From Mark 5:1-20.
All of us have junk in our lives, things that make us who we wish we weren’t. They have a sort of grip that we can’t shake… on our own. But Jesus’ power is stronger, and he wants to make us clean.
So, Mark 5 finds us on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, in the region, it says, of the Geresenes. These were Gentile people, not Jews. Their land was filled with false religions and idol worship. They practiced all kinds of things that were detestable to the Jews.
And, now, it was later in the evening and probably quite dark as the disciples brought their boats up to shore. And there, up in the hillside they could see some caves. They were open tombs, probably where these people would take the bodies of their deceased relatives to decompose. They’d lay them in these caves outside of their towns long enough for the flesh to rot from the bones… where they didn’t have to smell it or see it… and then they’d come back and gather the bones and provide for them a proper burial.
But this was an unclean place to the Jews. The Mosaic Law had said that anyone who comes in contact with a dead body, or even enters a place with a dead body (and these sorts of caves were probably what they had in mind when they studied this law), that person was unclean.
And if that weren’t enough, up on the hillside was a herd of pigs. The most unclean of animals, the Jews weren’t permitted to keep them or eat them or touch them. They were the symbol of defilement to the Jews.
And so as they walk up on the shore, and Mark 5:2 says that a man with an evil spirit came down from among them, from the tombs, to meet Jesus. This man was a mess. The text tells us he lived in the tombs among the dead. And because of these evil spirits, he had been run out of their towns, forced to live alone in this most unclean of places.
We’re told they tried to confine him, but he could not be held by chains. There were no boundaries, nothing could contain him, and nothing had power over him but the evil that lived within him.
They had tried to bind him with chains, but he broke the chains.
They sent their strongest men to subdue him, but no one could subdue him.
He was crazy.
He didn’t sleep.
He didn’t rest.
He didn’t bathe.
He didn’t have anyone.
And so, Mark 5:5 says, day and night he cried out in agony. He understood the wretchedness of his own condition. He knew that he was full of evil. He knew that in and of himself he was powerless to overcome this great wickedness that controlled him.
Yet, upon seeing Christ step out of the boat, he ran down to him, and he fell on his knees before him. It was an act of submission; it was an acknowledgement of his authority, of his divinity, of his capability. I imagine he looked up at Jesus, and though the man didn’t even have control over his own voice, his eyes looked up to Jesus and begged, make me clean.
Instead, the demons cried out, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me?” and they identified him, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God.”
These spirits had controlled this man for so long. They knew that no man could overcome him. They had exactly what they wanted, until they came face to face with the power of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus confronts the evil spirits, asking, what is your name? And the name given, Legion, indicates a great military power, a huge number of soldiers (6,000-12,500 perhaps). They were an army, unified in their purpose. And yet, here stands Jesus, all by himself and he did what no army or chains could do—Jesus had subdued him without even touching him.
By his very voice, Jesus commanded the spirits and they obeyed. And, in fact, this account doesn’t even record Jesus’ speaking to cast out these demons. They recognized his power. They begged him for mercy. And they asked him permission, not just to leave, but to enter instead into the herd of pigs. And, by his permission, in the single act of casting out the demons, Jesus cleanses the man and the hillside.
When the evil spirits left the man and entered the pigs, Mark 5:13 says they ran down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned.
The man who could not be subdued, who was violent and detestable and was unclean, Jesus had made clean. And everything that had prevented him from entering into the company of other men, into the village, into his family, into his home, into community, into the presence of God… everything that had made him unclean was gone.
The Scripture says he got dressed—he had had been naked before. It says he was sitting—he couldn’t stop running and wailing and cutting himself with stones before. And it says he pleaded with Jesus that he could join Him and travel with him and follow him—he had lived among the dead and now he had come face-to-face with life Himself and he didn’t want to leave Him.
But Jesus had another plan. Instead, he told him, go back to your family and your home and tell them about what I have done. He wanted him to proclaim among his people, those unclean people, the power of God to make them clean, just as Jesus had made this man clean.
The man, the spirits and the swine all were strong, but Jesus showed himself to be stronger.
Some of us clean ourselves up on Sunday morning and we go to church, but there is something strong that has a hold of us. There is a wickedness that defiles us. In fact, Romans 3:22-24 says that though there is a “righteousness given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
There is no difference between us and the Geresenes, the gentile people with their false gods and idols.
There is no difference between us and this man.
All of us are infected by sin, and all of us, if we will submit to the power of Christ in our lives can be made righteous, clean, and pure.
The thing that controls us, that defiles us, that keeps us from entering in to the presence of God, that keeps us from whole relationships with our family and community, Jesus has power over it, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Read the previous post in this series:
Power over the wind and the sea. (Be still.)
