Problem of Evil
One of the prevailing arguments that skeptics use to deny the existence of the God of the Bible goes like this: “If God is all-powerful and chooses not to stop evil, then he’s not good. And if he’s good but isn’t able to stop evil, then he’s not all-powerful.” The point is that the existence of evil in the world means that God is either not all-powerful or not good. If God were all-powerful and good, then he’d put an end to evil. But evil persists, so God must not be good or must not be able to do anything about it.
There’s coming a day when all evil will come to an end. That day is not here yet. When Jesus returns, he’ll destroy all evil forever. Jesus’ death and resurrection tell us that God has intervened in history and is moving history toward a great climax where evil is defeated and righteousness prevails. We want that to happen now. But we must wait.
In the meantime, while we wait, we must trust that God is indeed all-powerful and good. We will continue to struggle with the problem of evil and the reality of suffering in our world and in our lives. But we mustn’t deny the sovereignty or goodness of God while we struggle.
It’s helpful and comforting to remember that the writers of Scripture wrestled with this tension. The largest group of Psalms (over sixty) are lament psalms, expressing grief and frustration and confusion about evil in the world. But they also express a hope and trust in God in the middle of pain. Everyone cries. Only Christians lament because our pain pushes us deeper into God.
Jesus Shows Us God
How do we know that God is all-powerful and good? The best way to know anything about God is to look at Jesus as he is presented to us in the Bible. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 1:15, 2:9).
As we look at Jesus in the Gospels, we see God’s power and goodness. What’s interesting is that these two aspects of his nature are usually linked together. Jesus usually employs his power in order to reveal his goodness. He doesn’t just stand in front of the mirror of the world and flex his muscles to show off how strong he is. He flexes his power in order to save his people. Jesus puts his power to work in order to rescue those who are powerless.
God Saves People to Display His Glory
In this section of Mark’s Gospel, Mark has purposefully put three accounts side-by-side-by-side in order to show us Jesus’ divine power. Jesus has power over nature, demons, and death. But each instance shows us Jesus putting his power to work for the good of his people. The glory of Jesus’ power is revealed through his deliverance of people in need. In our text this morning, we’ll see the glory of Jesus’ power and goodness revealed through the deliverance of a man from the power of the evil one (5:1-20).
An Unclean Man
Jesus and the disciples make it to the east side of the Sea of Galilee, “the country of the Gerasenes” (v. 1). Verse 2 says that as soon as he got there, Jesus was confronted by “a man with an unclean spirit.” For a Jew, the worst thing that could happen to a person was to be declared “unclean.” This account makes it clear that this man was unclean in at least four ways. First, he’s full of, not just one, but a “Legion” of unclean spirits (v. 9). Second, he lived among the tombs, among the dead (vv. 2-3). Third, he lived in the Decapolis (v. 20), which was a largely Gentile region. And fourth, he lived near people who raised pigs (v. 11) and pigs were unclean animals that the Jews could not eat. Jesus breaks social custom in order to display his power and goodness in a place where the God of Israel was not worshipped.
A Man Tormented By Evil
This man’s uncleanness wasn’t his biggest problem. He was, as one commentator says, “tormented every moment by the focused power of hell.” His condition was so bad that he was exiled from human society and forced to live among the dead, in the local graveyard. The evil in him was so great that he was unable to be bound (vv. 3-4). People tried to bind him to protect themselves and himself from the evil inside him. But “No one had the strength to subdue him” (v. 4). That changed when Jesus’ boat came to shore in his neighborhood.
Verse 5 says that he wandered through the mountains wailing and screaming and even injuring himself with stones. He tried to numb his pain through self-harm, but nothing worked. He experienced misery upon misery. He was a slave, his life dominated by evil. He was uncontrollable because he was controlled by the powers of hell. With demonic strength he was able to break out of every chain and shackle put on him. But he couldn’t break out of his bondage to the evil one. He was also utterly alone. No one wanted to be around him. He was isolated from his friends and family, even alienated from himself as his self-destructive tendencies reveal. People loathed him, he loathed people, and he loathed himself.
We must not look at this man and say, “Oh what a poor soul he was, how unfortunate for him that he had to live like that.” When we see him, we should see ourselves. His condition is a picture of the human condition, which is probably why Mark devotes so much space to this account. No, not everyone is possessed by a Legion of demons. But the Bible says that we’re all ruled by dark forces (Eph. 2:2), blinded by “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), children of the devil (Jn. 8:44), and in “lifelong slavery” to “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14-15). The Gerasene Demoniac is a picture of all our plight. We’re all born chained to evil, loathing others and ourselves, not knowing what to do or where to run or how to be free. We’re more like this man that we realize.
“Jesus, the Son of the Most High God”
The only hope for us, or for this man, is if Jesus decides to land his boat on the shore of our lives. This is exactly what he did here. When the man saw Jesus, he ran to him and fell down before him (v. 6). He knew where to go for help and deliverance.
In verse 7, the demons speak up. They realize that they’re in the presence of a dangerous opponent, so they raise their voice to defend themselves against Jesus. Notice how they address Jesus. In the middle of a pagan and Gentile area, and by demons, Jesus is acknowledged to be the “Son of the Most High God.”
One of the things sociologists have discovered in cultures where every tree and rock and river and animal is worshipped as a god of some sort, is that there’s also some conception of a god who is the most high god, sometimes expressed as “the god who lives on the other side of the mountain.” So even in animistic and polytheistic cultures there’s an implicit monotheism, the idea of one God who transcends all the other gods, a “Most High God.”
When we were in China with some IMB missionaries several years ago, our team went out into several villages to engage with an unreached people group called the Yi Nisu people. We helped them work in their fields, made balloon animals for the kids, and Austin and Cole put on skate exhibitions. When people asked us why we were there, Jason, the missionary, would say that we came to tell them that the “Most High God” has a Son named Jesus who loves them. They understood that there was a “Most High God,” calling him “Shang Di.” They didn’t know that he had a Son, much less a Son who loved them.
When this legion of demons encounters Jesus, they automatically recognize him as the “Son of the Most High God.” Remember what Mark is doing here. He just showed us Jesus’ power over nature. Now he’s showing us Jesus’ power over the forces of hell. Waves obey him and demons tremble before him.
The demons understand Jesus’ power and don’t want him to “torment” them (v. 7). They recognized Jesus as their superior, begging him to not send them out of the country (v. 10). Begging was the right approach for them because they had no rights before Jesus, because Jesus is God. “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours” (Ps. 86:8).
Humans are More Important than Pigs
But because the time for their final destruction wasn’t yet at hand, Jesus commanded them to come out of the man and enter a herd of pigs nearby (vv. 11-13). Many people have accused Jesus of wrongdoing here, saying that he showed no compassion for these pigs or their owners.
Several things can be said in response. First, by sending the demons to the pigs and the pigs running into the sea, Jesus makes it clear that the ultimate goal of these demons was to destroy whoever or whatever they inhabited. Second, it also illustrates Jesus’ enormous power. This host of demons were so strong that they could kill 2,000 pigs. And yet they obeyed Jesus.
Another reason Jesus did this was for the sake of this man. He’d been held captive by these evil spirits for a long time, how could he know that they’d never return and dominate his life again? The destruction of the pigs illustrates for him that the salvation that Jesus brought to him would never be lost.
Perhaps the most basic reason Jesus did this was simply to show that this man was more valuable than pigs. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to rescue this man from these demons.” Jesus had more compassion for one man made in God’s image than he did for two thousand pigs. His compassion led him to destroy the pigs for the sake of one human life. One commentator tells us why people would question Jesus’ actions here: “Only in a culture of death, where human life is denigrated, do people value animals more than people.”
The Man Is Visibly Changed
The sudden death of two thousand pigs was big news and spread rapidly (v. 14). But the biggest story was what happened to this man. When the people got to the scene of the crime, they were so shocked by what they saw that “they were afraid” (v. 15). Many attempts had been made to bind this man, and “no one had the strength to subdue him” (v. 5). But all of a sudden, he’s “clothed and in his right mind” (v. 15). These people were seeing something that they never expected to see.
When a person encounters the power and goodness of Jesus Christ, they’re fundamentally changed. Though we’re not what we will be, we’re also not what we once were. There’s always visible evidence in a person’s life that they’ve met Jesus. This is why we do membership interviews for all our prospective members. As your elders, Nick and I are charged with guarding the purity of our church. We aren’t God and so we are fallible. But we do our best in membership interviews to discern whether or not someone has truly met Jesus Christ. We’re not looking for perfection. We are looking for evidence that the power and goodness of Jesus has touched someone’s life. Jesus’ love and power leaves this man visibly changed. So it is for all who follow Jesus.
The People Were Afraid
There was an opposite response from the people who came to see. They saw the dead pigs and the man and “were afraid” (v. 15) and “begged Jesus to depart from their region” (v. 17). This parallels the account we studied last week of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples were terrified after Jesus calmed the storm (4:41). Likewise, when these people were confronted with the holy power of Jesus, “they were afraid” and wanted Jesus to go away. Unholy people cannot stand to be in the presence of the holy God.
The depth of their depravity is seen in that they probably would’ve preferred to have their pigs back and have this man continue to be possessed by the demons. If this was so, then it was they who were in bondage to the Evil One. They begged Jesus to leave them rather than change them.
Has the power and authority of Jesus threatened your way of life? Are you wrestling with the things you know don’t please him or have you learned to live with them? How do you see your sins? Do you say to Christ “do not send them away” because you love them more than you love the freedom he offers you? If we persist in this way of thinking, God will give us what we want. He’ll leave us alone forever, separated from all that is good, perpetually wailing among the mountains of the dead in the eternal graveyard of hell.
But the good news of the gospel is that everyone who runs to Jesus and falls down before him will be delivered from their sins and from the power of the Evil One. God sent Jesus to die on the cross as our substitute, taking the evil of our sin on himself so that we might be set free. Everyone who stops trusting in themselves and puts their trust in Jesus will, like this man, be “clothed and in their right mind.” Jesus will take your filthy rags and give you his righteous robe. He’ll renew your mind and give you the ability to fight and defeat sin and evil.
Saved to Proclaim
But Jesus’ work never stops with us. Jesus delivers us so that we might tell others that he can deliver them too. Notice what happened at the end of this story (vv. 18-20).
Jesus grants the request of those who rejected him because he’ll never stay where he’s not wanted. As Jesus is leaving, the man who’d been delivered from the demons says he wants to go with him. Like a true disciple, he wanted to be with Jesus and go where he went. He longed to be where Jesus was.
But Jesus had other plans for him and denied his request (v. 19a). Why? Because he wanted this man to stay in this region as his spokesman. As far as we know, Jesus didn’t have any followers in the Decapolis yet. And because God sent Jesus to save Jews and Gentiles, he told this man to stay where he was and tell people what Jesus had done for him.
Jesus saved this man and then sent him to tell others about Jesus. This man’s friends and family, and the whole region, wouldn’t know about Jesus’ power and goodness unless this man stayed behind and started telling people. So he did.
In the same exact way, Jesus has saved us and sent us into our homes and workplaces and schools and neighborhoods and apartment complexes and cities and even to the nations to open our mouths and tell people about the power and goodness of Jesus. If you’re a follower of Jesus and yet make no effort to help others know and follow Jesus, how can you assume that you’re actually following him? We always promote the things that we love. So if Jesus has touched our lives with his love and power, we’ll want to promote him to others. And as we do, people will marvel.
The Glory of Christ
This account is meant to show us the majesty and deity of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, through Mark, wants us to see the glory of Jesus’ power and goodness, specifically as it’s displayed through the salvation of sinners.
Jesus employs his power in order to reveal his goodness. Jesus flexes his muscles in order to save his people. He puts his power to work in order to rescue those who’re powerless. Everyone who admits their powerlessness will experience Jesus’ power and taste Jesus’ goodness. Jesus’ power and goodness is for you. Have you tasted it?