St. Mark 5:1-20: "1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, 'What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.' 8 For He said to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit!' 9 Then He asked him, 'What is your name?' And he answered, saying, 'My name is Legion; for we are many.' 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, 'Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.' 13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. 14 So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 16 And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. 17 Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. 18 And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, 'Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.' 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled."
Today we have the fairly familiar narrative of our Lord Jesus casting out the group of demons called Legion. It is significant to point out the context of this pericope, for this narrative comes directly after our Lord calms the sea, wind and waves, where the disciples felt they were perishing, which this lectionary skips over. The calming of the sea is concluded by the disciples asking themselves and each other, "What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" The answer to this question is supplied by the our Lord's enemy. For we are told by the Evangelist St. Mark that the demon Legion comes running up to Jesus and worships Him, calling Him exactly who He is, "Jesus, Son of the Most High God."
This is somewhat strange that His disciples do not know who or what He is, however, a group of demons know exactly who and what He is. But in this we see the intent of the framers of this lectionary, for they go straight from our Lord being accused of casting out demons by Beelzebub, to a demon, who states that he has nothing to do with our Lord. "What have I to do with You?" From this we see clearly that devils do not want anything to do with our Lord Jesus, and we also see that He is definitely not in league with them, since He desires to send them all away.
We can also see the power of this particular group of demons, for no other demons converse with our Lord. This can simply be because there are many of them, and their is strength in numbers. But even this great many devils reveal their fear of our Lord, for they know that a final punishment awaits them in the eternal hell fire. This is actually shown us in St. Luke's Gospel where he uses the phrase "into the abyss" where St. Mark says, "out of the country." This statement is to be understood as the place of punishment and torment. And it shows that the devils are fully aware of their impending final judgment. It also shows the audacity of these demons, for in their pleading they lay claim to this region, as if they had a right to torment and persecute this land and region. Then, our Lord, in order to show to His disciples that this man is possessed by a number of devils, asks the devils their name.
This reveals our Lord's power and authority over demons and the powers of darkness. They have no authority, but our Lord has all authority. In this we also see that our Lord has come to destroy the powers of darkness, sin, death, and the devil. And He does it simply by His Word. We can take comfort then when His Word is spoken to us, both in preaching and through the means of grace, that His Word has power to forgiven our sins, to remove darkness and power of the devil within us. We can see this even more readily in the man's response, who is healed. Having been cleansed by our Lord, having heard His Word, and having been restored, he desires to join our Lord, and be with Him.
However, our Lord turns him down. This man is not chosen to be an apostle. He does not have this calling, and is forbidden by our Lord in this way. This shows us that not every person has a call to preach the Word of God. Our Lord says no to certain individuals and to certain genders, as we learn from St. Paul. And certainly, only twelve men were chosen to be apostles. And these apostles, only chose certain men to replace them, and carry on the task entrusted to them by our Lord. But this man is given a task, and that is to tell his friends. He is given the task to tell his friends what great things the Lord has done for him. This is the task that our Lord gives to all of us. This is not the same as preaching and administering the Sacraments which require a man who is rightly called and ordained. This is simply the conversation that one has with his friends and family after receiving the great gift of forgiveness from their Lord. This is how the early Church grew, by the faithful sharing with their friends and family the great things that the Lord did for them. And this is how the Church on earth will continue to grow today, by the faithful telling their friends to what the Lord has done for them, and inviting their friends to come to the Lord's house, so that they may hear and be cleansed of their sins and faults by the Lord through His holy means.
It is interesting also is that the demon-possessed individual, because of the devils inside him, dwelt among the tombs. This was done to lead the people of that region to falsely think that the dead became demons. This is really no different than today with those who falsely believe that the dead become angels, or walk among the living as spirits. One may say that this doesn't really matter, but it is a subtle trick and tool of the devil to lead people away from our Lord. For there are many people today, who on account of this teaching, falsely think that everybody goes to heaven. What that means, is that Satan is trying to convince people, and perhaps himself, that their is no hell; that there will be no final punishment; no everlasting torment, because people will just become spirits that walk the earth.
However, this pericope dispels that notion, by revealing the true wickedness of devils, and by extension shows how the Lord limits the power of the devils, and only allows them to tempt us to a certain point, so that by the temptation we might be led to our Lord, and cling to Him for our salvation. And also by the temptation strengthen us from further assaults of the devil. This is shown us by the swine. The demon Legion, begs our Lord Jesus to send them into the swine, and He obliges. Our Lord could have easily sent them away to the nether regions, the abyss, out of the country. But He instead chooses to show the disciples the true evil of the devils by allowing them to do to the swine as they wished. And possessing the swine, they immediately run off a cliff into the sea, killing and drowning the swine. We can see from this that if our Lord does not hold back and protect us from the attack of the devil, what the devil would desire to do to us, and the whole world. Satan would destroy us completely.
But our Lord Jesus is gracious and compassionate, and does not want any of us to be hurt. Therefore He preaches His holy Word to us, so that we might be strenghthened and renewed in faith and trust in Him. And having received these gifts we share what great things the Lord has done for us, inviting all who would listen to join us in the family of God.
May God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
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