Mark 5: 1-20
Why You and Me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

Scripture Reading:  MARK 5: 1-20 

Prayer 

Intro: Why does Jesus cross to the other side of the sea?  This is Gentile territory – the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee - what business has he here in an unclean land; he is the Christ of the Jews after all.  Why cross over, exorcise a Gentile demoniac, and then leave?  And why does Mark waste papyri recording an event so obscure, so strange, taking up so much space in his short gospel scroll. 

The account does take up a bit of space you realize – Ben Witherington rightly observes that this is “the most graphic of all the exorcisms, indeed, in many regards the most graphic of all the miracle tales, and in some ways the most disturbing as well. This story [says Witherington] has more elaboration than any other tale prior to the passion narrative, which may suggest that it had particular importance for Mark’s largely Gentile audience.”

But why provide so much detail about this crazed man who manifests multiple personalities, masochistic tendencies, and superhuman strength? – 

not to mention living in layers of uncleanness?  This demoniac is not only possessed by an unclean spirit and residing in an unclean land, but he makes his habitation among the tombs, and his only neighbors are pigs and swineherds.  This is no place for a Jew, certainly not a prophet, no place for the Christ, no place for the Son of the Most High God.  The demoniac shouts the question that we all have as he prostrates himself before Jesus (v. 5) – literally - Why you and me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? 

What is Jesus doing here, Maybe Isaiah 65 helps us with an answer:

Isaiah 65:1-4 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by my name.  2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;  4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels. 

The God of Israel is an evangelical God.  He extends himself to those who are strange to himself, to those who are offensive to himself – so Jesus also extends himself to those who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels.

After all, before the tale ends, Jesus will also be residing in a tomb. 

Like the God of Isaiah,

Jesus is the Christ of conversion, of long-suffering proclamation, he represents the God of cleansing and restoration to those alien to himself.  He offers redemption to those who do not ask for it.  Indeed, Jesus offers himself and his salvation to those who would expel him from their country.  Jesus moves across the Sea – to the other side - to redeem a foreign people – an alien man – a nation not called by (his) name.  The exorcism of the Legion is a symbolic act in which Jesus announces to the people in the region of the Decapolis that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  And that he, himself, is inaugurating a Kingdom which cannot be limited to one side of the Sea, but will entail transformation, cleansing, renewal, and freedom from demonic occupation on every side of the Sea.  It’s not the last time Jesus will cross over. 

But, instead of rejoicing at this deliverance of their oppressed neighbor, the people in the region of the Decapolis – (vv. 15-17) were afraid…And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.  Please leave us alone and stop this disruption.  We see you have spiritual powerful, we see you can heal, but you are a danger to our way of life - really we’d rather keep the demoniac and not have our pigs drowned in the sea. 

You see the Kingdom of God is a disruptive force.  The kingdom is spiritually disruptive; it is economically disruptive; it is politically and personally disruptive – where God is on the move he is always subverting the human status quo of what has been and ushering in what is new, what is true, what is good, what is beautiful and whole and holy.  God is often subverting and disrupting our ways, because if not we would be left to our own devices and our own darkness. 

The problem is that we humans do not naturally welcome disruption (do we?) – even good and cleansing disruption easily frightens us – esp. if it comes unexpected and not on our terms. But that’s just the way God’s kingdom operates – it comes unexpected, unplanned, and not on human terms. 

FCF:  Not only are we a race possessed and oppressed by many demons and afflictions, but we are also, like the people of Gergasa here in Mark 5 who ask Jesus to leave their region, we can become so accustomed to darkness and living with dark forces – so tolerant of demonic Legions occupying our land (if you will) -  that we would rather not disrupt the status quo in order to be rid of them.  Change – after all – is often uncomfortable, especially when we do not get to determine the timing and the direction of the change. 

John says that Jesus is the light – (John 3:19) the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 

(John 1:11:  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.) 

Darkness often dominates the human life such that we cannot accept light.

Illus:  Many of you will, perhaps, know someone in your life who has become involved in an abusive situation which so controls and dominates their life that the abuse, whether self-inflicted or imposed by another, whether spiritual, psychological or both, has become a kind of prison from which it seems that person cannot escape.  The person may want to leave a dark habit or abusive relationship behind, but they cannot bring themselves to do so.  Perhaps some of you have found yourselves in such an oppressive situation – in the past or even now? 

I knew a man in St. Louis who had gotten entangled in an abusive relationship with a woman.  He had lived a hard/ fast life – running after pleasures of the flesh.  It had cost him his marriage, his daughters, and his health.  But God had recently laid hold of this man’s life in such a way that he could not shake off the gospel.  He had been changed, and he became a committed member of our fellowship – often found doing jobs around the church that no one else wanted to do.  But this new brother – who will remain unnamed - was still living in an abusive relationship at home.  He had recently become entangled with a woman who was manipulating his every move so much that he was basically afraid to leave the apartment.  She was both physically and verbally abusive.  She was financially manipulative.  She was perverse and angry and promiscuous.  She had been jailed for repeated felonies – some involving violent assault.  And her own father had referred to her as the devil incarnate.  Curiously, she was always very sweet to me as a representative of the church.  (It’s funny how that works.) 

But my new friend could no longer stand living in this situation.  He knew that it was a sinful relationship, he wanted to leave and he knew that he must, but he could not bring himself to do so – he was genuinely afraid that she would kill him.  I, and other men in the church, had counseled him to leave on several occasions with little result, until one day I told him flatly that I would rather see him living on the streets than to see him return to this oppressively sinful situation.  The next week he called we with his bags packed.  I picked him up within the hour and took him to his sister’s house many miles away – where he had made arrangements.  There was a bit of shouting in the moment of leaving, but no blows and no weapons were drawn.  It was a moment of truth and freedom for my friend – he was mild, peaceful, and beaming with confidence as we drove away that day.  He knew that with Christ he did not have to stay in the darkness. 

However, within the month, he had returned for a visit.  She had asked him to help her move herself.  You see, she still held power over him. And while there her temper flared and she put an ice-pick in the back of my friend’s head.  Now, you’ll be glad to know he’s doing fine, he’s had some trouble with his vision in one eye but he has recovered well and has now, as far as I know, severed this oppressive relationship entirely. 

You see the sort of oppression that this demoniac was under, living in the tombs, naked, and shouting and cutting himself.  It is extreme, but it’s really not that rare in the human race.  We don’t see these people a lot but that’s because they’re the sort of people that we don’t want to see – we try to keep such persons in prisons and in asylums.  But our God has the power not only to deliver my friend, but also to save this crazed woman with whom he was living. 

App:  The Kingdom of God brings personal disruption but that disruption is often difficult to embrace.  We like to take things gradually, we fear the consequences of change, often with good practical reasons about the dangers and risks associated with immediate consequences for us.  But Jesus often demands and he often brings a radical break into our lives and into our communities – and he brings it whatever the consequences may be.  I encourage you this morning – look for the ways that God is working in our community, in your own heart and relationships, in your business and profession.  Look for the unexpected ways that God is working and ask yourself how can I cooperate with what’s happening here. 

Whatever crisis may arise in your family, or in your workplace, or in your personal life – ask the question what might God be doing through this crisis – how might he have changed the swineherds through the crisis of loosing 2000 pigs that were to them a rich livelihood – instead of railing against God – ask what is God doing and how can I cooperate with his Kingdom in the crisis.  I read a quote in the NY Times yesterday:

"This is nature meets the proud United States of America, and my US of A is going to win." 
ROBERT SHUMAKE, of Galveston, Tex., on the approach of Hurricane Ike.

Search your own heart and Ask God what he is doing in the crises.  In your case it may be a financial decision, a health, or a career decision that is somehow thrust upon you in this season of your life.  Or perhaps God has changed someone in your family or in your community (like this demoniac) in a way that is uncomfortable for you and strange – even frightening. 

You see, what you don’t want is to get caught on the wrong side of the Kingdom. 

This unclean land on the other side of the sea is occupied by unclean spirits, Jesus has come to cleanse the place, but when the people there continue to oppose Jesus by begging him to leave they indicate that they themselves are also in collusion with the demonic Legions.  They rightly fear Jesus, but they wrongly reject his presence.  Commenting on this text James Edwards says “Most people, if they were asked, would probably say that they would like to see a manifestation of God.  But this story is a cold shower for such religious pipe dreams:  when God manifests himself in Jesus most people ask him to leave (see John 1: 11)”

Don’t make the mistake of asking God to work in your life, but then refusing to cooperate when change comes into your region.  Jesus causes personal and political disruption, but lets look more closely at the spiritual disruption he causes in this passage.

- Jesus could have left well enough alone with this demon-possessed man. The people had tried to restrain him in the past to no avail, and apparently he wasn’t harming anyone as long as he was content to live among the tombs.  Nobody else wanted to spend much time there in the first place, and as long as he was out of the city and out of the way the people of the surrounding region were content to leave him to his miserable estate.  His story is sad, but at least he’s not bothering anyone.  Such people on the fringes of society, with such wicked oppressions are probably best left to themselves and to their own destruction aren’t they.  Aren’t they?     Appartently Jesus did not think so.  He shows staggering power and compassion in dealing with this man. 

The people don’t know who Jesus is, but the demons do.  In our sophisticated modern era, we really don’t know what to make of demons, much less Jesus.  We wonder and we doubt whether there is really a spiritual realm at all.  But the Bible simply assumes its reality, the demons speak to Jesus (or at Jesus) and Jesus has no problem addressing the demons directly in return.  And not only do the demons speak to Jesus, but they call him by name.  – power tangle – The demons seem to know that it is futile to attempt to deal with Jesus as anything other than who he is.  He is The Son of the Most High God. 

Illus/ App : The demons know how to beg for mercy, but Jesus’ concern is for the man whom they have oppressed.  He had been possessed by the demons for a long time, unable to be held by guard and chain, driven to dwell among tombs.  He was a spiritually dead man living among the physically dead.  Who knows what may have brought on this oppression in his life.  We do know there are ways by which we can open ourselves up to such things.  Through mediums, spiritists, divination, some people seek the demons out more than the demons are seeking them.  Our culture treats such things as palm readings and seances as games (The Lemp Mansion).  But I would warn you against such things (lest you find yourself living among the tombs).  The Bible warns us to seek no spirit but the Holy Spirit of God, and the Devil surely preys on those who do otherwise – he also preys on our sins and weaknesses. 1 Peter 5:8 says Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.”   For whatever the reason this man was oppressed by the servants of Satan, and Jesus came to deliver him from such oppresion and to restore him to his right mind.  The wonderful mercy of our Lord is demonstrated in v. 15 when “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. 

The sequence here echoes the storm at sea.  The raging man was like the great storm and now he sits before Jesus in a great calm. 

If you have ever know psychological oppression or if you have been known to rage or known others to rage like this demoniac – here is the picture for you. 

And now here he is sitting peacefully at the feet of the Lord of Heaven, he is clothed and in his right mind.  Jesus agrees to leave this region at the request of the people, but he does not leave them without witness unto his goodness and glory.  No, he forbids the saved man from coming with him, and commands him to stay and live in his own house among the people and to declare in the Decapolis just how much God has done for him.  Can you imagine the power of his witness.  (They must have expected him to break into a rage at any moment.) Here is the man still bearing scars from his days of torment by demons, formerly a figure of fright and shame, now proclaiming the glory and goodness of God in Jesus Christ.  Make no mistake, Jesus makes of the demoniac an evangelist.  Jesus is leaving – but Through this man’s witness, Jesus is still extending his mercy to those who have rejected him. 

(Mark 5: 19-20)  Jesus says, "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.

Jesus is more than a prophet, more than an exorcist, he is God incarnate, God in human flesh.  He is the good God who has come to destroy the works of Satan and turn men to salvation.  I John 3: 8 tells us “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”  Hebrews 2: 14-15 explains the incarnation in this way -

“Since therefore the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” 

And what about the resurrection.  Understand, they must have heard about it.  Whatever you might think about the resurrection of Christ, we know this, that Jesus’ disciples believed he had risen from the dead, that he had appeared to them again in flesh, and they were proclaiming this resurrection throughout Judea and Galilee and to the ends of the earth.

How might the Gerasenes have responded to such news.  Probably not to differently than we respond today. 

Many of them must have scoffed at the proclamation as nonsense. 

But some would have remembered the healed demoniac sitting at the feet of his Lord, clothed and in his right mind, maybe they would even have seen this man walking down the street or tending to his daily business and been reminded of the power and glory of the one who stood on their shoreline, and perhaps some of these believed and rejoiced in Jesus resurrection (even as we do today).

What of the man himself, I imagine that he would have rejoiced with uncommon gladness at the hearing of the news that his Master had risen from the dead – walked out of the tomb even as he had walked away from his tombs. 

If we can recognize Jesus for who he really is.  When we see that not only does he hold the power of God, that not only does he disrupt but that he has come in power to save us and to deliver us from death and slavery to fear of death, then in bowing to him we will find the freedom and the mercy to change – to accept disruption for the sake of his kingdom.  For when he changes us, we are changed indeed.