The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man

“Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’”

As I was preparing this message, I was bothered with two things. One was that I saw my portrait in the demon-possessed man. The other, I found that I am basically ignorant of the spiritual world including the evil ones. I prayed for God’s help but I feel like I couldn’t get much help from heaven so I beg your pardon for today’s shallow message. And I ask to God that he speak himself to us from today’s main passage. God may help us learn about Jesus’ healing of one demon-possessed man.

First, a demon-possessed man.

Last week we learned how Jesus’ company ventured a sailing journey through a stormy lake. Although it was a heck of adventure for the disciples by itself, it was such a meaningful experience in which they came to know a different side of their master who had the supernatural power and authority that no one would ever hold except the Creator God. The disciples went across the lake still being terrified and wondering about their own master. They asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” The more they experienced Jesus, the more they regarded him with awe. Finally they arrived at the other side of the lake. We don’t know exactly why they came over to the region of the Gerasenes. Some people jokingly said that Jesus wanted to have a vacation with his disciples taking a break from a busy ministry. Since the Bible didn’t give us the clear answer, it is anybody’s guess why they came over to this gentile land. My guess is that Jesus wanted to shed the gospel light onto these gentile neighbors which were only six miles across the lake of Galilee. Gerasa was one of the cities of the Decapolis. "Decapolis" means ten cities. At that time, Greek immigrants colonized and lived in this area. And also, the 14th Roman Legion occupied and stationed in this land.

Jesus and his disciples had left the other side of the lake in the late afternoon and had spent a certain amount of time in the storm. It was already late night. So they arrived in the town of Gerasa in the late night or early the next morning. The disciples were eagerly waiting for the boat to touch the shore. Finally, they landed on the shore. They were happy that they were still alive. They were happy now that they could eat something and get some sleep since they had struggled in the stormy sea all night. Unfortunately the disciples now had to deal with a different kind of craziness. It was like getting a straight punch in the face right after an upper cut. As soon as they got out of the boat, they saw some kind of wild animal coming toward them. In fact, it wasn’t a beast but a man with an evil spirit. At this crazy man’s presence, the disciples all felt that their hairs stood up straight from the skin along with goose bumps. Instantly they all felt horrified by this evil-spirited man’s appearance. He was naked and his body was covered with scars and blood.

According to Mark’s private investigation, this demon-possessed man’s address was the Gerasa tombs and his occupation was only crying out and cutting himself with stones among the tombs and in the hills night and day. He was not a man any more. He lost all dignities as a human being. He literally became a beast and people treated him like an animal. Townspeople tried to subdue him locking him up with chains but he was so strong that he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. There was no way to help him out. The only thing the townspeople could do was binding him with chains like an animal. It seems like people gave up on this demon-possessed man. Because of the vicious evil power, one young man's supposedly beautiful life was totally ruined, and sadly enough no one could ever do anything to help this man out. And then, here came Jesus and his disciples in this gentile ill-spirited land.

As soon as he saw Jesus get out of the boat, he rushed down to Jesus and fell on his knees in front of him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!” It was because Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!” Jesus confronted the evil spirit who was holding this young man as a hostage. With his authority as the Creator God, Jesus ordered sternly the evil spirit to come out of this poor young man. It was the evil spirit that had a control over this young man’s life residing inside his soul. Jesus had sympathy on this young man and at the same time Jesus was indignant with the evil spirit for destroying one young man who was supposed to live a wonderful life as a God's lovely creature. At Jesus' command, the evil spirit responded at once by having this young man beg Jesus not to torture him. Jesus' helping hand is not to torture but to save life. But the young man was manipulated to take Jesus' help as a torture.

I understand his response personally. For the past 10 years, I was troubled by myself because of my unbelieving wife. I complained to God for having an unbelieving woman as my wife whom I thought ruined my missionary life. I thought God was torturing me with my unbelieving wife. But God's hand upon my life never comes as a torturing whip even if I mistake it due to my sufferings. God is my Abba Father who wishes nothing but life and happiness for me. Torturing is what the evil spirit gives to me. I found that I have tortured myself because I didn't have a true love of God in my heart. I didn't really accept God as my everlasting Father. I didn't really know my God as the sovereign ruler. That led me to consider my mission life mistakenly as a failure. But I found that I was dead wrong that there is failure in God. It was opposite in fact. In God, we only have life and love. Beginning this year I resolved to know Jesus in my life either good or bad, based on 1 Corinthians 2:1, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” I pray, I may find God's life and love for my life so I no longer torture myself but receive Jesus' help.

As the young man's screaming appeal, Jesus helped him even more. He asked him, “What is your name?” It is truly remarkable that Jesus helped him to identify himself by asking such a simple question. Name is the unique identification tool for every one. But spiritually speaking, Jesus' question was to help this evil spirited young man to restore his self as a human being created in God’s image. When God created the first man, he gave him a name, “Adam” meaning the man who was created in God's image. Whenever Adam was called by his name, he was reminded that he was created in God's holy image. When Jesus called Simon, “Peter,” it was Jesus' prayer for him to be the foundation of the church. When Jesus asked this demon-possessed man, “What is your name?”, Jesus wanted to help him restore his true self image as a man of God. So, asking him name was not just a simple question but a spiritually deep healing means indeed. Knowing myself is the starting point of salvation. By the same token, knowing my creator God is the starting point of discovering myself. By facing Jesus person to person, the demon-possessed man slowly put together his own spirits.

What was his response? “My name is Legion, for we are many.” This may be equivalent to his confession of sins because he honestly and simply revealed his true inner self as Legion of the evil spirits. Legion was the Roman military unit consisting of 40-50 thousands soldiers. Taking into account the fact that the area was occupied by the Roman army, the young man's confession was stunning because his soul and spirit were occupied by the thousands of military evil spirits. He must have been victimized by all kinds of dirty military evils such as evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, prostitution, theft, false testimony, slander, and so on. But when he identified and confessed his sinful problems in front of Jesus, the evil spirits were no longer able to associate with this young man. The evil spirits had to move out him.

Whether we are mature or not, we are vulnerable to constant attacks from all kinds of evil spirits everyday; evil thoughts, envy, inferior or superior complex, hatred, future security anxiety, liar, fatalism to name a few. We should acknowledge that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We should put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil's schemes. We should pray, as our Lord prayed, that “God lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” So God help us.

Second, New Life.

The demons begged Jesus to allow them to go into the pigs as a large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. With Jesus’ permission, the evil spirits came out of the young man and went into the swine. Instantly going crazy, the swine, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and committed mass suicide. The pig-shepherds were astounded by this incident and immediately reported in the town and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who once had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there by Jesus, dressed and in his right mind. It was a stunning scene. The once demon-possessed man came back in spirit while their 2,000 pigs were floating dead in the lake with their bellies up. The people were concerned about their properties and afraid of losing even more. Then they began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. We understand their concerns. I don’t know the actual price for a pig but $300 per a pig would give the total loss of $600,000 which is a huge loss. Losing 2,000 pigs is not a small matter unless you’re fully insured. The townspeople were so upset and refused to have Jesus stay any longer even a minute. Although we understand why they were upset, it’s sad to see Jesus being rejected only after saving a young man’s life.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the young man begged to go with Jesus. It was obvious that he was so thankful that he wanted to give the rest of his life to his Savior. As a matter of fact, it would make sense to take him along because anything could happen to him again in this materialistic sinful land. Also, he could be used as perfect evidence against the demons for Jesus’ ever growing ministry. But Jesus had a different plan on him. Let’s read verse 19. “Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’

Jesus wanted him to go home to his family and to be a witness of God’s love to his people. He would be a small mustard seed planted in his house and will further grow to embrace the entire region of the Gerasenes. His experience with Jesus was brief and short in terms of time and space but it was sufficient to experience how much the Lord had done for him and how the Lord had had mercy on him. As we saw, first, Jesus came over to him. Jesus must have heard about his screaming out of his sufferings from the demons. Planned or unplanned, Jesus did come over to him and saved his life from the demons. Secondly, Jesus sacrificed 2,000 pigs to save this young man. To the townspeople, it was an unacceptable price for saving one young man’s life. But to Jesus, one man’s life is far more valuable than any given number of pigs. Period! Jesus himself paid the ultimate price on the cross to save this young man. While 2,000 pigs were important to the townspeople, one young man’s life is so much more valuable to God that he gave his one and only Son as a ransom sacrifice. For God, searching for one lost sheep is as equally important a mission as herding 99 sheep in the house. Jesus demonstrated God’s love so vividly to us by healing one demon-possessed man and restoring him with a new life. And Jesus wanted this young man to herald the love of God to his family and his region. Jesus established a house church through this young man in the region of the Gerasenes.

I believed I was called to evangelize the whole world. I was a proud UBF missionary who came to this country as a poultry worker. I thought it showed how humble I was as a man of mission for the sake of God’s world mission ministry. I thought I could do anything for God’s calling and envisioned myself dedicated to establishing a successful UBF ministry. At least I was pure-hearted for God but wasn’t really ready to give up my secular dream and accept God’s alternative plan. My selfish big picture blinded me and prevented me from seeing God’s plan on my life and my house church. I continued to dream about pioneering a campus on the basis of sacrificing my life and family. As I said, it took about 10 years for me to realize God’s love and to accept his plan on my life and my house church. God wants me to go home first to my wife and tell her how much the Lord has done for me and how the Lord has had mercy on my life. It sure sounds like a piece of cake but actually not. Even for serving an unbelieving person although that is my wife, it requires God’s love and a shepherd heart. As a matter of fact, I struggle because I lack of both. But, at least I set my mind on this mission and pray I may receive God’s mercy. Considering how much my God loves me and how he has led my life up until now, I have nothing to offer to God but my genuine thank-you. I pray I may reveal God’s love and mercy in my house church so my wife and my sons and my father-in-law may come to know God through my testimony.

From today’s passage, we learned how Jesus took care of one demon-possessed man. Jesus healed one evil spirited victim completely from the demons. Jesus showed his heavenly authority over the demons. In reality, we are weak and we stumble often. However, we can depend on Jesus’ spiritual authority and power to overcome the devil’s schemes and continue to carry out our mission. As did Jesus, we pray we may take one wounded soul with a shepherd heart and serve him with all our hearts. I also pray each of us may cherish our own house churches on which we may be able to serve God’s flock of wondering souls.