Jesus the Rescuer (Mark 5:1-20)

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.—Mark 5:1-20

The Episode

A legion of demons, a herd of pigs plummeting off a cliff, and a man living in a graveyard on the outskirts of town—these are the shocking images of this episode. Word after word, sentence after sentence, and paragraph after paragraph grips the reader. This happened!

Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, fresh after calming the perilous storm, and immediately a severely demonically oppressed and influenced man threw himself at Jesus' feet. He lived among the tombs (3). The community had tried to quell this disaster of human life with prison, but he could not be bound, even with chains and shackles (3-4). With superhuman strength, he would break the shackles in pieces (4). He could not be subdued (4). So he lived among the tombs and in the hills near the cliffs on the east side of the lake (5). As he howled out night and day, he harmed himself, perhaps in an attempt to speed death, or maybe with the hope of releasing demons from his body.

It is difficult to imagine a sadder depiction of someone made in God's image, but so obviously tarnished and seemingly beyond repair.

As readers, it seems we should now say to ourselves: I don't know anyone this broken.

And, delightfully, the man and his accompanying demons are no match for Jesus. With seeming ease, he drove the unclean spirit—called Legion, for they were many—from the man (8-9). Jesus hurled the demons from the man, and gave them permission to go into a herd of swine around two thousand in number (11-13). The demons wasted no time in destroying the pigs, driving them headlong down a steep bank, drowning them in the sea (13).

As the herdsman spread the word of what Jesus had done, people came to see what happened (14). They found the infamous tomb-dweller sitting, dressed, and in his right mind, with Jesus (15). And, just like the disciples who were filled with great fear after Jesus calmed the wind and wave, the crowds were afraid and begged Jesus to depart from their region (17, 4:41). He disrupted their way of life, so they wanted nothing to do with him.

Before Jesus left, he commissioned the man who had been under a demonic spell to go home and tell his friends how much the Lord had done for him (18). And, though the man had wanted to go with Jesus, he obeyed Jesus' wishes, proclaiming everywhere in that region how much Jesus had done for him (20). Mark's conclusion to the story is straightforward—everyone marveled (20).

But What Are We Meant To See in This Episode?

Though the narrative brings up interesting little questions—How do demons work? How many tortured this man? What's up with Jesus allowing them to go into the herd of pigs?—these aren't the reasons Mark recorded the story in such detail.

So what are we meant to see in this episode? What is the focus? What did Mark (and the Spirit) want us to glean from this passage? These questions will guide us in our study today. I will point out three emphases in the passage, starting with the most important.

1. Christological Emphasis: What do we learn about Jesus' identity?

The episode is meant to be the sequel to the episode on the lake. Remember the massive storm and how the disciples feared for their lives? When Jesus calmed the wind and stilled the waters, they said to one another:

"Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41)

Their question hangs there, looming over our text today. Who then is this? Who is Jesus? This is the question of all of Mark's gospel. He launched his book with a statement about Jesus' identity:

"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1)

So Jesus is the Son of God, and as the readers of Mark, we know this truth, but the characters in the book are learning, coming to discover Jesus' identity. The disciples in the boat, the man on the shore, and the villagers from the town were all learning about Jesus. He is the Son of God, God the Son, the Lord of creation, with power over all powers.

The Demons

Mark shows this truth in clever ways. First, notice what the demons said to Jesus. While Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to leave the man, it cried out with a loud voice:

"Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me!" (Mark 5:7, NLT).

So the demons know about Jesus! We've already seen this because way back in Mark 1, a demon in Capernaum's synagogue called Jesus "the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). And Mark told us the demons "knew him" (Mark 1:34). But this encounter takes things a step further, because not only do they know Jesus is the Son of God, but they beg him not to torture them. Matthew adds that the demons said:

"Have you come here to torment us before the time? (Matthew 8:29).

So Jesus is presented as the One who is more powerful than the most powerful demons, and who has an appointed time where he will bring them into everlasting punishment. They even had to ask him for permission to go into the swine. He is depicted as supreme, the singular authority on that coastline. The power of God had been displayed through him on the water, and now God's authority is in him on the land.

The Man

And the story concludes with similar testimony about Jesus' identity. After the villagers ask Jesus to leave their region, the man begs to join Jesus, but Jesus denies the man. Instead, Jesus told the man 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." (Mark 5:19).

Jesus wanted the man to praise God for his newfound rightmindedness, so he told the man to tell others how much the Lord had done for him. It was the Lord God who was to get the credit.

The man, though, went throughout the region proclaiming:

...how much Jesus had done for him... (Mark 5:20).

Jesus

Mark wants us to see—through the calmed storm and the delivered man—who we are dealing with in Jesus. He is God who became one of us. He is the Lord.

Creation's chaos on the lake, and humanity's brokenness on the shore, find their healing in the God-man. The disciples thought they would die a meaningless death at the hands of nature that night, but Jesus is not just another in a long line of people who will go nature's way and die a meaningless death. The man was an extremely broken human, but Jesus is not just another in a long line of broken people who are without hope.

Instead, Jesus came to renew creation and humanity. Jesus is God who entered into our broken world. We start with this point because it is the emphasis upon which the other points are built. If you don't know who you're dealing with in Jesus, if you get his identity wrong, you'll never tap into the next two emphases Mark has for us.

2. Missiological Emphasis: What do we learn about Jesus' mission?

Crossing for One

It should not be lost on us that Jesus crossed a raging sea for one man. The Good Shepherd had a lost sheep on the other side of Galilee, so he went to rescue him. He had invited his disciples to go to the other side of the lake (4:35). They went. They arrived. He delivered the man. And they left.

Jesus' whole existence is his mission. That God became flesh, that Jesus is the Son of God Most High dwelling with humanity, speaks of this mission. He came to save us. He incarnated to die for us. A greater storm awaited Jesus, but so did a greater harvest. He would eventually die on the cross to save all who believe in him.

One of Immense Value

And Jesus made it abundantly clear how valuable this one man was to him. Many people have problems with the Sovereign Lord for allowing the demons to go into the herd of pigs. Some explain it away by saying these were Jewish herdsmen who were partaking in something Old Testament Scriptures forbade, the eating of pork. Others say Jesus was judging the Roman occupation since these swine might have been the protein source for the legions of soldiers in that area. And still, others say Jesus needed to give the man visible evidence he was free of his demonic torturers—they had left him and gone into the pigs!

Whatever Jesus' reason for allowing something that, in our little view of things, is horrific, one thing is clear: Jesus valued the life of one human soul more than 2,000 livestock. The destruction of these pigs was an economic catastrophe for someone, but Jesus felt the price was worth the gain of this man's eternal soul.

The Man Was a Seed

But did Jesus really do all this for one man? Hardly. That one man, backed by a tremendous story the whole region ended up hearing about, had a powerful testimony. As he traveled through the ten-city region called the Decapolis, everyone marveled (20). He had been known as the crazy man who lived by the graves near the water's edge. Everyone knew about him. And everyone knew the story of the pigs tumbling into the water. So when this man rolled into town and talked about Jesus, people listened.

This wasn't a job the man wanted, by the way. He asked Jesus if he could join the disciples' group. He wanted to get in the boat with Jesus. But Jesus refused and instead sent him to testify of Christ to his friends.

This is all the more impactful when you consider Jesus listened to the other requests in the episode. The demons begged to go into the swine, and Jesus permitted them. The townspeople begged Jesus to leave their region, and Jesus left. But when the man asked to join Jesus, Jesus denied him.

Do you remember the parables from Mark 4? Jesus said the word of the kingdom was like a seed going into the ground (Mark 4:11, 14, 26). On the right soil, that seed could produce crazy fruit—thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold (Mark 4:20). It goes into the ground and, almost imperceptibly, produces a harvest. One seed has generations of orchards within it.

Well, this man was a seed Jesus planted. Right there in the Decapolis, this man went and declared Jesus. Eventually, after Jesus died and rose, the church would go everywhere preaching the gospel. And when they arrived in this man's region, they would've found fertile soil because this man had done his job.

Our Response

Jesus has gone to great lengths to reach you. And he hasn't reached you for you alone. There are many others Jesus wants to impact through your life. You aren't meant to be a cul-de-sac of his grace; you aren't to be a dead-end of his cross. Instead, you are meant to bring Jesus to your friends and family, showing them what Jesus has done for you. This story helps us see the mission of Jesus and our part in his mission.

3. Therapeutic Emphasis: What do we learn about Jesus' help for us?

No Place Jesus Won't Go

What I mean by "Therapeutic Emphasis" is that Jesus brought complete deliverance and healing to this man. It's not that Jesus acted as this man's therapist, but he provided a therapeutic deliverance of the whole man. He put this man in his "right mind"—What a great phrase, as it suggests there is a wrong mind we sometimes slip into! And, as many of you have experienced, Jesus works today to bring us into our right minds. He turns us into new creatures for his glory.

"...Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT).

I want you to see from this story how Jesus is willing to go anywhere to help you. This was not a place or a mission the Jews of Jesus' day would've wanted. The whole story wreaks of uncleanness—tombs, demons, pigs, and Gentiles!

But Jesus didn't care about entering into unwanted places to reach unwanted people. The force of the storm could not stop him. The forces of hell could not stop him. Nothing would hold him back from reaching this man.

He is not afraid of the darkest parts of humanity, including the darkest parts of you. He sees those areas you don't want to talk about, those thoughts and beliefs driving you mad, and he wants to exercise his power to deliver you. There is no case too hard for Jesus. This man was so far gone, but Jesus delivered him, and he can help you as well.

No One Else Could Calm the Man

You see, no one else could calm this man. I'm sure he had tried to deliver himself but to no avail. And society had certainly tried to help him or at least tried to bind him. But nothing anyone did had any lasting impact. Like so many of the world's strategies and plans, the end result was lacking. They couldn't deliver their hoped-for objectives. The man was still overwhelmed.

Perhaps you can relate. I know I can. I have found, over the years, that I cannot control myself. It has only been by the aid of the Spirit, his working in my life, that self-control has come. Paul said:

"I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. (Romans 7:19, NLT).

Many of us agree with Paul. Like this man, we've tried everything, but no chain, shackle, or accountability system could completely deliver us. It is only through the power of Jesus, changing us from the inside out, that we find deliverance. As Paul went on to say:

"Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 7:24–25, NLT).

How Does Jesus Help Us?

And Jesus helps us today in ways similar to his help of this man. As we conclude, let's think of the ways Jesus applied this wholesale therapeutic aid to this man and his mind. How did Jesus bring this man into his right mind? How might Jesus do the same for us?

1. Jesus Intercedes for You

First, even when you are not aware, he intercedes for you, just as he interceded for the man. Jesus lives to make intercession for you (Hebrews 7:25). He does this for you even when you are unaware of his intercession.

2. Jesus Reminds You of Who You Are

Second, Jesus tries to remind you of your identity, just as he asked the man his name. I think Jesus was trying to break through to the man, grabbing ahold of the man's true identity. Often, when in our wrong mind, we believe the wrong things about us, things contrary to the gospel. Jesus wills to get us to think biblically about who we are in him.

3. Jesus Demonstrates His Power Towards You

Third, Jesus demonstrates his power for you in his death and resurrection, a far greater victory than was displayed when the pigs ran down the embankment into the water. His cross and empty grave are meant to remind you of the radical and powerful victory he wrought in delivering you from brokenness and sin.

4. Jesus Clothes You With His Righteousness

Fourth, Jesus clothes you with righteousness, rightness, and acceptance before God, just as he clothed the man. He cleans you and deposits his perfection into your mind and body. He makes you right with God.

5. Jesus Sends You Out To Testify

Fifth, Jesus sends you out to testify to what he's done in your life, just as he did for the man. The man was far from perfect, and he didn't know much, but he could declare what Jesus had done for him. We can do the same.

***

For the entire Mark series, go here. Thank you.