Following Jesus: Mark 5 Series

Following Jesus (5)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Scripture: Mark 5:1-20

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 1/29/2017

For the past few weeks, we’ve been following in the footsteps of Jesus through the Gospel of Mark.

Thus far, we’ve witnessed the baptism of Jesus. We’ve seen a man lowered through the ceiling so that Jesus could heal him. We’ve watched as Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath in defiance of the religious elite. And last Sunday, Mark 4 ended with the story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Terror struck his follower—many of whom were veteran fishermen. They looked around and found peril. They looked within and found panic. But they failed to look to Jesus and find peace. Even in the midst of the storm, they could have had faith in Jesus’s plans, presence, and power and so can we.

That brings us to our passage for today. Mark 5 tells of a man possessed, a legion of demons, and a herd of suicidal pigs. Before we dig into this story, let me point out that the Bible treats demon possession as a real issue. This man is not just deranged or suffering from mental illness nor is this encounter just symbolic of evil in the world today. The Bible presents demon possession as a sober reality.

Unfortunately, most Americans’ demonology is shaped primarily by the 1973 cult classic The Exorcist or the CW’s wildly popular series Supernatural, neither of which are very consistent with a biblical worldview.

I like what C.S. Lewis wrote in the forward to his satirical novel, The Screwtape Letters: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

So, with that thought in mind, if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, open up to Mark 5, which begins with these words: “So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him” (Mark 5:1-2 NLT).

Matthew tells us that there were actually two demon-possessed men here in this Gerasene graveyard. Mark just focused on the one doing all the talking. But, I see a progression in the rest of this passage that can be summed up in three words—destruction, deliverance, and deployment. These three words encapsulate the experience of these demon-possessed men. Their ordeal begins with destruction.

• DESTRUCTION

It seems many today don’t give the devil his due. In fact,

ILL. I read a story about a church where Sunday morning services were going very smoothly when suddenly a flash of light and smoke appeared in front of the pulpit followed by a loud "BOOM". When the smoke cleared, the astonished congregation saw a red figure complete with horns, pitchfork and tail. Immediately, panic set in. People crowded through the doors, trampling each other in their rush to get away. Satan watched the retreat with great glee, but his mood was disturbed by the sight of one man still lounging comfortably in his pew. "Do you not know who I am?” Satan thundered. The man's reply was nonchalant, "Sure I do." Satan was puzzled. "Do you not fear me?" The man replied, "Nope." Satan stammered, "Why not?" The man snorted, "What for? I been married to your sister for 35 years!"

It’s easy for us to make light of Satan when our mental picture of him is a caricature. But what Mark describes here is no laughing matter. He writes:

This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. (Mark 5:3-5)

It was still dark when they landed on the shore of a cemetery and as soon as Jesus disembarked this wild man ran up to him. This had to be an eerie experience for the disciples as their nerves were already shot from the storm on the lake. Luke tells us that he didn’t have any clothes on and that he was “driven by the demon” (Luke 8:29). He made his dwelling among the dead. He was defiled, depraved and desperate! Satan loves to distort and destroy the image of God in people and that’s just what he did to this man.