ON YOUR MARK: WEEK 5 DAY 2

Mark 5: 1-13

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

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.

When I was a kid, my mom would call me for dinner by my name.  If I failed to respond, this was followed by my first and middle name. If that still didn’t carry me homeward, she would use my full name.  This represented a full authority over me and an extreme likelihood that I would be making my way home to dinner.  

In today’s passage, the demons that possessed the man used an ancient pagan superstition which claimed that addressing Jesus by His full name would give them control over Him. This was a desperate attempt to gain control when they knew who really held mastery.  The demons knew who Jesus was and trembled (James 2:19).  They would rather inhabit the pigs than to be cast out of the country.  

I always struggled to understand the meaning of the pigs rushing to the sea and drowning until I better understood John 10:10: the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. It was Satan’s playbook with the pigs and it is his playbook today.  I am thankful I have a Savior who knows my full name and rebukes demons just as He does the storms of life.