out demons? By the Holy Spirit. Jesus trusted the Spirit of God. Jesus had cast out many demons before. But this alteration in expected result moved Jesus to ask a question, to learn something. And what he found out is that this poor man was infested with thousands of demons. That didn’t make it harder, necessarily. It just explained things a little more clearly. Jesus didn’t use the demons name to gain control over him or them. He knew He had control.

The demons themselves raised an issue. They wanted to stay in this region, they had an affinity for it, and they didn’t want to be without a body.

• Demons yearn for a physical body to live in (Mk 5)

I don’t think Jesus cared about the demons and the consequences for them of being cast out. But their request to go into the herd of pigs nearby served as a perfect way to demonstrate what was happening, that is, that demons were the actual cause of this man’s misery and that they would be forced to leave him and cause something else misery, the pigs.

So, Jesus agrees to their request.

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.

What a dramatic display. Would anyone question that what made this herd of swine go mad was the demons that had made the man go mad? The men herding the pigs didn’t question it.

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… ¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 

But the pigs weren’t the only evidence of the miracle that had happened. The man who had been possessed was the glorious evidence of the healing Jesus had done.

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.

It’s an interesting, maybe puzzling response, isn’t it? Why are they not rejoicing for this man? I guess they didn’t really care about him. Why aren’t they bowing on their knees to Jesus and asking him to meet their needs, or better yet, wanting to become his followers? I guess their own spiritual poverty wasn’t something they were aware of or concerned about. Jesus’ act of power scared them more than the demon possessed man did. They wanted him gone.

 ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 

Jesus wasn’t going to stay where he wasn’t wanted. So, he made ready to depart by the boat. But…

¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 

If you were the man, would you have done the same thing? Who cared about you except Jesus? Who had done so much for you? He wanted to follow Jesus. But it is interesting that three times in this text someone begs for something. The demons beg to be sent into the pigs, and Jesus grants it. The people of the region beg Jesus to leave, and he does. But when the man begs to go with him, Jesus says no.

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.

Jesus knew the best thing for this man was not to leave his homeland and go with Jesus. He needed to reconnect with his family and friends, and he needed to give witness to what God had done for him, the mercy God had shown him. This was a purpose for his life, a ministry of his own. Maybe Mark just doesn’t show it, but it looks like the man put up no argument, but rather immediately obeyed. And he didn’t go only to his own hometown, he went to the ten cities of the region called the Decapolis. He was on fire! And, whereas he was supposed to tell people what God had done for him, he told them what Jesus had done for him. And it blew people’s minds.

God often calls us to minister to others out of what we were delivered from. As I think of it, one of the first things that spoke to me about my salvation was the hopelessness and meaninglessness of life I had been delivered from. Perhaps that is why I have always had an affinity for helping others find the hope in the gospel, defending the gospel against the intellectual and social objections to it. Have you found the thing God saved you from to be part of your ministry to others.

There’s a passage in 2 Corinthians that speaks to this:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

Show people how much the Lord has done for you.