Lordship

Mark 5:1–20

¹They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. ⁷ And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. ¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. ¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

My college roommate was the daughter of a pig farmer from western Nebraska. We would often travel to her home for school breaks or a long weekend. When I say pig farmers, I mean a massive enterprise of raising hundreds of pigs for sale. They had an operation where 70 sows a week would deliver up to 10 piglets each! The number of pigs they had was amazing. So I know what 2,000 pigs all together looks like and it’s pretty crazy. If those pigs suddenly decided to all move in the same direction, get out of the way, for they would easily knock you down and just run over you.

This is another story from the ministry of Jesus that conjures up remarkable mental images. One can almost see the crowd of people (Gentiles this time!) gathered around as a demon possessed man engages Jesus in conversation. The tortured man actually comes and kneels before the Lord; or more accurately, the demons who inhabit this poor man comes and kneels before the Lord. The evil within acknowledges Jesus as Son of the Most High God. “Legion” knows Jesus and who He truly is and is forced to acknowledge Him as Lord. Jesus casts the crowd of demons into a nearby heard of pigs who subsequently run off the cliff into the sea and drown. You can almost hear those pigs running for their lives.

This whole story is about Lordship, both for the Jew and the Gentile. (We know the crowd is filled with Gentiles because Jews would not tend a herd of pigs.) Both Jew and Gentile stand before God in the same sinful condition. This is Jesus first foray into Gentile territory (at least in the book of Mark.) His message of grace and mercy extends now outside of the Jewish community and that is revolutionary, to say the least. The pigs run into the sea and that has some importance as well.

Since the water/sea is seen as an alien place—a place opposed to God—then the drowning of the pigs with the spirits inside of them may be seen as the spirits being returned to the place they should be, i.e., with all that resists God, and in John’s vision, the sea is a place that at the very last day will be excluded from the new creation (Rev 21:1).

Voelz, J. W. (2013). Concordia Commentary: Mark 1:1–8:26. (p. 354). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

As this man, who is freed from submission to the demon, now bows before the Lord Jesus, so we too are freed from our submission to sin, death, and the power of Satan through the blood of redemption. Satan no longer has lordship over our lives and we are kneeling before our Savior who now takes up residence through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We are free from the old master and given to our New Master. And I believe we are also responsible to do as Jesus instructed that newly freed man – go home and tell our community about what He has done for us.