Mark 5:1-13
The Man Who Lived Among the Tombs
1On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes.
2As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, He was met by a man with an unclean spirit, who was coming from the tombs.
3This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains.
4Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him.
5Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones.
6When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees before Him.
7And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!”
8For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!”
9“What is your name?” Jesus asked. “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”
10And he begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of that region.
11There on the nearby hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding.
12So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”
13He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water.
Berean Standard Bible
They land on the far shore and everything about the place is foreign. There is a herd of about two thousand pigs feeding on the hillside, which tells you where the boat has come in, because no Jewish farmer kept pigs. Jesus has taken his disciples out of their own country and set them down in somebody else's.
The first person out to meet them lives in a graveyard, and Mark does not soften any of it. People had tried to hold the man, more than once.
Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles.
Nobody in the district had the strength for him, so they let him stay out there. Night and day, among the tombs and up in the hills, he cried out, and he cut himself with stones. Softening that would be its own kind of lying. Here was a man in real pain who hurt his own body, and everyone who knew him had settled for chains and then distance.
Isaiah has a line about people who sit among the graves and eat the flesh of pigs, a picture of a person as far from God as a person gets. Mark has landed the boat inside that picture, with a living man in the middle of it.
The man sees Jesus a long way off and runs at him. What somebody who had broken chains and shackles does on arrival is go down on his knees, and then the voice comes out of him. It asks what Jesus wants with it, calls him Son of the Most High God, and begs not to be tortured. Jesus asks its name.
“What is your name?” Jesus asked. “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”
A legion was a Roman army unit of thousands of men. The man is not carrying a private difficulty. He is carrying an occupation.
Then comes the part the text does not explain. They beg not to be sent out of the region, they beg to be sent into the pigs, he gives them permission, and about two thousand animals go down the bank and drown. Mark offers no reason, people have argued about it for a long time, and the passage does not settle it, so neither will we.
What the passage does show is the size of what had been living in that man, and that all of it is out of him now.
How We Know
Three details in this scene fit the same setting and none of them is explained. A herd of pigs, an animal Leviticus 11:7 puts outside what Israel may eat. The Decapolis in verse 20, a league of Greek-speaking cities east and southeast of the lake. And the name in verse 9: Legion, which is a Roman army word and not a word for a crowd.
Together they support a scene set in Gentile territory under Roman occupation, told by someone who expected readers to understand the pigs without a footnote.
Mark supplies no comment on any of it. He gives the pigs a number and moves on.
- Pliny, Natural History 5.74, on the Decapolis and its cities.
Questions
1 What is the loneliest place any of us can think of?
AnswerWhatever we come up with, this man had it worse. He lived out among the tombs, outside the town, night and day, and the people who had known him had stopped coming out to try.
2 How can we tell this is not Jewish country?
AnswerThe pigs. About two thousand of them, feeding on the hillside in plain sight. Jewish farmers did not keep pigs, so Mark can tell us where the boat has landed without stopping to explain it.
3 What does the name Legion tell us?
AnswerA legion was a Roman army unit of thousands of men, and people living under Roman occupation knew exactly what the word meant. It is a word about size and about being taken over. The answer Jesus gets is that there are many of them and the man belongs to them.
4 Why did Jesus let them go into the pigs?
AnswerThe passage does not say, and people have argued about it for centuries. We are not going to invent an answer on Mark's behalf. What the passage does show is how much had been living in that man, and that all of it is now out.
What This Means for Us
He crossed a lake at night to reach one man in a country his disciples had no reason to be in, and there is no crowd anywhere in this account and nobody else gets healed. On any sensible reckoning the trip was not worth making.
God counts differently, and this is what it looks like when he does. Somebody in your street or your school or your building has been written off, quietly, by everybody including themselves, and the chains people use now are different chains and they still hold.
Ask God to show you one person nobody is going toward. Then go, even if the trip makes no sense.
Prayer
Father, thank you for crossing a lake in the dark to reach one man that everybody else had given up on. Some of us feel like that man more often than we admit. Come that far for us. And send us that far for somebody else. Amen.