Mark 5 - Jesus Sends Demons Into Herd of Pig and Raises Jairus' Daughter from the Dead!

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Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

I love the title of this story. Jesus "restored" this man. He restored him to the man God intended him to be. The devil came to "steal, kill, and destroy", but Jesus came to give life and life abundantly. Notice the supernatural power the man had as a result of the demon who possessed him. He could break steel chains. Though he broke the chains of outer bondage, his inner soul was in bondage to a more heinous foe. The man would hurt himself and cut himself day and night. The devil's main ploy is to lead us into self destruction. 

It is interesting that many young people "cut" themselves today. We call them "cutters". My strong intuition is that this is demonically driven. If the devil cannot outright take our lives, he would want us to destroy ourselves, which he does in many ways today. Drugs, alcohol, a life of crime. 

This story is interesting because the demon(s) who possessed this man manifested themselves in several ways. First, when they saw Jesus, they knew their end would be coming soon. They pleaded with Jesus not to "torture them". Then they bargain with Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs, rather to the pit of hell (Luke's version tells us this!). Some translations say there were 2,000 demons who possessed this man. This interpretation is based the fact that a legion of Roman officers was about this many men.  When those tending the pigs saw what happened, they went and told the people in town. 

What is really interesting is that this event makes them afraid of Jesus and they ask him to leave. Why?

 Before, they didn’t seem to mind having a demon-possessed, tormented man in their midst. Yet they did mind having Jesus around, so they asked Him to leave – and He did! When people are more afraid of what Jesus will do in their lives than what Satan does in the moment, they often push Jesus away.

Part of their fear was found in the fact that their superstitions were shattered, and they didn’t know what to make of it all. According to their superstitions, the demons should have had the upper hand over Jesus – but they didn’t. They had a hard time accepting this.

The restored man, of course, was eternally grateful to Jesus and wanted to come along with him. 

The man who had been set free by Jesus just wanted to be with Jesus. This man didn’t want only what Jesus could do for him. The true change in his heart was shown by his desire to be with Jesus. - Guzik

But Jesus knew this man could potentially have more impact in the community he lived in, if he stayed there. Oftentimes we want to go somewhere when we are saved or delivered by Jesus but sometimes our highest and best use can be to testify to those who knew us before and now see what has happened our encounter Jesus. 

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

Not all of the Jewish religious leaders rejected Jesus, especially the man we meet today whose name is Jairus. He was the local synagogue ruler. 

The ruler of the synagogue was somewhat like a modern day pastor. He managed both the spiritual and the business affairs of the synagogue. - Guzik

Obviously the man came in desperation to Jesus because his daughter was at the point of death. Little did the other religious leaders know that their decision to reject Jesus was a life and death decision as well. 

As Jesus walked along a crowd followed him, and while he was walking a woman who had a 12 year bleeding disease came up and thought if she just touched his robe, she would be healed and she was. 

This woman was in a desperate condition. Her condition made her ceremonially and socially unclean, and this was a significant burden to live under for 12 years.

Jesus immediately realized the power of the Spirit came out of him, and he wondered who had touched him. Sometimes we are healed when Jesus touches us and sometimes we are healed when we touch him. 

It would be interesting to know what exactly “power had gone out of Him” means. This is the only healing or miracle in the ministry of Jesus – or anyone else in the Bible – that mentions this idea.  - Guzik

When Jesus reached Jairus' house, the people thought it was of no use because his daughter had already died. Jesus only took James, Peter, and John along. Jesus would also take this inner group of three disciples to the mountaintop for his transfiguration as well. We see Jesus worked with different sized groups of people. We have the 12 disciples. The 70 who went out together in 2's. And finally, the inner three disciples. Each group had different access to Jesus. The bottom line is that there was only so much of Jesus to go around, so he had to strategically choose how he invested his time and with who. 

When he came to the house of Jairus, the people laughed at Jesus when he said she was not dead just sleeping. So he went into Jairus' home with just these 3 disciples, and his father and mother. When Jesus took her hand, she stood up immediately (remember Mark uses this term often when Jesus healed) and walked. She was just 12 years old.  Note the similarities. The woman had her blood disease for 12 years and the man had lived 12 years with his little girl. 

Can you imagine the look on the faces of mom and dad and the disicples when Jesus took her hand and told her to get up and she did?

In all this we see how the work of Jesus is different, yet the same, among each individual. If Jesus can touch each need so personally, He can touch our needs the same way.