Mark 5:1-20 (Feb. 22, 2009)

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Mark M3 February 22, 2009

Text: Mark 5: 1-20


Big Idea: Through Jesus Christ, we are set free from evil.

This past week a woman driving with her young son in the back seat was gunned down in a targeted hit as she passed through a quiet Surrey neighbourhood Monday morning (hold up paper).

The four-year-old boy was distraught but not wounded, despite several bullets being shot into the driver's side window of the new Cadillac.

This past week a man was shot dead and a teenager wounded by gunfire as a result of an altercation that happened as a result of an early-afternoon home invasion Tuesday at a Fraser Street house here in Vancouver.

Most people consider Canada a peaceful country, but in the last couple of weeks it seems like here in Metro Vancouver there has been some kind of shooting of violent crime reported in the media every day.

Stephen Pinker, who has taught at Harvard and MIT wrote a Pulitzer Prize nominated book called The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, argues against the popular notions that human beings are blank slates or noble savages.

Professor Pinker traces the pattern of cruelty that has come up repeatedly in history, cutting across all the lines of our political systems: evil is perpetuated by left-wing political systems like communism, right-wing political systems like fascism. There has been tremendous evil in the midst of democracy like the United States where they had slavery. Even in a country with a reputation as peaceful as ours, we’ve seen a lot violent crime.

Solzhenitsyn said the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either--but right through every human heart

Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz says, “What is wrong with the world? I am what’s wrong with the world--it is me and it is you.”

The Bible affirms that, on the one hand, we are made in the image of God—glorious, like no other creature. But, on the other hand, we have been tainted by sin, and, therefore, have the shadow side.

Part of the reason that Jesus Christ came into our world was to destroy that darkness in us and in the world.

This morning, as we continue our series in the Gospel of Mark, we are going to look at how Jesus Christ confronts evil in a person.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 5:1-20:
Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man


1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. [a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil [b] spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name don't torture me!" 8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"

9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." 13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis [c] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

The text tells us that Jesus went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes (v.1). It was at night and Jesus was sailing with his disciples to the region of Gerasenes, a place where the people were not Jews. We know that because these people were keeping pigs and the Jews regarded pigs as unclean.

Jesus goes to a graveyard in this place and comes face to face with a man who is possessed by an evil spirit (v. 2). Now some of us may think that in ancient times when they met a person with mental illness or seizures that they didn’t understand—because they couldn’t Google the symptoms and find out the real cause—they attributed those symptoms to evil spirits. This, of course, happened in certain times, but the writers of the Gospels as we see in the words of texts like Matthew 4:24 were able to distinguish between people who had had some kind of mental illness or seizures and those who were afflicted by demons.

The Bible teaches that just as there is a personal force of good in the world: God, there is a personal force of evil in the world: Satan.

Many people dismiss the idea of Satan, partly because of caricatures of Satan as a cartoon figure dressed in a red body suit with a pitchfork and horns. Obviously that’s simply a stereotypical representation, but the Bible affirms that just as there is a personal force of good in the world, God, there is also a personal force of evil, Satan.

Some people think that to believe in personal evil is naïve. But believing in personal evil is actually a more comprehensive way to look at the world. When we see evil in the world, whether it is the story of a woman from Nova Scotia like Penny Boudreau, who murdered her 12-year-old daughter to keep her boyfriend, or whether it is genocide that we have seen in places like Rwanda, the Balkans, or Iraq, you either conclude that the reason why people perpetuated this kind of evil against people who, in some cases, were family, friends, neighbours that got along with for years was because they had bad genes or because they had bad upbringing. And certainly evil, in many cases, may be the result of genetic predisposition toward violence or because of bad upbringing, but some of the evil we have seen in our world (the holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, the evil Japanese perpetuated leading up the World War II) is more plausibly explained by the fact that there is some kind of personal evil in the world that guides us along and provokes us, as well.

When I was working in Japan and I would ride the subways of Tokyo, sometimes I’d look at the Japanese people on the train and think hmm… they don’t look like natural born killers, they just look sleepy. I can’t help but believe that part of the reason they were led to commit such horrific violent crimes leading up to and during World War II was because they were also led along by some kind of force of evil.

That is not to say that human beings are not responsible for the evil they perpetuate. It is simply saying, as the Bible affirms, that the forces of evil are outside of us as well.

Just as there is a personal force of good in the world, God, there is also a personal force of evil.

The man that Jesus encounters here in Mark 5 has been possessed by evil. When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him, and shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want of me, Jesus, son of the Most High? In God’s name don’t torture me!” This is the voice of the demon speaking from within the man. The demon (named Legion because there were many demons--the size of Roman legion was typically between 4000-5000), begged Jesus, “Do not send us into the sea!” There was a large herd of pigs nearby on the hillside and the demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs. Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out, went into the pigs, and a herd of about 2000 in number rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Part of the reason that God became a human being in Jesus Christ was to confront the evil in the world and the evil in us. Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God, God’s rule over the world, was coming into the world through him, and through his death on the cross Jesus Christ would defeat the forces of darkness in the world.

So what does this story have to show us?

Part of what the story shows us is that evil binds us.

The man in the story has great power. People have tried to bind him in iron chains by hand and foot, but they have not been able to subdue him.

In the Faustian legends a person gives his soul to evil in exchange for some kind of power: youth, knowledge, wealth.

When we give ourselves over to evil in some way, like the man in the story who has been in chains and confined to this grave yard, we do gain some kind of power, but like the man story, we are also enslaved in some way.

In some cases, the enslavement is obvious.

If we give ourselves to drugs, we gain pleasure, but also enslavement.

But, in other cases, the enslavement may be more subtle.

Jim Collins, author of acclaimed business leadership books like Good to Great, wrote about the dynamics of the scandals at Enron and Worldcom…

As people compromised their integrity they gained certain things: money, power… but they also get trapped through their choices.

Collins says if you told these executives 10 years ahead of time, "Hey, let's cook the books, cheat people out of their pensions, and all get rich," they would never go along with it.

But that's rarely how most people get drawn into activities that they later regret. When you are at step A, it feels inconceivable to jump all the way to step Z, if step Z involves something that is a total breach of your values. But if you go from step A to step B, then step B to step C, then step C to step D…then someday, you wake up and discover that you are at step Y, and the move to step Z comes about much easier.

In Milton Mayer's essay, "They Thought They Were Free," he explains the process this way: A farmer never notices the corn growing minute by minute. But if he stays in the field long enough, he wakes up one day to discover that it has grown over his head. The people who get involved in scandals weren't necessarily bad at the outset. But through a series of gradual steps, they ended up in bad situations—in over their heads…. They are trapped…

Perhaps a less obvious form of compromise would be people who give themselves to work and the advancement of their careers—they gain power and money as they advance through their careers there is a sense in which they are possessed now by their work.

When we give ourselves to evil in either a big or small way, we get some kind of power or benefit in return, but we find ourselves enslaved…

The story shows us that when it comes to confronting evil in ourselves and in other people that we need, not just good education and discipline, but we also need the grace of God to deliver us. Education and discipline are important, but we also need the intervention of Jesus Christ.

The respected psychiatrist and writer Gerald May in his wise book, Addiction and Grace, tells the story of a middle-aged steel worker who had been struggling with alcohol addiction for many years. He had reformed his behavior with alcoholism at least 7 times and had been dry for as long as 8 months at a time. He had been involved in AA. He had hit several rock bottoms, but they did not free him. His wife had left him twice because of his drinking, and his children seldom visited. He managed to keep his job, but it was in jeopardy because of his erratic performance. His attempts to stop drinking had been complicated and turbulent, full of failed resolutions and eroded will power. He often experienced periods of condemnation and depression. But one day as he was walking down a sidewalk everything changed. It wasn’t that he decided to quit. It was just that he didn’t take the next drink. He still exercised discipline and intention, but as he described it later, “I didn’t find the desire to drink any more, just to not drink.” He continued with AA because it helped him to stay vigilant.

Grace.

Chris Reynolds, who has been part of this community for a little over a year, shared with me how he had this experience a few of weeks ago. He and his son Mark, an alcoholic who has been sober for 13 months, went to Mark’s one-year AA anniversary, expecting about 30-50 people, but there were 700 in attendance--about 150 patients and former patients, and the rest were supporters. Chris said they started the day with the 30-day patients who were just happy to be sober. The next group of people to share were the 60-day sober patients, then 90-day sober patients, followed by the 6-month, and the group that had been sober for one year.

Chris noted that the longer the group had been sober, the more they tended to thank God for looking over them and delivering them. Chris said, in fact, in the 1-year group 80% thanked God for helping them stay sober.

At this I’m going to invite someone who is part of our community to share his story.

At times the home I grew up in was a stressful and unpredictable place to be.

My parents struggled with the addictions and dysfunction that plagued the families they grew up in–


One day when I was in grade school, I found pornographic magazines underneath my parent’s mattress.

These magazines were a powerful presence in our home. When I was alone, I would take them from under the mattress, retreat to a secluded corner of the house and look at them

It wasn’t long before I was compulsively looking at pornography.

I grew up with a hole in my heart, craving what we all need-- affirmation, acceptance

and affection. I used pornography and the rush of masturbation to sooth my anxiety and to escape my insecurity and isolation

My addiction continued through high school During my 1st year at university

my roommate introduced me to internet pornography and the evil of my addiction to porn sunk its claws even deeper into my soul.

During my final year of university, I committed my life to Christ, but my addiction continued. One year after graduating university I married my wife Sage and again I quickly found myself turning to pornography to sooth the anxiety of work and marriage

By this point I had been exposed to a Christian view of pornography and I realised I was betraying my God and my wife. But after more than 12 years of almost daily masturbation and hours and hours of looking at pornography, I couldn’t stop. I felt bound, enslaved to the evil of sin

Like the demon possessed man that Jesus encountered who cried out and cut himself with stones, I too felt tortured by the evil of my addiction So many times after looking at pornography, I collapsed in a heap of shame and guilt. Each time I got on my knees [kneel]and cried out to God in repentance, after promising God, that this was the last time I’d berate myself. It was as if I was taking a whip

and beating myself with it.--“You’re worthless, you’re repulsive, you’re unlovable.”

Eventually, I came to believe that if anyone, including my wife, including God, if anyone knew what I did behind closed doors, they would not, could not love me.

Since God knew my secret, I believed He did not love me and therefore He refused to help. I couldn’t really worship at church. When I tried to praise God, it was like voice in my head began to whisper “pornography, pornography.” I went crazy trying to discern if it was the convicting voice
of the Holy Spirit, or, if it was the condemning voice of the enemy keeping me away from God.

In January 2005 my wife and I moved from the States to Vancouver, but unfortunately my addiction followed me to Canada. At Regent College I took a course on addiction and began to learn about the cycle of addiction .I went to a conference at Trinity Western held by a world renknown Christian psychologist who specialised in sex addiction. I read books and wrote papers on porn addiction, but I couldn’t get free.

A year later a good friend of mine lured me into a “Bible Study,” which turned out to be Living Waters support group for people struggling with issues of sexual and relational brokenness.

I shared my story with other guys in that group. The belief that no one could love me

if they really knew me was exposed as a lie of the enemy when I confessed my sin. The other members of the group didn’t reject me as I shared my deepest darkest secrets.

But just like the demon possessed man in the story Ken read, it was an encounter with Jesus Christ that brought healing into my life. In one of our meetings, while the group leaders prayed with me, God gave me a picture. In this picture I saw myself--bruised, bloodied and dirty. I was all-alone, isolated in my shame

Then, I saw Jesus kneeling beside me and he told me that some of my wounds had been inflicted my others, but most of them were self-inflicted. Under intense condemnation I had been beating myself with cords of shame and self-hatred.

Jesus then took out a small white cloth and began to rub away the blood and dirt.

While he told me he would help me begin to heal. God, who I thought wouldn’t come near me because of the evil of my sin, showed up at my side.

He touched me and gave me the gift of an intimate experience of his love and acceptance. For the first time in my life I felt I was fully known by God and others and I was still fully loved .

It has been over three years since I have viewed pornography. Only a few years ago I would have thought this kind of freedom was impossible.. I still experience temptation from time to time, but it does not have the same power over me.

Jesus Christ, the Living God, in an act of grace poured out his love into the depths of evil and brokenness within my soul.

And His Grace has made all the difference.


Education and discipline are important, but for our healing we need the intervention of Jesus Christ and grace to break the power of darkness in us.

How do we become people who are whole? In the story in Mark 5 we read that the man who was demon-possessed was living in a graveyard among the tombs. The Jews of Jesus’ day believed that graveyards were unclean, that if you came in contact with a dead body you would be contaminated in some way. We may not share that perspective today, but intuitively we know that there are certain things that can make us unclean spiritually. Part of the way that we move toward wholeness is by making decisions that will prevent us from unnecessarily being tainted by the powers of darkness.

Part of what it means to move toward wholeness is to not expose ourselves to situations where we may be vulnerable. If we are tempted with pornography, we’ll use some kind of internet filter like covenant eyes or as someone I know does, you get rid of your computer at home and television.

Temptations to alcohol means that we’ll practice HALT. If we are hungry, angry, lonely or tired, we’ll call a friend who will support us and hold accountable.

Keeping ourselves pure may involve choices regarding not dabbling in the occult or sexual activities outside of God’s will or even harbor pride or bitterness—which according to the Scriptures can become an entry point for the devil.

The demons are exorcised in the text through a simple word of Jesus. Typically, in the ancient world whenever someone wanted to drive out some kind of evil spirit they would do so by invoking the name of a higher God, but Jesus doesn’t--he simply speaks and commands the demons to leave. Why? Because Jesus is God in the human flesh, there is no “higher power” than himself.

If we want to be free from the powers of darkness, we will become people who turn to Jesus in our temptations, in our vulnerability, when we have sinned…

We will receive his love and deliverance.

This man is set free with the simple word of Jesus.

If we want to be set free we will turn to the Word of Jesus and the Word of God.

When Jesus was tempted in the desert, he responded by reading the Word of God which has great power. According to Ephesians 6, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.

I understand from the testimonies from missionaries who are in parts of the world where demon manifestation is more common, one of the most effective ways to deliver people from demons is to simply read the Scriptures, the Word of God, over people. One of the best ways that we can experience the cleansing of our own hearts is by immersing ourselves in the Word of God which has power.

In times of temptation I have found it especially helpful to memorize passages of Scripture that relate to the temptation and to recite those. There is power, healing power, in the blood of Christ, also in the Word of Christ, in the Word of God.

We read in Mark 5, v. 12 -13, that Jesus sent the demons out of the man and into the pigs and that they died in the waters. Throughout the centuries certain commentators have wondered if the waters symbolized baptism, which according to church tradition is a powerful means by which spirits are banished. We do not know whether the waters symbolize baptism. I doubt it, but we do know that across the centuries followers of Christ have pointed to their baptism as a means of overcoming darkness in their lives. Martin Luther routed the devil by writing, “I have been baptized” on his desk.

Through baptism, as commentator Dale Brunner points out, “Believers have a circle of protection drawn in blood around them into which evil spirits may not come. Evil spirits may shout over us, shout over the circle to frighten us, but they cannot touch us within the circle of baptismal grace, for through baptism we have been made part of God’s family which means that God is now responsible for us as a father, and he has equipped us with the Holy Spirit.”

So, if you have never been baptized, and you know that you want to live under the protection of God, then be baptized.

Some of us here may be offended by that (I don’t into this in great detail. You can ask me afterwards if you want to know.) But what we do know is that in this community of Gerasenes the people would not have been upset so much that pigs died, but that they had lost the money represented by the pigs. By sending the demons into the pigs, Jesus is saying human beings are worth more than all the money in the world.

But a few years later Jesus would show this man and us in the ultimate just how much we matter to him.

The man in our story was naked in the tombs, was chained and had cut himself with stones.

Jesus would one day become naked, allow himself to be fastened to the cross, and cut himself so that he and we could be free. He absorbed in his body sin and our shame so through him we could be set free.

As we are drawn to go to Jesus into love deliver power, we will be set free.