Mark 5:1-20 "Compassion For The Demonized"

They arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes.  When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him. This man lived among the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him.  Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones....
 
 Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”
And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.”  Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.
 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.  “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”
 So Jesus gave them permission....

 As Jesus was getting back into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him.  But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.”  So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.
 
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          Jesus and his disciples arrived in this community and they found an apparently insane man living in a cemetery.  The local townspeople tried to keep him chained up in the cemetery because whenever he broke loose, he terrorized the local community.  They didn’t know what to do with him. 

In the ministry that I do, I sometimes deal with the demonic.  It’s just not that unusual as we deal with people’s deepest hurts and darkest secrets that strongholds get exposed and whatever demonic attachments are present begin to manifest.  I only bring this up to say that there is something I know for certain -something that Jesus also knew when He encountered this demonized man.  That is, no matter how demonized a person is, he is still a person.  He is still a person created in the image of God, deeply loved by God. 

Although people become demonized by their own life choices and activities –in a sense, demonized people are not exactly victims, they are participants. Nevertheless, they are deceived and manipulated by a lying, destroying murderer.  That is how Jesus described the devil.  He is a liar that comes to kill and destroy.  And even though people’s choices to participate in sin and in addiction and in lifestyles that are blatantly opposed to God have opened doorways to being demonized, I don’t think anyone makes those choices fully informed of the bondage and pain they are entering into.  As normal people, created in the image of God, loved by God, choose to sin –choose to participate with and enter into agreement with the enemy, they become degraded and demeaned and debased and put into all sorts of spiritual and emotional and even physical bondage.  This is true.  Sin always takes us places we never intended to go and always takes us farther than we ever intended to go, and leaves in bondage we never intended to be in.

Jesus recognized that this man was demonized.  You might remember that as Jesus addressed the demons they said, “We are legion.”  A legion is a thousand strong.  That’s a lot of demons.  But Jesus saw something more than just a demonized, crazy man chained up in a cemetery.  Jesus saw the suffering human afflicted by demons.  The short story is that Jesus delivered him of the demons –set him free.  And the man was incredibly grateful, and, in fact, wanted to join Jesus’ band of disciples.  He begged Jesus, “Let me go with you.”  But Jesus told him “no.”  Instead, Jesus told the man to go back to his family and friends and explain how The Lord had had mercy on him.  The word for mercy that Jesus used is a Greek word that often denoted compassion.  In other words, In this real life story, compassion looked like setting someone in bondage free.  There is a very real sense in which this is what the Kingdom of God is all about.  We (Christians) are called to bring spiritual deliverance to those in bondage.

As we enter into the satanic strongholds of hurting and deceived people's real lives, let’s clothe ourselves with compassion.  Let’s choose to see the people, not just the sins they have committed. Let’s choose to love them in Jesus’ name.  Let’s choose to set the captives free.  Let’s choose compassion.