Mark 5:6–13

Second, the story shows how helpless man is to free himself, or others, from the power of Satan. Every effort to hold back this poor man's violence, or to tame him, failed. It is the same today. Every effort to hold back evil or reform the flesh fails completely. It cannot free the world from its violence and corruption. It cannot free the world from the power of Satan. And it cannot change the flesh.

He was drawn to run to the Lord Jesus despite the satanic power inside him. It is a strange puzzle that he worshipped Him. But it was the evil spirit that spoke inside him, all but denying that it had anything to do with the Lord Jesus, whom it calls "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." The very presence of the Lord tormented that evil spirit. The power of God drawing the man was infinitely stronger than the power of Satan.

We may be quite sure that it was not the devil who brought him to the feet of Jesus. In this we get more than a hint of how the devil uses his power over those he works in. It is not the direct might and mastery of a stronger being. Bare force of that kind would not be allowed… It is not that the shining light fails to be evidence for all. No: the condemnation is that "the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light." They were not ignorant that the light was there. They loved and chose the darkness.

The man possessed by demons fell down flat before Jesus and did Him homage (proskuneo). This is the only recorded time that demons acknowledge the Lord Jesus in this way. (See also Mark 15:19; Luke 24:52; John 9:38).

The sight of the Lord Jesus even from afar arrested him, so that he ran and paid Him homage, and with a loud voice cried, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

The first effect of the presence of Jesus on that desolate shore was to draw the demon-possessed man to Him. When he saw the Lord at a distance he came running, crying out loudly. Did he come in a fit of fury, meaning to harm Him? Or did he come eager to seek deliverance from his miserable state? Whatever his first impulse was, in the presence of Jesus he fell down before Him and did Him homage.

With Jesus in the scene, the power of Satan is broken. "When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him." Reader, have you ever done so? I do not mean, do you go to church on Sunday, or "say your prayers." I mean this: have you ever, deep in your heart, owned and bowed to the One whom man has rejected, and whom God has put at His right hand in glory? Your salvation lies in this… Put yourself under His authority and power, and He will show that power on your behalf, to set you free.

Yes, afraid of the One who breaks the devil's captivity! More afraid of Jesus and His grace than of the devil and his works!… The pigs and the demons were more welcome neighbours to them than the Son of God. They had never asked to be free from either. They did ask to be rid of Jesus. That is man. That is what the world was, and still is.

First, by the phrase "What have I to do with you?" the demon-possessed man expressed his own sense that darkness and light have nothing in common. He was conscious that there was nothing in common between himself and Jesus. This question appears elsewhere in both the Old Testament and the New with a similar meaning.

The details of this passage are most instructive to us. Satan identified himself so fully with the man's mind that the man spoke as if voicing his own interests and wishes, while under Satan's influence. Yet he still sensed that a greater power was present.

He was drawn to run to the Lord Jesus despite the satanic power inside him. Strangely, he even worshiped Him. But it was the evil spirit that spoke through him. It denied having anything to do with the Lord Jesus, whom it calls "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." And the Lord's very presence tormented that evil spirit. God's power in drawing the man was infinitely stronger than Satan's power.

The man from Gadara called Him aloud "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." By using this title he completely condemned the false charge of the Pharisees, who said that Jesus was under the control of the prince of the demons. It is striking to notice which divine title the demon-possessed man used. "Most High" appears in special connections in the Scriptures. It is the title of supreme rule over the earth. It is closely tied to the promises of God's rule in the millennium, when God will remove Satan's evil agents from the earth.

The Most High God is His proper name for the millennium. He was Almighty with the patriarchs, Jehovah with Israel, and Most High for the millennium.

A solemn charge by someone in authority, ordering another person to tell the truth under oath. Ahab put Micaiah under such a charge (1 Kings 22:16), and the high priest did the same to our Lord (Matthew 26:63). It also means binding a person under a curse to do, or not do, what is commanded.

This confession by the man from Gadara spoke of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not of His grace, because it never asked for His mercy. It was the confession of an evil spirit, not of a broken-hearted sinner… Not one word came from the lips of the man on the ground begging for mercy and forgiveness. The tax collector in the temple and blind Bartimaeus both cried for mercy, and God heard them, because grace and truth had come to deliver such people. But rebel spirits are already doomed and shut out from mercy… Still, the gracious Lord showed His mercy to this wretched man, though not to the unclean demons.

Until a person receives life, how can he truly feel the weight of his sin? Until then, how can he know God's holy nature in any real way? He has no more than a dread of God. A pagan can have that much, and the evil spirits believe and tremble… They know all too well that there is no forgiveness for their rebellion. They believe Who Jesus is, and it does them no good.

Here is the devil and the man's voice mingled, and in such a way you cannot distinguish them. And how many are like this, to whom the Lord has been saying, as we learn He had been saying here, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit"? How many come to Him, the Deliverer, begging Him "not to torment them"! Their conscience is awake, but they have not seen the meaning of the cross. How natural, then, to think that the holy and just God must be against them!

All human methods only proved the greater might of the enemy… What a picture of dreary wretchedness, the companion of desolation and of death!

This poor man had seen the awful power of the Roman legion, that terrible instrument of oppression. He could not think of any word that described his own state more exactly. So, to say with his own lips what his name was, he uses this word "legion." "My name is legion." … I believe that is the reason why "legion" and "come out of him" are found here together. How wonderfully it brings out the power of our Lord Jesus Christ! He broke that power: "Come out of him."

The Lord addressed the man as the responsible person, asking him, "What is your name?" He also made a difference between the man who was oppressed and the evil powers that possessed him, saying, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit." The man is seen as a house lived in by the evil spirit.

It is remarkable how the man is identified with the unclean spirit. In the same way now, in grace, the Holy Spirit joins very closely with the believer. The man cries, "Torment me not," though it was a question of dealing with the spirit.

But however mighty a spirit is, and especially in such a vast and tyrannical mass of evil, demons are never bold enough to doubt. They believe and shudder (James 2:19). So they begged that He would not command them to depart into the abyss; for their certain doom was before their eyes.

We learn that though we are ruined and helpless, in the Person of Christ there is One with power and grace to deliver us from all the power of Satan… But demons have to bow before One whom they know is the Son of God, with all power to send them to their just doom. Men may be ignorant of the glory and authority of Christ, but not so demons. Seeing that at the word of Christ they must come out of the man, they ask that they may be sent into swine.

This miserable world is still under the power of Satan and his legion of demons. Demon possessions have not ceased. And the Lord Jesus Christ is still the same.

Think for a moment about how He set this man free from the terrible bondage on him. He asks him, "What is your name?" ... I have no doubt that this was the intention the blessed Lord had in drawing this man's name out of his own lips. You remember how He asked Jacob, "What is your name?" And I believe the Lord makes us answer that question... He knows, but He will have it from your own lips.

In the Roman army, a legion was a body of troops of between three and five thousand. The term is also used for a number that is not fixed. The Lord said that if He asked, His Father would send Him more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). The demons who possessed the man among the Gadarenes said, "My name is Legion; for we are many."

This poor man had seen the awful power of the Roman legion, that terrible instrument of oppression. He could not think of any word that described his condition better... "Legion" and "Come out of the man" stand here together, and how wonderfully that brings out the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He broke that power.

Here is a fact outside human understanding, on the evil side of the spiritual world, and horrible beyond measure. One man held such a host of evil spirits in him that the well-known name of a Roman battalion fitted. He was a man with a personal consciousness, and yet he merges his own personality in theirs — Legion, for we are many!

The Lord addressed the man as the responsible person, asking him, "What is your name?" He also made a difference between the man who was oppressed and the evil powers that possessed him. To those powers He said, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit." The man is treated as one in whom the evil spirit lives.

This case was one of a man indwelt by unclean spirits for purposes of evil. The Epistles show us the opposite. Those who believe the gospel of salvation (Ephesians 1) are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. He is certainly distinct in His personality from those whom He indwells, and He bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). At the same time He, in a blessed way, identifies Himself with us, helping our weaknesses...

This man was an extreme case of demon possession. It had lasted a long time. It gave him superhuman strength, so ordinary restraints did not hold him. It drove him into deserts and the place of death — the tombs. What is more, not one demon enslaved him but many. For some reason he had become like a fortress, firmly held for Satan by a whole legion of demons. So when Jesus met him there was a real trial of strength.

The world may try to bind the power of Satan by things like legislation, rehabilitation and moral reform. But these things fail. Satan drives his victim into a moral wilderness.

Fallen man has no hope of overcoming the power of Satan. But that power meets in Christ a power it must give way to. In these Gospel accounts the demons never once openly resist Him, even here, where there was a legion of them. They plead against the judgment they foresee, though its time has not yet come, and argue their own case. They beg Him not to send them out of the country, and ask leave to enter the herd of swine.

These demons feared the time of future torment. They brought their requests to the One they knew and addressed as the Son of the Most High God. They acknowledged His supreme authority, just as Satan did when he came before the LORD about His servant Job.

Here they begged the Lord not to send them out of the country, and, as Luke states, not to command them to go into the deep, or the abyss.

Jesus asks him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. They dreaded their hour. There was the instinctive sense in these demons that Jesus would commit them to the abyss.

The abyss is the Scriptural term for the place of confinement of evil spirits. Revelation translates the Greek word as "bottomless pit." From there the "beast" will rise who will make war on the two witnesses and overcome them. The same set of prophecies says Satan will be shut up in the abyss through the thousand years of glorious peace under the reign of Christ.

It is remarkable how the man is identified with the unclean spirit. In grace the Holy Spirit now blends just as closely with the believer. The man cries, "Do not torment me," though it was a question of dealing with the spirit. So he answers, "My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country."

Though we are ruined and helpless, in the Person of Christ there is One with power and grace to deliver us from all the power of Satan. The poor man's body is the dwelling place and instrument of the demon, who acts and speaks through the man. But demons have to bow in the presence of One they know is the Son of God, with all power to consign them to their just doom. Men may be ignorant of the glory and authority of Christ, but demons are not.

At Gadara the fate of the swine is a plain and unmistakable example of what Satan and his demons aim at. The violent end of the animals pictures the final end of those under the direction and power of darkness. The animals lacked the higher nature that man has. So destruction followed at once when the demons entered them. With man the end is the same, though it may come more slowly. Men may be deceived into thinking otherwise. The aim of the evil one is to destroy. The aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.

Gadara was the capital of the region it stood in, which may explain why Mark uses this name. It was a Greek city. That explains the presence of swine — animals you would not expect among a Jewish population.

The pig was one of the animals classed as unclean, and the Jews are thought to have loathed it as food… No record tells us whether the Gadarenes who lost their swine to the demons were Jews or Gentiles. Swine picture the most defiled and degraded people. Those who fall away from the faith are compared to them, and holy things should not be thrown before them.

It mattered to give the clearest evidence that demons really do live in a man. That fact is as certain as it is grave. So the Lord listens to their plea to be sent into the great herd of swine feeding nearby… In some cases a man held by demons had a serious disease as well. In this man's case we hear of none. Even if there had been one, it would be absurd to think the disease passed to all the swine, and sent them rushing at once in a frenzy to their death.

They admitted that Jesus had authority to throw them out. Matthew reports their words: "If you cast us out." They wanted to enter the unclean swine, as if to show off and feed their love of destruction… so here the unclean spirits sought permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Let us," they said. (The ESV renders their words "Send us to the pigs.") In that plea they owned, as Satan did long ago, that they have no power apart from the supreme will of God.

The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too, so they had a kinship with the swine — a kinship that killed the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with sharp stones. In the swine the urge was instant and complete. The man went free; the swine died.

The violent end of the animals was only a picture of the final end of all who live under the direction and power of darkness. Animals lack the higher nature that man has. That is the one reason destruction followed at once when the demons entered the swine. They rushed straight to their death. With man the end is the same, though he may reach it more slowly. Men may be fooled about this, but the aim of the evil one is to destroy, while the aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.

The swine appear to represent the state of the Jews after their rejection of Christ. The Lord surely allowed the demons to enter the swine. The swine had no passions of their own, so it was the demons inside them that made them rush to destruction. This shows that it was not merely the evil passions in the men, but wicked spirits holding them, that drove them on to destruction.

They admitted that Jesus had authority to eject them, for, as Matthew reports, they said, "If you cast us out" (Matt. 8:31); and their desire was to enter the unclean swine, as if to display and satisfy their love of destruction. So the unclean spirits sought permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Allow us," they said, owning, like Satan of old (Job 1), their powerlessness apart from the Supreme Will.

A spirit is mighty, and even more so in such a vast and tyrannical force of evil. Yet demons have no boldness to doubt. They believe and shudder (James 2:19). So they begged Him not to command them into the abyss. Their certain doom was before their eyes. They knew that when He reigns He will cast them there, and they dreaded it even now. "Have You come here to torment us before the time?" is the cry in the first Gospel.

The poor man is so completely identified with the unclean spirit that his body is the home and tool of the demon. The demon acts and speaks through the man. Seeing that at the word of Christ they must come out of the man, they ask to be sent into swine. Apparently evil spirits need some natural body through which to act.

The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too, so there was an affinity between them and the swine — an affinity with fatal results for the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with the sharp stones. With the swine the drive was instant and complete. The man was delivered: the swine were destroyed.

In some cases those with demons also had a serious disease. In this man's case we hear of none. And even if there had been, it would be absurd to think a disease passed to the whole herd and drove them at once into their frantic rush to destruction. But when all the demons came out of the man and took the herd, they had their chance to show their love of destroying, with no mightier hand to control their spiteful malice.

The violent end of the beasts was only a picture of the ultimate end of those who are under the direction and power of darkness. The animals lack the higher nature that man has, so destruction followed at once when the demons entered the swine. They at once rushed to their death. In the case of man the end is similar, though it may be reached more slowly. Whatever men may be deceived into thinking, the evil one aims to destroy. The Holy One of God aims to deliver and save.

The Gospels do not discuss the loss suffered by the keepers of the swine, who were probably unfaithful Jews. Nor do they discuss whether this loss came on them as punishment for keeping the unclean animals, against the law of Moses. Some object that the gracious Saviour should not have allowed this destruction of animal life. That "usefulness" argument is beside the point... Without knowing, faith is confident that all is working for good.

They admitted that Jesus had authority to eject them, for, as Matthew reports, they said, "If you cast us out" (Matt. 8:31); and their desire was to enter the unclean swine, as if to display and satisfy their love of destruction. Satan disguised himself as the serpent for cunning (Gen. 3). To deceive the unwary, he now disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). So here the unclean spirits asked permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Let us go," they said, admitting, like Satan long before (Job 1), that they were powerless apart from the Supreme Will.

The demons had asked to be allowed to enter the swine (for they could not move one step without His leave) and they were permitted to do that.

It was important to give the clearest evidence that demons really do live in a man, and that this is a most serious thing… In some cases people with demons also had a serious disease. In Legion's case we hear of none. And even if there had been, it would be absurd to suppose a disease passed to all the swine and drove them at once in a frantic rush to destruction. But when all the demons left the man and took the herd, they had a chance to show their love of destroying. A mightier hand no longer held back their spiteful malice.

The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too. So there was an affinity between them and the swine — an affinity with fatal results for the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with the sharp stones. With the swine the impulse was immediate and complete. The man was delivered: the swine were destroyed.

The violent end of the animals pictures the final end of all who are under the direction and power of darkness. The swine lack the higher nature that man has. So destruction followed as soon as the demons entered them, and they rushed at once to their death. In man's case the end is similar, though it may take longer. Men may be deceived into thinking otherwise. But the aim of the evil one is to destroy. The aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.

Everything below and above belongs to the Lord. He does not need man's apology to justify what He permits — any more than for sickness and death, plague and famine, storm and earthquake, which He uses in His providence in this fallen world. And to what purposes of grace does He not turn every one of these afflictions, for those who hear His word.

Two men had been delivered from Satan's grip, but at the cost of two thousand swine. Were two souls worth two thousand swine? In their pitiful blindness, they judged not. If this was to be the result of the Son of God's presence, they would rather have Satan as their neighbour. Such behaviour would be unbelievable. But we see men today sacrificing their own souls for things lighter than air.