There was a reason why Jesus had chosen to cross the Sea of Galilee with his disciples and the small band of follower’s intent on watching what happened next. It was not a random act. It was by intent. For on the other side of the Sea of Galilee in the country of the Gadarenes was a man who desperately needed help only Jesus could provide. This poor man was burdened with a Satanic infestation. As we sit in our homes today, in the comfort of modern conveniences and advanced technologies, we do not dream of living in a condition where our decisions and actions are possessed by powers beyond our control. There are very few actual demonstrations of supernatural power reflected through mankind today, and this too is by intent. Atheists are constantly demanding “proof” of God, if Satan were to be too open in the demonstration of his own power, offering “proof” of God’s enemy might inadvertently prove the existence of God Himself. So modern Christians believe they live beyond the reach of the supernatural, and cannot identify with someone whose decisions and actions are governed by a power beyond their own control. The idea, that “the devil made me do it”, is now only a joke we recite about criminal defendants we believe have no real reason for their crimes and should suffer the maximum penalties allowed by law. But are we yet again self-deceived?
To understand how real an infestation can be, one need only look at the nature of addiction itself. An observer who is not burdened by addiction, looks at the actions and behavior of a drug addict, and simply cannot make logical sense of them. It is clear that drugs have a horrible effect on our lives. They destroy our health, evaporate our money, demean our relationships, and will ultimately kill us. Apart from a momentary chemically induced “high”, they have no redeeming value. And in point of fact, the “high” itself is based on the destruction of brain cells which do not regenerate. Nothing about doing drugs offers the addict anything more than a rapid progression to the grave. Yet the addict will pursue his next fix, with a dedication of singular intent. Why? This is not a logical course of action. This is NOT in the self-interest of the addict. This is the most self-destructive action the addict could possibly take, and yet he does it anyway in full knowledge of these facts. An addict is not actually trying to commit suicide, but for all practical purposes, seems to be “unable” to refuse this course. In point of fact, brain chemistry is altered over time, making doing this action easier than not doing it.
Once a person becomes an addict, they are going to need external help, to find a way out. For the non-addicted person, this is hard to understand. But before we look away from the plight of a drug addict, I would ask the non-addicted audience “why” do they still commit the sins they find pleasure in? Sin, in every form, has the nature of addiction, in that while we know it is harmful to us, and destroys everything it touches, we still consciously choose to embrace it. Sin is also degenerative in nature, meaning the more we embrace what looks at first like little sins, the more we find ourselves rationalizing bigger and bigger sins, until at some point we refuse to see sin as sin at all. Could it be that we suffer from our own modern versions of Satanic infestations more than we would like to admit? Could it be that our ability to “control” our desires and our actions was never in our control; that we are in fact out of control, as we have quietly ceded it to our enemy of souls? Is it possible that ALL human behavior is enslaved to a supernatural influence, whether to Jesus in a journey of redemption and restoration, or to Satan in an illusion that tells us we remain in control when we do not?
For those who believe themselves to be fully in control of their own desires, decisions, and actions, I would pose the question … why have you not embraced perfection yet, when you clearly know what benefits it offers. The lack of perfection in your life, is a reflection that how you are trying to achieve it is fundamentally flawed. While you may be able to abstain and refrain from acting on your darker impulses, the desires for those darker ideas remains in place. Only external help can break the chains of slavery that exist within our minds and hearts. Only Jesus Christ can make us free from the bondage of souls we have ceded to the enemy of God over time. Our apathy, and our greed, lead us into submission to Satanic influences, and only God can even offer us the clarity to make a different choice. It is not our strength to combat these evil influences that is required of us, it is instead only our willingness to submit to a different power, to the power of the love of Jesus Christ that will make us whole.
Our societal advancements have lulled us into spiritual lethargy. We no longer concern ourselves about behavior that might be governed by powers beyond our control. We no longer believe it is possible to suffer from a Satanic infestation, particularly without our knowledge and consent. Yet we remain dumbfounded as to why we do what we do. And there are fleeting moments when we seem to be watching ourselves commit actions and deeds we know to be wrong, don’t even want to do, yet do anyway, as if watching a movie of ourselves committing these heinous destructive deeds. There are no logical explanations for these events. There are no psychological reasons that are anything other than self-destructive for the courses we pursue, yet we blaze down these paths of destruction attempting to accelerate our speed within them. Perhaps, our false sense of security, and disbelief about the power of our enemy, has led us to this point. Perhaps we, like the man Jesus was en-route to assist, need to be made free from the influences beyond our control.
Peter resumes the story of this man’s redemption in the beginning of John Marks gospel in chapter five and verse 1 saying … “And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. [verse 2] And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,” It is perhaps no small amount of symbolism that a man burdened with a Satanic infestation chooses to live among the tombs of the dead. For as we are slave to our sins, and our desire to sin, we too have found ourselves in a life more filled with the dead than with the living. Our ability to love is stunted, our ability to do good for others dissipates until it no longer exists. We become consumed with a level of selfishness that has no ability to be satiated. Our hunger to please self grows like the mindless zombies of movie lore, until we stumble from one act of self-pleasure to the next one, not knowing or caring what will happen next.
The condition of this poor man, was known not only to God, but to those who lived in the area. He had become a dangerous threat. Peter continues to recount his condition before meeting Christ beginning in verse 3 saying … “Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: [verse 4] Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. [verse 5] And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.” This is the level of depravity to which all sins leads, a level of self-destructive behavior that no sane person can understand. The local residents were intent on squelching this threat. Anyone willing to hurt themselves by cutting their own flesh with stones, obviously would have no problem hurting a passerby. Anyone who ventured near the mountains or the tombs was sure to encounter this man, and could possibly be killed in the process.
So from time to time, the local residents would band together and attack this man in great numbers intent on putting him in iron chains and bracelets to bind him hand and foot. This would easily subdue a normal person, it was how the Romans did it. But not so for this guy. Because of what resided within him, a supernatural power allowed him to break chains as if they were made of straw. The iron bracelets seemed to shatter like glass on the stones around him. What was fully capable of binding a normal person, was for him only a minor aggravation. This man did not sleep like the rest of us. What he ate and drank were unimportant to him. He existed in the mountains and near the tombs of the dead perpetually looking for an opportunity to terrorize others. Human abilities to contend with this situation had been exhausted. No person could bind him, or tame him. The best that could be done was to avoid him. You can imagine that both Jewish Rabbi’s and Roman Authorities, had been employed at one point or another to fix this man, but neither were up to the level of this challenge, and both sought to simply avoid further confrontation.
But what man finds impossible, Jesus does not. Satan tried to kill Christ before He could free this man in the storm that had come upon the lake during the journey. Satan did not want to lose the value of this man in this region spreading fear. The demons however, also knew what was coming, they too had fears as hard as that is to imagine for us as John Mark chronicles beginning in verse 6 writing … “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, [verse 7] And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.” What was left of the man inside this hollow shell sought out Christ to worship Him and fall at His feet. Even in this act, the man could not control his own speech. And instead of the words to cry for help that he longed to utter, came only the voice of demons entrenched in the body of this man.
These demons spoke in front the disciples and of the crowd of followers who were there as well from the little boats that followed Jesus across the Sea. They once again immediately identified Jesus as the “Son of the Most High God”. This public declaration was not meant to flatter or uplift Jesus, it was designed to cause controversy and a crisis of faith in His followers who were not ready to accept this reality of truth as to the identity of Christ. Each time before Christ had commanded the demons to keep silent, but this time perhaps the crowd was small enough, and perhaps dedicated enough, to accept that He may indeed be the Son of God. So this time silence was not commanded of them.
The second part of what the demons spoke revealed their own versions of fear. They ask that in the name of God, for Jesus not to torment them. The torment they refer to here is not what you and I would immediately think of … some sort of interdimensional version of hell where a lake of fire tortures but does not consume its victims. By that kind of traditional logic and thinking, the devil is supposed to be “in charge” of that place, and demons are merely his helpers tormenting the souls of evil men. Hardly a place demons would wish to avoid. If it were real, they would love to be there watching and helping men to suffer. But that was not what the demons feared or did not want to be exposed to. Instead it was something completely opposite. The memory of the perfect harmony and fulfillment of love and life in heaven was what they did not want to have to endure again, in the degenerated state in which they found themselves. To be exposed to the pure and intense and infinite love of God, and know by contrast how horrible it is to be separated from that love is what the demons wished to avoid. It was too great a punishment for them to endure to be forced to remember how good was the life and existence they left, when they sided with Lucifer, and made war in heaven itself.
Now, in the degenerated state they were in, they were living inside a man, dwelling among the tombs of the dead. Their entire demonic existed consisted in torturing and causing fear in men. There was no love among them, or for them. All love had gone away. They had driven it out of themselves because of the degenerative nature of sin and self-love. They were now only shadows of their former angelic state. They were creatures far diminished from what once was. They still had power, but had lost all love. Then came Jesus Christ into their presence, and they were forced to confront the perfect love they had abandoned. It was too much for them. They did not wish to be reminded that redemption was possible. They did not wish to see and feel the lure of love on their decrepit existence. Better to be left alone, better to be sent away, they must hide themselves from the source of infinite love. They must flee from the light in front of them. Better to seek the abyss of darkness than stand in the light of love that emanates from the Son of the Living God. So they beg for mercy to leave them to their suffering without the memory of how good, good can really be.
Peter continues to tell the story to John Mark in this gospel in verse 8 saying … “For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. [verse 9] And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. [verse 10] And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.” The conversation between Christ and the demons continues as Christ does what He came specifically to do. They are first commanded to leave the man. There is no argument here about whether they will be able to stay in him or not, the commands of God cannot be argued with. They will leave. Jesus asks them their name. The name is revealing as well. For it is not just a single demon living in this man, but “many”. A legion in the Roman vernacular referred to a thousand men. Lest we think this Satanic infestation is limited to only one, it is not. Lest we think we may only contend with a single demon in our struggle, we may face considerably more than that. But it is in Jesus we find, that a single command has the desired effect to make us free from our slavery to self and to the enemy of souls.
The demons could not stand to be in the presence of Christ and His love, but they did not want to leave the country yet either. They wanted to remain to torture men who refused the freedom Christ offered when He left this region. So they begged to stay nearby. A solution seemed to present itself to them as John Mark continues in verse 11 saying … “Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. [verse 12] And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. [verse 13] And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.” Pigs do not have the same capacity for self-preservation as men do. When Christ granted the demons request, the demons entered the pigs. This proves that Satanic infestations are not just limited to mankind, but can impact creatures and animals in nature as well. But the pigs fear and rage resulted in a quick stampede off a cliff into the sea. The number of the pigs is also mentioned here as it turned out there were about two-thousand pigs (a great deal bigger than just one legion, but instead nearly two).
It is easy to focus on the demons in this story … how many there were, the conversation they had with Christ, the fears they revealed, and the end of their reign in the herd of dead pigs drowned in the sea. But this is not a story about demons and their fate or pain. It is a story about the redemption of a man beyond all human hope. It is the story of a man who was infested by Satan with 2,000 demons and yet with a simple command of Christ was made free from this lifelong bondage. While demons are entering pigs and stampeding to their doom, the man is completely restored to his own right mind. He is offered clothing, perhaps borrowing from the disciples and other followers there with Christ. He is calm. He is aware of what has happened. His gratitude is beyond measure. He has a life for the first time in his memory. And there will be witnesses to these events.
John Mark continues the story in verse 14 saying … “And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. [verse 15] And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. [verse 16] And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.” The pig herders were watching all these events, and when they occurred they ran into town to spread the news. Local residents could scarcely believe their ears, and went to investigate for themselves. But upon arriving at the scene, they find the man perfectly restored, not a demon left in him. The pile of dead pigs 2000 strong reveal the extent of the damage that had been in him. Everything the pig herders had reported was true. And the fear of these events continued to plague them. Rather than embrace Christ now, they were not ready to do so. So John Mark records their response in verse 17 saying … “And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.”
The locals no more understood how the demons left this man, than they did who commanded them to do so. They feared that Jesus having this much power, might be something worse than what they had already seen. The residents did not hear who Jesus was as declared by the demons. All they had heard about Jesus was from the religious establishment and none of that was very good. Of course, none of this impacted the newly freed man in any way. He was ready to be a disciple of Christ and was determined to follow the orders of Jesus to the end of the earth. There was no doubt in his mind. He jumped into the boat to leave when Christ left. But Jesus had a greater mission for this new disciple. John Mark continues in verse 18 saying … “And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. [verse 19] Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. [verse 20] And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.”
The personal testimony of this man worked. ALL men did marvel throughout the entire region from the edge of the sea to the city of Decapolis. This newly minted missionary was not subject to having demons re-enter him and take over once more. The command of Christ to free him would last the entire length of his life. It is thus with us. When we submit to the power and authority of Jesus Christ to remake us, He can remove our sins, and our desire to sin, so that they do not return to us again. This is the power the Lord has to alone break the cycle of addiction. For it is not just our actions Jesus can alter, He can alter the underlying desires that fuel them. It is the desire to sin that must be ended within us, if we are to know peace. We are as powerless as this poor man, to change our desires. But our Lord is completely capable. The only caveat, is that Jesus will not force His will upon us. We must ask for it. We must allow it. We must “let” Him give us the change and re-creation we so desperately need.
However, when once you have tasted the freedom the Lord offers from a sin or slavery you were once bound to, your personal testimony will begin to have great effect. We will not become instantly perfect in this process. We will not be instantly without “any” sin in this life. In point of fact, starting this journey tends to reveal to us that the count of our demons was way beyond the one or two we were aware of. And during the journey we should never look at each other as standards of the faith, but only to Jesus. There will be those of us who fail, who slide back, and re-commit sins we thought ourselves rid of. While these painful events may cause delays in our journey, the source of our freedom remains ever capable to restore us once again. It is not our past that will dictate our future, it is our willingness to allow Christ to re-create our future, and thus alter our present that will dictate it.
Our modern technology is no protection against the powers of darkness. The same legion of demons that were once cast out along the Sea of Galilee have only degenerated further over the last 2 thousand years. The same Satan who tried to kill Christ before He could free this man, is still actively looking to kill the followers of Jesus wherever he can. The powers arrayed against us are still as intent and potent as they ever were. And should we find ourselves deluded into the idea that they are no longer a threat, we are all the more likely to be suffering under their influence. But the power of the love of Christ is no less today than it was then either. His ability to utter a single command and drive the demons from our lives is no less potent today than it was on that beach so long ago. We need only look to Jesus, and like the demoniac, fall and try to worship Him. Jesus can and will save us. Even if our speech is not our own, the intent of our hearts is known by our God. He can, and He will restore us. It is His greatest desire, and our sure-fire way to see a Satanic infestation finally come to an end within us …
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