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Reading through the Gospels #89

 

JESUS HEALS A DEMON-POSSESSED MAN

Mark 5:1-20; Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39

Jesus came to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to Gerasenes. No sooner than Jesus had stepped out of the boat than a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs where he lived. He lived in the tombs? Only a homeless person would live in the caves where they buried people because he had nowhere else to go. Or was it tradition to chain up people who had lost their mind in the tombs and then someone was responsible for feeding him there? In Luke we read that he also wore no clothes, living more like an animal, and that he was this way a long time (vs 3). In Matthew we read that there were two men.

 

The unclean spirit must have been a strong man because chains and shackles could not keep him bound. Twenty-four hours a day he would cry out among the tombs and mountains, cutting himself with stones. How afraid others near him must have been! How annoyed they must have been listening to him. I think I would have went insane myself listening to him! When he broke his chains, he went to the sea where he saw Jesus. Did he merely stumble upon Jesus or did he seek him for healing?

 

He adjured (urged) Jesus to not torment him and revealed his name is Legion (for we are many).  He must have had many unclean spirits fighting inside of him. Poor guy! It seems he was fighting the spirits, begging from himself one moment and then the spirits proclaiming their name the next. The unclean spirits considered being put out of this man's body "torment" as in severe suffering. A Roman "legion" was 3,000-6,000 men and the definition of the word "legion" is "a vast host, multitude, or number of people or things." Therefore, a legion is a group of many demons and not necessarily a name, but that the demons were toying with intimidating Jesus, probably because moreso they were intimidated by Him.  Now if they knew he had power to torment them by making them leave the man's body, why would they think he wouldn't know their name and to toy with Jesus? God is all-powerful and even the demons know it.    

 

The unclean spirits inside the man ("they") begged Jesus to allow them to enter the nearby pigs. Jesus was in control. They had to ask His permission. Demons needed permission from Jesus to enter even pigs!  He allowed it and the unclean spirits came out of the man and entered about 2,000 pigs which ran down a steep bank and into the sea.  Wow!  What a sight that must have been with so many pigs floating around the sea, the very sea so many fisherman and even Jesus used boats upon. Wow! That was a lot of unclean spirit inside that the man had been enduring! Also, I consider how the pigs would choose death over enduring the evil spirits and yet the man lived through it, although cutting himself with stones would reveal he did not want to live with it anymore either. Maybe the chains and shackles were to protect him from himself moreso than protecting him from other people. In Matthew it says the people could not pass that way, so they must have been terrified of him/them.

 

The herdsman who saw it fled and told it everywhere, the city and the country. The poor herdsman lost all their pigs and yet that did not phase them when the miracle topped all!

 

People came to see for themselves and they found the man, now in his right mind, and they were afraid. Why were they afraid? How could they be more afraid of what Jesus would do than what the unclean spirits would do? Why did they beg Jesus to depart from the region? Jesus obliged them and got in his boat and the healed man begged Jesus to go with him. Jesus told him 'no' and directed him to "go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Why does Jesus sometimes tell people to spread the news and sometimes tell them not to? In this instance, it was more important for the man to spread the news than to follow Jesus.

 

 

Created February 25 2020