Mark 5:1–20 speaks powerfully of an angry, alienated, and lonely man, driven to despair at the hands of evil spirits. This ancient story captures the emptiness and desperation of countless people today.
“This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him.... He tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”
The man inflicted punishment on himself, as many in our culture do emotionally, and some physically, including cutting themselves.
When Jesus saw him, He said, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”
Christ addressed one demon who had a legion of demons under him. This lead demon, realizing Christ’s authority, begged Jesus to cast them into a herd of pigs. “He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.”
A crowd gathered around Jesus and saw the formerly possessed man “sitting there, dressed and in his right mind.” Jesus told him, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Mark writes, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”
This story reveals much about demons, people, and Jesus. Demons oppress, attack, and possess people, sometimes empowering them to do evil, always doing them great harm. They prompt people to hurt themselves and inflict evil and suffering on God’s image-bearers. Perhaps this is the closest demons can come to avenging God for casting them out of Heaven because of their sin. Demons recognize Christ’s absolute authority over them. Jesus commands them at will, and in loving mercy delivers a man from his miserable life.
This extreme case is relevant to all of us. In cultures where everyone realizes there’s a supernatural world, demons make themselves known as false gods to intimidate people, demanding worship and exacting retribution. In modern Western cultures where people routinely deny the supernatural, demons often accomplish their purposes more effectively by flying under the radar and working covertly. If we had eyes to see, we’d realize that all around us, fallen humans become the unwitting tools of evil spirits, harming themselves and others, and living wretched lives, sometimes quietly under the facade of social respectability.
Jesus loves afflicted people and went to the cross to deliver us, freeing us from the evil and suffering inflicted upon us by demons and ourselves. In delivering that desperate man, He gives hope to us all, showing us a picture of the total and final deliverance of His people from the powers of evil.
When Jesus rescued him from evil spirits, the man was at last “in his right mind,” thinking clearly. Jesus transformed him. The delivered man overflowed with gratitude, as should all who know Christ’s grace. To embrace Jesus as our redeemer is to be delivered from considerable evil and suffering now, and eventually from all evil and suffering. Jesus liberates us and calls us to testify to others of His mercy and power to defeat evil and relieve suffering.
