Isn’t it remarkable that even a man heavily possessed by evil spirits is capable of responding to the tug of God in his heart to come and meet Jesus (it is clear the evil spirits didn’t really want to meet Jesus, see v. 7).

In the verses 3-6 Mark gives us a picture of this man before meeting Jesus. All society knew to do was to subdue him, to chain him, to force him to conform. When this didn’t work they just gave up on him and isolated him from the rest (Jesus on the other hand advises him to integrate back into society, v.19). Isn’t it revealing that he came by himself not being brought to Jesus by others? Verse 5 paints the picture of a desperate man crying for help. Maybe he was so depressed at the way society approached him that he saw himself as his own enemy to the point of cutting himself. So many times we forget to dissociate the person from the problem. Let’s not forget that behind each criminal there is real, tender, loving person God has created. When God created people, He created them good. Sin has not erased who we are deep down inside; it just suffocated it and brought identity confusion to the degree we can’t save ourselves and so we need divine intervention. But nevertheless there is value in each one of us.

In verses 7-13 we have a peek into the spiritual/invisible world of evil spirits. We’re going to bypass this for now to verses 14-20, to take a look at how people reacted to the healing of this man, completing the picture Mark wants us to see. ”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.”(v. 15) I chuckle when I read this. I am wondering, what were they afraid of? Were they afraid that Jesus is going to come and clean house? Because in verse 17 they not only asked Jesus to leave, but they begged Him. Even more, they asked Him not only to leave their village but the whole region. They really wanted to make sure they are not anywhere close to Him or to His influence. Little did they know that even if Jesus would not be there, now He could be there through this healed man (v.19-20).

Verse 16 is a window into the minds of these people. Imagine your son being in a car accident; you find out he is safe but you’re upset because the car is totaled. For them things were more important than people. They had to tell them about the pigs too. Why? You’d think, they would say something like: wow, thank God this guy is healed! I mean the pigs are gone, but who cares if that’s what it takes to save a person. But not these people. If there is a way to save the guy without any material loss, then: “Halleluiah!” If not, forget it; we don’t want it. This shows the value people had in their eyes.

Mark 5:1-20