Growing up as a pastor’s kid in Hawaii, we saw quite a bit of mental illness. I am not sure if it was because of the type of social services programs that we ran or if we were a magnet for the most severely and persistently mentally ill folks in town, but the mental illness we saw tended to run towards the rare, extreme end of the extreme end of the spectrum. From men insisting they were Jesus to women with physically impossible physical ailments and celebrities insisting on fire walks on our properties; we saw it all.
That background ignited a passion for a career in mental health in my heart. Over the following decades, I spent my time working with individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness (across the age, gender, and illness spectrum). During that time, I saw many an individual who, despite medication and best efforts, continued to suffer some of the most severe symptoms, preventing them from being integrated back into their community.
If we look at Mark 5:1-20, we can see a story of someone in that exact situation. The man from Gerarsene was described as having behavior would have met the historical Judaic criteria for what then would have been called insanity. This man spent all His time in the graveyard. He had destroyed his clothes and belongings. He is described to have broken the chains that the townspeople used to shackle and attempt to control Him. This was a man struggling. This was a man on the fringe.
Let’s look at the scripture passage:
They 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. (ESV)
Oh, my word. What a story. I get chills every time I read it!
Dear one, can we start with looking at the verse six? Now, I have another confession. If you asked my sister, she would tell you that I am a total Bible Geek. I can have long, in depth conversations about the original Greek (that one is for you, Baby sis), historical context, literal versus symbolic translation, etc. But I know that most of that is not want, none the less need. But here, it is important. When we look at this passage, we have to understand the context.
The story is about a man who lived in an area that had been ravaged. Roman soldiers and Jewish men had both taken turns slaughtering and destroying the town the man came from. There is every chance that this man was demonstrating a severe traumatic response (or the trauma was contributing at the very least). The passage describes a man completely consumed and victimized by a force outside of His control. Then...Jesus. He sees Jesus. There is every chance he had never heard the name of Jesus. Ever. If He was truly possessed, the odds of being drawn to Jesus seem unlikely. And if caught in the storm of mental illness, it is easy to believe that his symptoms might cause him to miss this moment. But none of those things are true. He sees Jesus. What does he do? He doesn’t ask to see Jesus. He doesn’t ask for an appointment. He doesn’t calmly walk. No, he RUNS to Jesus. Y’all, how amazing! In pain and desperation, broken, and weak, he sees Jess and he recognizes Jesus’ authority.
Once he reaches Jesus, he falls prostrate and then asks not to be tormented. Now, y’all, this is huge. We will never know whether this was truly a case of demonic possession, mental illness, or facing demons of our own making. What we can see is that this is the reality that this man came to know. This man who has been tormented for far to long (by the “demons” and the townspeople, and likely soldiers and others who raided the area) threw himself at the mercy at the one who he believed would heal him and THEN asked only not to be tortured how he had before. What faith! And what a great reminder...how often do we hesitate to approach the throne of God, afraid that healing will come with a to do list, forgetting that His grace comes without fine print?
What does Jesus do in response to this? In a way that will always blow me away, He not only ensures he is caring for this man’s spiritual needs, but also his emotional needs. He meets him where he is...He commanded the demons to leave and then asked the man’s name. The “demons” respond to Jesus, stating “My name is Legion, for we are many.” (Mark 5:9 ESV).
What happens next is huge...the man asks that Jesus not send them out of the area. Now, here is where I need to side step back to Bible Geekdom. There are a lot of theologians out there who have speculated about this particular part of the passage. One theory is that it is a geopolitical reference to the Roman soldiers (a legion was 6,000 Roman soldiers). Another theory was that “Legion” was a symbolic reference to the townspeople and that the man was asking that Jesus not cast them out of the area. Other theories argue that it is symbolic of the demons we all face every day.
Regardless of what “Legion” was, it was something that this man was familiar and comfortable with. The man reached out to Jesus and asked that Legion not be cast away. The man worried about the welfare of Legion. Jesus saw this need, and when the demons begged to be cast into the swine nearby, Jesus complied.
Strange, right? A group of demons asks for something and Jesus does it? And what happens next? The swine cause total mayhem, destroying the town.
For most, this is a real struggle. In Jesus’ effort to heal this man, He created the destruction of the town (a town that had been destroyed over and over again). He killed what was believed to be close to 2,000 swine (a large amount for the herdsman). He used what would have been one of the most unclean creatures to heal this man. This did not have the earmarks of being “good”.
Dear one, can we look at Luke 15:4?
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? (ESV)
Can I tell you what I think? However hard it is to digest, Jesus’ use of the swine, knowing it would cause destruction (yes, I know that Jesus knew in advance), shows us that Jesus can use even the most ugly, base, dirty and broken feeling pieces of our lives.
Dear one, this is important. So often we believe that there is no way that God can fix what happened. That we can’t do ________ (fill in the blank with what you believe you aren’t good enough for) because our past is filled with something to dark and ugly for God to use it. But like casting the demons into the swine, who destroy a town before running off a cliff and drowning, God can use the pieces we deem broken and ugly to make something beautiful and new.
Dear one...can I tell you what happens next?
He is healed!
This man living so far on the fringe that it isn’t on the map (actually, there is historical debate about exactly where it would have happened!!!), and he was healed!
Then...Jesus sends him home. He tells him to go tell others of what God has done for him.
Dear one, today, I don’t know where you are at. I don’t know what burdens you are carrying. But maybe, just maybe, today, you can take comfort in the story of a man tormented, naked, living in a cemetery, healed, and turned missionary by the healing power of Jesus. Maybe you can consider the possibility that the grace extended to a man that would have been considered so unclean that no Jewish person would have gone near him (he was naked and living amongst the dead) also exists for you.
In Love,
JB
PS, as always, don’t forget that you can grab your journal page here!
Sources used:
https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/gerasenes
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=obsculta
https://bibleatlas.org/gerasa.htm
