Mark 5 - Is Demon Possession Real?

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Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

We have already seen how Jesus' power and authority is not only over sickness, diseases, nature, but also over the spiritual forces of darkness. I.e. demons. After calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and his disciples went over the other side of the lake to the land of the Gerasenes. There is some confusion over the name and the place.

The most likely answer is to the country of the Gerasenes: i.e., Gerasa, a Greek town thought to be the same as the similarly-named Kersa on the east shore of Lake Tiberias. This is just five miles from Capernaum, where Jesus had previously been, so it makes sense. However, the Dictionary of the Bible favours Gadara, on the Yarmuk river about six miles south-east of the Lake of Galilee, so this remains a possibility. - Dr Oliver Tearle 

Mark says that as Jesus came onshore, a man with an "impure spirit" met him. Later, we learn this man was demon-possessed. Demon possession is rare in the bible. People can be afflicted by demons, tempted by demons, and even temporarily ruled by demons, but to be demon possessed means the demon has complete control over the person. 

Demonic possession is when a demonic spirit resides in a human body, and at times the demon will show its own personality through the personality of the host body.Demonic possession is a reality today, though we must guard against either ignoring demonic activity or over-emphasizing supposed demonic activity. - Guzik

And we see this with the Gerasene demoniac. He lived in the darkness of the tombs and possessed a supernatural strength to break the chains that bound him. The devil does have power though it is limited. We also see the demon influenced the man to be self-destructive, as the man starting cutting himself. One wonders if the modern day phenomenon among troubled youth of "cutting themselves" is similarly influenced by demons. 

Remember as John says, "The thief (Satan) came to steal, kill, and destroy." Though he has limited power and knowledge that is his mission. Once again this demon, unlike many of the religious leaders, knew exactly who Jesus was. He cried out, 

“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”

Whatever power this demon had, he knew Jesus was more powerful, so he begged Jesus for mercy. Jesus starts a conversation with this demon, asking what his name was. This shows that demons are personal spiritual beings, much like angels are. I.e. Gabriel and Michael.  They are angels that have fallen from heaven. I.e. They dark angels. 

The demon gives his name, "legion". He tells Jesus there were many demons involved. Likely this demon was the host for the other demons. In an interesting twist, "legion" asks Jesus to send this group of demons into the pigs and not to send them out of the region. Jesus gave them "permission" and they went into the herd of pigs, which was 2,000 strong, and headed down the steep and into the river. All the pigs were drowned. This story leaves a number of questions?

Why did Jesus give the demons permission? 

Instead of putting these unclean spirits completely out of commission, Jesus allowed this because the time of the total demonstration of His authority over demons had not yet come – it would come at the cross. Colossians 2:15 tells us that at the cross Jesus disarmed demons in their attacks on believers, He made a public spectacle of their defeat, and He triumphed over them in His work on the cross.

Why did they not want to leave the region?

Luke 8:31 tells us that the demons also begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. They did not want to become “inactive.” “Lo, it is another hell to the devil to be idle, or otherwise than evil-occupied.” (Trapp)

One answer could be that the demons asked Jesus to stay in the region rather than being sent into the abyss. 

When the pigs drowned were the demons drowned? 

My assumption is that since Jesus did not send them to hell, they were in some sense not extinguished. Their power to steal, kill, and destroy was limited to 2,000 pigs sent down the hill to their death. But though this was quite a loss of property, the demon possessed man was healed and set free. He was no longer a man of the tombs and cutting himself. The people were pleading with Jesus to leave because of their financial loss, but the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. 

But instead, Jesus sent the man to the ten cities of the Decapolis to tell the people what Jesus had done from him. It would have been interesting to know what happened next. 

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

Jesus crossed back over to the other side of the lake and once more a crowd found him. Jairus, a synagogue ruler, came fell at Jesus' feet and begged Jesus to heal his young daughter. He expressed great faith by saying to him, "If you but put your hands on her she will live!"

This is one of the first Jewish leaders to put his faith in Jesus. He was not threatened by Jesus perhaps because he had seen what Jesus had been doing and knew his daughter was dying. Jesus was his last hope. 

As Jesus left to go to the man's home, he was intercepted by a large crowd who pressed in and upon him. A woman who had suffered with a bleeding problem for 12 years saw Jesus coming and she came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak. Jesus was her last chance. She spent all of her money on many different doctors and instead of getting better she got worse. One can only imagine how desperate she was and why she somehow managed to get close enough to Jesus to touch the hem of his robe. 

Once she touched Jesus' robe immediately she was healed. Her suffering was gone. Jesus had healed people in many ways but in this case the woman only touched him and the power of God flowed out of him. And Jesus noticed this power going out of him. He asked, 

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

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. From every other healing in the ministry of Jesus, we don’t get the idea that God’s healing power was communicated by a noticeable surge of power flowing through Jesus and into someone else. Yet on this occasion, something like that happened, even if we don’t know how.

She apparently got lost back in the crowd because when they looked around she was gone. Or, perhaps she went away in fear, which the next verses suggest. Jesus was intent on finding this woman who he had healed almost inadvertently. The woman must have noticed Jesus was looking for her because she fell at his feet and shared her story. Instead of rebuking her Jesus said, 

"Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” 

The woman was physically healed and free from suffering, but maybe even more importantly Jesus rewarded her faith and replaced her fear with his peace. 

Because this woman’s condition was embarrassing and because she was ceremonially unclean and would be condemned for touching Jesus or even being in a pressing crowd, she wanted to do this secretly. She would not openly ask Jesus to be healed, but she thought, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Guzik

Jesus did it so that she would know why she was healed. When Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well,” it showed the woman that it really wasn’t touching the clothing of Jesus that healed her. Instead, it was her faith in Jesus and what He could do for her.

Because this diversion took some time, by the time Jesus got to the house of Jairus people were weeping and wailing over the loss of Jairus 12 year old daughter. They even sent people to tell Jesus, "Why bother? There is no reason for you to come here, she is already dead!"

When Jesus came on the scene he said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep."

Then, the people exhibit a very interesting response. It says, "they laughed". Why would they laugh? A better way to put it is, "they ridiculed him". Or, maybe they scorned him coming so late to the scene when he given Jairus the impression he could heal the girl. How dare he give Jairus false hope!

So Jesus took Jairus and his wife and his inner circle of disciples Peter, James, and John inside and forbid the crowds to come in. When the six of them were in the room with the little girl he said, 

Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”. 

Jesus spoke to a dead girl as if she were alive, and He did this because He is God. Romans 4:17 says that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Jesus spoke to this girl with the power of God and she was raised from the dead.

Immediately the twelve year old girl got up. They were astonished. Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone, like he had done before. 

It is interesting to compare these two people and how Jesus healed them. Maybe this is why Mark connected these two stories in chapter 5. David Guzik gives a very interesting take on the similarities and differences of these two incidents and what they reveal about our Lord. 

 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.

· Jairus had 12 years of sunshine that were about to be extinguished. The woman had 12 years of agony that seemed hopeless to heal.

· Jairus was an important man, the ruler of the synagogue. The woman was a nobody. We don’t even know her name.

· Jairus was probably wealthy because he was an important man. The woman was poor because she spent all her money on doctors.

· Jairus came publicly. The woman came secretly.

· Jairus thought Jesus had to do a lot to heal his daughter. The woman thought all she needed was to touch Jesus’ garment.

· Jesus responded to the woman immediately. Jesus responded to Jairus after a delay.

· Jairus’ daughter was healed secretly. The woman was healed publicly.

What might this mean for us today? 

Jesus heals different people for different reasons and in different ways. We cannot put God in a box or make one method of healing the end all be all. Importantly God heals in his way and in his time to make it unmistakably clear that the healing comes from him and not us. 

We have all seen the danger when the focus of the healing comes upon an individual personality, especially if this person uses this for his own personal gain and/or fame. The downfall of these so called "faith healers" has done a lot of damage to true "faith-healing". 

True saving faith in Jesus always part of these stories of healing. Jesus rewarded people who put great faith in him alone both for healing and for salvation, the ultimate healing.