In this article we will explain the history of the Gadarene demoniac. Many people look at the stories of demonic possession and discard them completely. For some, these people are simply mentally ill; there really are no such things as demons.
There are two equal and opposite errors that our race can fall into upon demons. One is not to believe in its existence. The other is to believe and feel excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and greet a materialist or a magician with equal delight.
We don’t want to be either of those, a materialist (someone who tries to explain the supernatural) or a magician (someone with an unhealthy obsession regarding evil spirits). We want to look at the truth, as it is presented to us in the Gospels.
when we analyze Matthew, Mark and Luke – You may hear us refer to them in the future as the synoptic gospels (synoptic means ‘view together’ and refers to how the writers of these three gospels reflect the timeline and details of each in the account of the life of Jesus).
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The demoniac of Gadarene
Before mentioning the account of the Gadarene demoniac, we would like to mention that we do not believe that it is possible for a Christian to be possessed by a demon (1 John 4:2-4). His Holy Spirit comes to live within you, and there is no demon here powerful enough to overcome the authority of our God whose Holy Spirit lives in us.
What we do believe is that Christians can be attacked by demonic forces. Satan and his legions of demons are constantly looking for ways to attack us, which is why Paul talks about the armor of God in Ephesians 6.
But being attacked is not the same as being taken and possessed, which is what happened to the man we are going to talk about today. Let’s read the text: to know the story of the possessed Gadarene. Reading it, we can realize several things:
1. The authority of Jesus
The first thing we see happen in the account of the Gadarene demoniac is that Jesus and the disciples stop in the boat towards the area known in the NASB as ‘the country of the Geresenes’. The Bible says that immediately the man with an unclean spirit came out to meet Jesus. A few things to keep in mind:
- This was not just a sinful man, there was talk of a demonic possession. The Bible says that demons had actually taken over this man’s body.
- The demons gave man a certain degree of power.
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- could not be tied, not even with chains and shackles. I’ve seen guys break metal chains before, but they’re usually guys with muscle stacked on top of muscle; huge boys. The man in this story had superhuman strength to be able to break chains and shackles.
- Perceived exactly who Jesus was and immediately approached him. Many times in the Gospels we see people who do not know who Jesus is. But in this case, due to the supernatural nature of the demons in this man, Jesus is immediately recognized and they understand that He has authority over them.
- The Gadarene demoniac was tormented by demons. She was cutting herself up and screaming. The demons had put this man in a state where he was not in his right mind.
- He was not only cutting himself, but also I lived among the graves, around the dead. Corpses are unclean according to Old Testament laws. The Old Testament also talks about cutting yourself off:
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- Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make any cut on your body for a dead person, nor make any mark on yourself: I am the LORD.”
The practice of cutting is associated with worshipers of and other idolatrous societies. As I envisioned this man hanging out among the dead and cutting himself, I was thinking that this man is painting an excellent portrait of what someone who violates God’s law would look like. As if these demons were acting in defiance of God’s laws through him.
2. The man runs to Jesus
We get the idea that these demons were acting out of a sense of urgency. She did not calmly go up to Jesus. He ran and immediately bowed down and the demons immediately began addressing Jesus as the Son of the Most High God. And they begged for mercy. Mark 5: 7:
And shouting with a loud voice, he said: “What business do we have among us, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you by God, don’t torment me!
Because he had been telling him, “Get out of this man, you unclean spirit!” And she asked him: “What’s your name?” And she said to him: my name is legion; for we are many.” And they implored him with all their hearts that he would not send them out.” Then we can observe the following:
- The demons of the Gadarene demoniac use the name Legion. In Roman army terms, this would have denoted a large number of soldiers. It usually meant between 4,500 and 5,500 soldiers who were Roman citizens. For the people of the first century, the word legion would have had a special meaning.
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- Rome had invaded and was the ruling power over Judea and the Jewish state of that time period.
- Rome was the largest empire the world had seen up to this time.
- To someone from the first century, this name Legion would have meant a very large and powerful force of the mightiest military power the world has ever seen. Demons use this name to evoke fear and a sense of power. And yet this power still bowed at the feet of Jesus.
- They asked Jesus not to send them ‘out’. Lucas is a bit more specific:
“They were imploring him not to order them to go into the abyss“. – Luke 8:31
That’s how powerful Jesus is. He can order 5,500 demons to go to hell and they literally have to go there. Game over. That’s why I say there was urgency. They wanted to get to Jesus first thing in the morning and bow before Him in supplication before He had a chance to throw them out completely and send them somewhere they didn’t want to be. They knew they were defeated.
Go back to 1 John 4:2-4. “Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world”. This is another example for us to see and understand the authority of Jesus Christ. It is important for us to understand the nature of Jesus as God. This is part of the mechanism of our salvation. And that’s why we keep coming back to this point.
A perfect God took the appearance of a man and lived on earth as a man in the person of Jesus Christ to be a perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. If Jesus is not God, the sacrifice is not enough. But if Jesus is God, then the only way to have victory over sin is through Him.
The only way to approach the throne of God is through our great high priest, Jesus Christ, both in prayer here in this life and in heaven in the next. That is why it is important that we understand the humanity of Jesus and his divinity.
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3. Demons must be in some container
The next thing we see when we study the Gadarene demoniac in context is Jesus allowing the demonic legion to enter a nearby herd of swine. The pigs head straight for a cliff, run over the edge, and drown in the water.
- Some have suggested that this is not a good example that Jesus is setting by destroying someone else’s property. A couple things:
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- Everything on Earth belongs to God. Jesus, being fully God himself, is the rightful owner of everything on this planet.
- “He said: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD”” – Job 1:21.
- Whether we acknowledge it or not, God has the right to do as He pleases with anything we consider ours.
- 2000 pigs is a lot of pigs. An adult boar weighs between 110 and 200 pounds. This would have been between 220,000 and 400,000 pounds of pork (that’s like 200,000 packages of pork chops). This would have been a huge mass of dead pigs floating in this body of water. That must have been quite a show! They went down the side of a cliff so there was probably some blood mixed in.
4. People’s reaction is sad, but not entirely unexpected.
In the account of the Gadarene demoniac, the Bible also tells us that they were scared. In addition, they had just witnessed a serious financial loss. They clearly didn’t know what to make of this or what to make of Jesus. The Bible uses a strong word to describe how they begged Jesus to leave. The word used is ‘implore’; beg, beg It’s stronger than just asking nicely.
They understood the power of Jesus, but they did not understand their need for Him or who He really was. I hope we don’t make the same mistake. This was also a predominantly gentile area. These people were probably not looking for the Messiah. They feared what they did not understand and what they did not expect. So instead of bowing in acknowledgment of the Son of God, the prophesied Messiah, they ask him to leave.
Has the Lord done any work in your life lately?
He has in mine. It is by the grace of God that I have a family, a home, and a place to work instead of lying face down in a ditch. Alcohol or drugs could have killed me long ago if God hadn’t had a plan for my life, and if grace hadn’t been extended to me through Jesus, I definitely wouldn’t be here talking to you today.
Why aren’t we as excited as this man who was healed of his demon possession to share what God has done for us? Have you done really stupid things and your life is a mess? Yeah guess what, mine too! Did you wrong a bunch of people and you don’t think you can be forgiven? Yeah guess what, that was how I felt too!
Are you at the end of our rope and feel like giving up? Guess what? I was there too not long ago. Let me tell you what Jesus did for me! Let me show you first hand what God has done in my life thanks to Jesus! Let me tell you why it is possible. And here’s the thing; When the people saw this man, the very one who had been possessed, standing before them in his right mind, proclaiming the things that Jesus had done for him, they were amazed.
If you want to change people’s minds and make them listen to you, show them what Jesus has done in your life. John 4:39 says: Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and tells her all about her sin and explains the concept of living water. And she goes and tells a group of people what happened, and the Bible says that many believed.
In Mark 7:31 as Jesus returns to the Decapolis area, we see a crowd around Jesus asking him to heal a man. This time they understood a little better about Jesus. There were believers there! Perhaps the testimony of the formerly demon-possessed man had something to do with this. We must never neglect that other people specifically know…