The Gospel of Mark Chapter 5:1-20
5:1 “And they came to the other side of the sea”: That is, to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Remember, Jesus and the disciples had just gone through a storm (8:27). “If the storm blew the disciples in an easterly direction, like the wind after the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:17; Mark 6:48), it would not be impossible for them to have arrived at Gerasene shore not too long after sunset. Thus, the freeing of the demoniacs possibly took place that evening (Mark 4:35)” (Fowler p. 99). McGarvey notes, “They left in the ‘even’ an elastic expression. If they left in the middle of the afternoon and were driven forward by the storm, they would have reached the far shore several hours before dark” (Fourfold Gospel p. 344). “Into the country of the Gerasenes”: The inhabitants of Gadara, the capital of the Roman province of Perea. The city was on the east side of the Jordan River, about ten kilometers (six miles) from the Sea of Galilee, opposite Tiberias. Other translations of this name in different English versions are Gergesenes and Gadarenes. “Jesus had demonstrated His power over the forces of nature by stilling the winds and the waves. Now He demonstrates His power over the forces of evil by casting
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out demons. The two stories go together. They reveal that Jesus is truly divine” (Gaebelein p. 657). 5:2 “And when He had come out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him”: Mark and Luke mention only one man, while Matthew mentions two (8:28). “Obviously, Mark and Luke mention only the more fierce of the two, while Matthew objectively describes the total picture. In addition, the other two authors do not affirm that there was only one demoniac; hence, there is no contradiction” (Fowler p. 101). Apparently they had watched Jesus and the disciples for some time as they made their way toward the shore. 5:3 “And he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain”: “The sides of the mountain near the ruins of Gergesa are studded with natural and artificial caves which were used as tombs” (Fourfold Gospel p. 344). Mark informs us that efforts in the past had been undertaken to restrain this man. He had even been bound in chains—but he had simply broken them. In this case, demon-possession had given these men superhuman strength. 5:4 “Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him” 5:5 “And constantly night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out and gnashing himself with stones”: Truly, it would be hard to imagine a more horrible state than these men were in. “They roamed about constantly, during the night as well as during the day. Yelling and cutting themselves with stones, striking terror into any that came near them, and wounding their own bodies. The latter is significant, for these demons always injured the persons whom they possessed” (Lenski p. 207). When the devil has his way, this is what he does to people. If he could he would have all of us running around like this is complete misery. 5:6 “And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him”: James clearly tells us that the demons believe in God and shudder (James 2:19). This demonstrates “recognition of their real Master greater than Satan, and their final Judge for eternity” (Fowler p. 105). McGarvey supposes two malignant and sinister purposes of why these men bowed down: a. The demons perhaps tried 2
to use cunning flattery and fawning to dissuade Jesus from casting them into the abyss. b. By pretending friendship between themselves and Jesus, they could hope maliciously to injure His cause. Some feel that at this point the two men are actually worshipping Jesus and pleading for freedom. But I find the following: a. The demons throughout this situation are clearly in control of the men they inhabit. The demons do all the talking in this section of Scripture. So I must reject the claim that the men are worshiping Jesus. b. I don’t think that the demons are trying to ruin Jesus’ reputation, for the only people present on this occasion are Jesus and His disciples. c. In this section of Scripture, these demons clearly are afraid of Jesus His power, hence their falling before Him is from the motive of fear and terror. If one wants to see how unbelievers will approach Jesus at the Last Day, this is a good example. Every knee will bow before Jesus one day, but like these demons, such worship will be rejected. Note that the demons believe not only in God, but they specifically believe that Jesus is the Son of God. However such “faith” doesn’t save them, even though it could be rightly called “faith-only”. 5:7 “And crying out with a loud voice, he said, ‘What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!’” Matthew has the demons saying, “Have you come to torment us before the time” (8:29). The “time” under consideration is probably the time of the final judgment. Observe that the demons know that hell is real and that it is ongoing torment (Revelation 20:10). Hell is not the home or headquarters of the demons, rather it is their punishment---and they are really afraid of it! These demons act like a lot of evil people. They show no mercy to others---but they want mercy for themselves. Luke adds that they appealed to Jesus not to be sent into the abyss (Luke 8:31). The term “abyss” gives the figurative picture of anything deep out of which immediate or easy escape or access is impossible. This is a picture of hell, a place of no escape and hopelessness (Revelation 20:3). 5:8 “For He had been saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit’”: “This protest shouted by the demons is the expressed admission that the demons themselves stand in the presence of God’s Holy One, before Whom all the powers of moral destruction cannot hold their peace: they must speak and confess their subjection and doom. In another connection McGarvey comments: ‘Let the 3
sinner listen to that cry and learn what it is to be under the domination of Satan’” (Fowler p. 109). 5:9 “And He was asking him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said to Him, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many’”: A Roman legion was comprised of 4000-5000 men. It can mean this, or can be simply an expression that means a large number. “The demons showed the supremacy of Jesus not only by their cries to be let alone, but by the fact that they made no effort to escape from Him. They ran to Him, knowing that it was useless to do otherwise” (Fourfold p. 345). McGarvey feels that Jesus asked the sufferer his name wishing to assure him of His sympathy, but the demons in him had the floor and continued to do the talking. Yet Jesus might be asking the demons for their name, a fact that infers that: a. Demons have an objective existence and do have a distinct individual existence. b. Demons will be judged individually and held individually accountable for their evil. God is not going to accept the excuse, “I was just following orders”. 5:10-11 “And he began to entreat Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a big heard of swine feeding there on the mountain”: This part of the country, on the east side of the lake was largely populated by Gentiles. The reason for being so earnest was that it appears that the next stop for the demons would be the abyss—and they wanted to delay this as long as possible, thus the request to be sent into the swine. 5:12 “And the demons entreated Him, saying, ‘Send us into the swine so that we may enter them’” Here is the fundamental reason why demons that believe in Jesus, aren’t saved. Yes, they fear Him, but there is no desire to obey Jesus. Here they are on the eve of destruction, dickering with Jesus and protesting and bartering instead of submitting to His will. It doesn’t do any good to believe in Jesus and even profess Him as the Son of God if one doesn’t obey Him (Matthew 7:21-23). 5:13 “And He gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the head rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea”
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In light of what happens now, the question naturally arises, “Didn’t the demons know what would happen when they entered the swine? That is, the swine would stampede and they would be left without any home?” One view is that demons cannot predict the future and they were so desperate to avoid the abyss that they were willing to take any home, even if it was the inhabitation of brute beasts. Others feel that this was deliberate, that is, they wanted to be cast into the swine, so they could destroy this herd and in the process destroy Jesus’ reputation. Yet, the text seems to suggest that the demons were earnest in their plea to avoid torment, thus such a strategy was against their own personal interests. Secondly, I don’t see the demons as being unselfish creatures willing to lay down their lives for “the cause”. A possible third alternative is that Satan gave them this idea, and Satan is “sacrificing” these demons for his own cause. In the end, Jesus must leave, yet God has the last word, and this area is evangelized by the men who were at one time possessed. Please note that nothing is said about the demons driving the herd into the sea. Rather, the demons may have underestimated their ability to control these animals. Some writers argue that demons could control people, because people are rational and have will power. While demon-possessed people hurt themselves, I don’t remember any of them committing suicide. In addition, this is the only place where I can remember that demons attempted to inhabitant animals of any kind. 5:13 “The steep bank into the sea”: Here is one of those places in Scripture where the text is minutely correct concerning the geography of the land. This is what J.W. McGarvey said when he visited this side of the lake, “There are steep places all along the eastern shore of the lake, but they stand back half a mile or more from the water's edge everywhere except at ONE POINT. Here the high hills come close to the shore and descend by "a steep place" to within 40 feet of the water's edge. No stranger or foreigner could have written such narrations as these” (Lands of the Bible. pp. 382-383). The amazing thing is that the Biblical account would have been inaccurate if the gospel writers had placed this event on the southern or northern end of the lake. But they didn't. Why not? 5
5:14 “And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city, and out in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened”: It appears that these herdsman may have been eyewitnesses to the entire event. People from the region showed up to see “where the pigs died”. The truthfulness of this event was backed up by many witnesses. Various critics of the Bible have complained at this point that Jesus destroyed personal property and did something that was unethical. First, Jesus certainly can know the future, and He could have known what was going to happen. Secondly, McGarvey notes that what happened to the swine was done by the demons, and the owners had no more right to complain than if they had been killed by some natural disaster. He also reminds us that God recognizes our property rights as against each other, but He nowhere recognizes them in the realm of nature, that is, He allows natural disasters to destroy personal property. Fowler has an interesting perspective: He argues that the swine were destroyed as a judgment not only upon the demons but also upon the owners as well. He speculates that if the owners were Jewish, and were arguing, “Hey, we don’t eat them, we only raise them and sell them to pagans”, that such a judgment them becomes a shocking reminder of our duty to God (see Leviticus 11:7-8). 5:15 “And they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demonpossessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the ‘legion’; and they became frightened” Carefully note that the people in this region were given plenty of evidence as to the reality of this miracle and to the fact that Jesus was not out to harm people. They came and saw the former demon-possessed men sitting in their right mind (Mark 5:15). Eyewitnesses told them what had happened (5:16). Yet, they still wanted Jesus to depart. What a contrast. The devil had the man naked, raging, and roaming. With Jesus he is clothed, calm and in his right mind. It reminds me of the saved and lost condition of people in our own time. Prior to coming to Christ we are often illogical, restless, tortured and wandering. “Instead of rejoicing because of the marvelous deliverance of the man from his pathetic state, the people ‘were afraid’” (Gaebelein p. 658). 5:16 “And those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine”: Of course the disciples had 6
seen the whole thing, yet it appears that the tenders of the pigs had seen it all as well. 5:17 “And they began to entreat Him to depart from their region”: How sad! Such people valued 2000 pigs more than they did two human beings who had been healed of such a terrible fate. Luke emphasizes the depth of their fear (“for they were seized with fear” (8:37). McGarvey notes, “To this day, worldly interests move men more than acts of mercy” (p. 348). Be impressed that when Jesus was asked to leave, that He left! People do not get unlimited chances to be saved. Possibly more is behind this fear than simply the loss of swine. For these people didn’t own the swine, they were simply from the city. Could it be that they feared a similar retribution upon themselves because of their own sins? “If illegal hogs could be destroyed in a flash, what would He do in their personal lives?” (Fowler p. 116). “Perhaps the only reason none dare present Jesus with a bill (that we know of) for the payment for the destroyed swine is both secret acknowledgment of His right to have destroyed the animals, and fear to admit the ownership of the animals” (p. 116). The fact that Jesus was asked to leave serves as proof that the account is genuine. If the apostles had been dishonest men, then they would have tried to present Jesus as one who constantly won followers. Here, an entire city rejects Jesus. I am just so surprised that no one rejoiced over the healed men. No one said, “Hey, if He can help those men, He can help me!” No one brought loved ones to be healed. Jesus had calmed the storm, He had cast demons, the only power that He will not simply cast out---is the stubborn will of man. 5:18 “And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonpossessed was entreating Him that he might accompany Him” 5:19 “And He did not let him, but He said to him, ‘Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you’” 5:20 “And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone marveled” esus said “no” to this man and this man still promptly obeyed! “Oh my soul, can I take ‘no’ for an answer from Jesus and still love Him and go right on preaching His 7
Word where He is largely an unknown, rejected miracle-worker from Galilee?” (Fowler p. 118). The people rejected Jesus, but Jesus could send this man, a living advertisement of His power. Jesus knew that the people in this region were prejudiced against Him, but people would listen to this man. Consider the courage it took for this man to return to his hometown. People knew he had been demon-possessed, they had seen him run naked through the hills. Yet Jesus wants him to return to the scene of all these terrible memories and preach the good news. Often the best place for a person to preach is the place where they made a fool of themselves. While this man had not been responsible for his demon-possession, still there would have been the temptation among lesser men to say such things like, “This place is filled with too many bad memories”, or, “I just can’t face those people”. This man didn’t preach in just one city, but in the entire region of cities. The phrase “in Decapolis” means in the region of the Ten Cities after which this territory was called which was located SE of the lake. Jesus will return to this region some months later (Mark 7:31-37).
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