05 What is Your Name? (Mark 5:1-20)

SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who may have missed a few who are here for the first time, we are going through the Gospel of Mark and we're stopping at the past the places where Jesus asks a question. And last week we looked at the passage where Jesus calmed the storm, and in that story, the disciples faced this overwhelming external situation that was out of control. So they were threatened by the storm which was outside them. Today we're looking at it a storm again, only it's an internal storm. It's uh the issue today is not the external circumstances that are chaotic and overwhelming, but the inward condition that's frightening and terrible. And the question at the center of the story is what is your name? And it's a question of identity, of untangling what is inside. And that's really what we're going to talk about. So let me just set the stage for you. This is the same night. We're in Mark chapter 5, but it's the same night as Mark chapter 4. So if we go back to the beginning of chapter 4, you'll find out that Jesus had taught all day long, and at the end of the day, he was exhausted. He gets in the boats with his disciples, he says, Let's go over to the other side. They get in the boat probably in the evening or at least dusk, but pretty late in the day, and they have this harrowing experience with the storm that I just mentioned. And now the storm and the journey are over. It's sometime in the middle of the night or maybe early the next morning, and they land on the other side of the lake. So let's read Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 20. They went across the lake to the region of the Garasines. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs, and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit. Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and the countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the Legion of Demons sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs as well. And the people then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged him, begged to go with him, but Jesus did not let him, but said, Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Dacopolis how much Jesus had done for him, and the people were amazed. Now, I should probably tell you this before I read it, but if think of that scene as as if you were watching a movie and imagine what it must have looked like. Because the details Mark gives us for Mark, there are a lot of details, and they're interesting. This is like something right out of a Stephen King movie, if you think about it. It's been it's night, they're at a graveyard, there's just been a storm, so there would have been debris tossed around from the storm, leaves or branches or things washed up from the store. Their graveyards were typically caves and tombs, so you would have had these, you know, cavernous kind of dark regions and hills. Um, and in the moonlight, if there was moonlight, there was probably evidence of the recent storm and the debris. And then you've got these 2,000 pigs milling around, and they were probably upset by the storm, so they're probably, you know, jostling and making noises. So here you are in the middle of the night at a graveyard after a storm. We don't know if there was any moon or if it was dark, but either way it would have been scary. And this naked man comes screaming down the hillside at them. Uh so you you can imagine the disciples must have thought, what now? We just got through this storm, and now look where we are. It's like out of the frying pan into the fire. Now what? Matthew, in his account, tells us that there was at least one other man that lived among the tombs, and that travelers avoided this place because of the these two men's violent behavior. So the disciples must have thought, okay, how can this night get any worse? This is really bad. Um, and then notice too that what Mark tells us about the man, he's part of the living dead. I mean, think about what his life must have been like before this night. We're told he had the unclean spirit or a demon, that he was isolated, no one could be around him, he he uh was unfit for really being around human company, so he had no association with anybody else. Also, because he lived in a graveyard a graveyard, he would have been unclean, so they couldn't have associated with him even if he wanted to. He remains nameless, we're never told his name. So he's living among the dead instead of living among the living. And if there was at least one other demonized soul living there according to Matthew, but I would imagine because of their condition they didn't have much contact with each other or much meaningful contact anyway, because we're told he basically sat around and hurt himself, cut himself and screamed. So he couldn't stop himself being violent to other people or to himself. He's tormented, he's self-destructed, he's isolated, and he's living among the dead and and unclothed. And why does Mark give us all those details and why does he he tell us so much for Mark? This is a lot of detail. I think what he what he's saying is in some ways this man is no different than us, because what he's seeing on the outside is the sin that is in all of us. So he's experiencing the same kind of darkness we all experience, but for him it's multiplied to this absolutely impossible degree, and it's visible for everyone to see. But if you think about it, we know what it's like to be a rebel against God, to feel unclean, to feel like you're not worthy of associating with anybody else, um, to feel like, you know, you've hurt people or your your life contaminates others, or you're isolated, or the relationships are broken, um, or even just feeling out of control. You know, maybe there's that one habit you can't break, uh an addiction or a chocolate addiction or something that you you struggle with and you think, I just can't control that. It maybe it's anger or um spending habits or something. But for this man, he had all those things just multiplied to an impossible impossible state. Um, and you could see this kind of image of you know whatever chains he put on to try to stop or others put on him to try to stop this behavior he couldn't. And I I think most of us have probably been in that place where you you get to a point where you try to stop yourself, you say, This time I'm gonna be different, this time I'm not gonna lose my temper, or this time I'm gonna refrain from that sarcastic comment, or I'm not gonna go to the refrigerator again today, or whatever it is, and yet we fail. And that I think is what the um demoniac that's the point to relate to him, because he's got the same kind of darkness, the sin, the struggles, the out of control, only for him it's invisible. Everyone can see it. And it's it's multiplied. And I think as with many of Jesus' healings and miracles, there's a symbolism to it, and that's part of it. That um this man is experiencing sin the way we all do, but we can just see it in a very graphic way. Now, the other thing to notice is the verses in the passage are not in chronological order. The heart of the passage is the conversation between Jesus and the man, but it's confusing because Mark puts them down not in the order they actually occurred. Um in verses six to seven it says they saw the man from a distance and he ran and fell on his knees and shouted at his top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? And that sounds like, oh, that should be the first statement in the dialogue. But then verse 8 says Jesus had already said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit. So that raises the question, why didn't Mark put everything down in order? Why did he switch it around? And my suspicion, again, this is speculating, but I wonder if he's trying to give us a sense of how chaotic this event was and how confusing and frightening it was that they get up, they land in this graveyard at night after the storm, and this man comes screaming, and they must have just thought, what is going on? So I wonder if he if he's trying to give us a sense of how overwhelming it was and how confusing or how frightening. Um and it so it captured the strangeness of it. So presumably the first thing that happened is he came running down the hill screaming, and Jesus said, Come out. Um and then the demon falls at his feet and says, What do you want with me? And and that that's an interesting exchange too, because everything we've had up to this point in Mark is has let should lead us to believe when Jesus speaks, it happens. There's no debate, there's no discussion, there's no um, you know, well, maybe not. So the Lord had commanded that the steamen leave and he should, and I think when the demon falls at his feet, we should read that not as um rebellion so much as desperation. And if you think of it that way, it's sent you can see it. What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me. And how can you have that certain knowledge of who Jesus is and expect that he's there to condemn you? That is the doctrine of hell. Um, and that is I think gives us another picture of grace that we are not in that position. We can fall at the feet of the Son of the Most High God and know that he loves us, whereas this demon fell at his feet expecting judgment and condemnation. And the certain knowledge, I think, that he was condemned. Okay, one more thing about this scene. It's told with a lot of military words and a lot of language, and that doesn't quite come through in the English translations. So let me point out to you what they are. The most obvious word is the word legion, which is a technical name for the Roman military company of a thousand troops or roughly a thousand. So that's definitely a military term. Then the word send in verse 10 is usually the military command to dispatch an army or dispatch troops. The term that's used for the herd of pigs is not the one that's usually used of a herd, but used of military recruits. So when you have a band of new recruits, um they would use this word for that. Uh you wouldn't really translate it a herd in that situation, but clearly he's referring to the pigs. And then the term Russian, verse 13, is also one that's often used of troops going into battle. So let me try to put all this together. You've got this scene that's scary, chaotic, confusing. It's loaded with military language. Jesus is facing an enemy that is legion, that is internal inside this man, and his command is obeyed immediately, I think, but faced with this ask uh this desperation of what do you want with me, son of the most high God? So what I think all that should point us to who is the real enemy? And the real enemy is the evil within. So you've got this man who's the picture of living hell, really. I mean, he's he has his sin has driven him to this extreme degree, or or his demon possession has driven him to this extreme degree. Uh, you have this rebellion to God, this military language. And I think part of the point Mark's trying to get us to is who is the real enemy? The Jews thought it was Rome. You know, the Messiah's gonna come and drive out Rome and and drive them out of their land. Um the disciples might have thought it was the same thing, or maybe they thought it was the storm, their external stu circumstances that they had just faced. But the real enemy is not Rome, it's not the storm, it's the evil we have within us. And that I think is what's represented by the Legion of Dons in this man. So when the demon falls at Jesus' feet and says, uh, what do you want with me? And Jesus says, What is your name? Why does he care? Why is he asking? Um I think uh there's a point to it. Remember, the disciples are standing there listening, and he's talking to the man, but he's also the disciples are in his presence, and I think there's a lesson for them to learn. And he's asking, What is your name? That is, what is your identity? What are you known by? And often in the New Testament, and especially in the Old Testament, when people ask for your name, it's not just what do people call you, but it's asking for your character, it's asking for your reputation. So your name was your identity. You can see it today when we we pray in Jesus' name. That's not, you know, magic words like please and thank you, and you just have to throw that in to get your request noticed. When you pray in Jesus' name, you're praying based on who he is. So we're making our request known to God based on the fact that Jesus is the Messiah who came to die for us and save us from our sins. That's what his name means. That's who he is, it's his identity. So um, and think about that too in all the passages where God changes someone's name. There's often there's a character change going on, there's a learning going on. So it's the sideline when you're studying and God changes someone's names, or Jesus renames Peter and all that kind of stuff. There's a symbolism to it. They're there now, their identity has changed. So when Jesus asks the man, What is your name? I think he's asking, Who is your father? Who what are you known by? When all is said and done, what is it that marks your character? And often that comes by who is your father? What dark things are within you might be another way is to get the sense of this question. And for the demon, his father is Satan. His name is Legion. He is overwhelmed, and his character is marked by all the violence and the chaos and the sin and the hatred and the self-destruction that his condition brought on. For us, I think that's the same question we face at at any given time, at some point in our life. Who am I and what is inside me? So the internal storms that were faced by this nameless outcast, I think, is a graphic picture of the battle in our souls today because there's sin in our hearts, the same kind of evil that was in him and that held him prisoner and bound him just as that same sin binds us just as the demons bound him. And I think that's part of the point Mark's trying to bring out that the real enemy we face is not those external circumstances, it's not the other guy, it's not bad luck, it's not something outside of us. The real enemy is the sin and evil within. And when Jesus says, What is your name? He's saying, What's your identity? Who is your father? What's inside you? And I think part of the point is to draw that out, and the other part is to know that Jesus came to conquer that enemy. The real enemy is the evil within, and that's the enemy he is about to defeat. So the the demons answer legion, which as I said is a technical term for Roman military company of several thousand troops. So it's the picture is this enemy is too numerous to name, it is too numerous to count, it is beyond counting, it's of overwhelming force and strength and odds. And um, I think that prompts Mark's poignant and kind of gripping description of this man's uh dark lifestyle and tragic lifestyle. This was an enemy so strong that no chain could bind him, no shackle was strong enough. There was nothing could be done, and yet Jesus banishes him with a word. And that's the point. So last week we saw the physical forces of nature were not too much for him. The storm he could banish with a word. Now you see this internal enemy that is overwhelming, of a strength so high we can't even count it, and it's not too much for Jesus. He can banish it with a word. There, and that I think is part of the lesson. There's no enemy which Jesus cannot overcome. There's no evil beyond his authority that he cannot heal and redeem. And for us, the lesson is there's nothing inside you that he cannot overcome as well. So whatever the internal struggle is with sin, whatever everyone has them, those things that you wish that you hope your friends never find out about you, you know, you'd be too ashamed for them to find out that you said that or thought that or did that at some point in your life, or you're still struggling with whatever the struggle is, anger or sin or bitterness or depression or um whatever, controlling your tongue. The the point part of the point of this lesson is there's nothing that Jesus can overcome. You may think it's overwhelming, you may think I'll never face this battle successfully, um, I won't be able to get through tomorrow or the next week, or how can this go on another month? And it's not as bad as the demoniac. And Jesus can solve that problem, he will solve this too. Ultimately, he will heal that as well. Okay, so there's another interesting detail. Why the pigs? Why does he let them go into the pigs? Why do the demons beg him not to leave the area? Um, and you know, I mean you first read this and you think, okay, maybe he has a soft spot for the demons or something, or you know, oh I'm sorry, it's hard. I know, I don't, I know you don't want to leave. Let's find some alternative. I don't I don't think that's what's going on. Um I think again this is symbolic that this was a place of death. This was a place, this was a graveyard, this was unclean, this was a place where violent people lived, and if Jesus cleared the place, how would you know? It was still gonna look the same the next day. Um and of course, this is the pigs are there, they're unclean animals, so this is really, you know, a place that is lost. And in order for everyone to know that these demons are really gone and they're not just hanging around there to come infect someone else, he puts them into the pigs, and the pigs fly off and kill themselves. And there's visible, tangible evidence then that he has won. So he has not just invisibly banished them, he has banished them in a way that everybody can actually physically see that they are gone and that this wicked place has been cleansed, and this place of death and evil has been cleaned from at least part of it. So he gives them, I think, what they wanted, which is not to leave the place, but not what they intended, because I think they wanted to stay around, but he gives them permission to go into the pigs which proceed to drown themselves in the lake. And everyone looking on will know now that this not only have the demons left this man, they have left the area. Now think about that, what what that must have looked like. Two thousand pigs rushing into the lake. One, two, three. I mean, how this must have taken twenty minutes or half an hour. I don't know how long would it take? And I was wondering, did they go like two by two, or did they, you know, one by one, or did was it just this massive chaotic horde? I don't know, but it must have been visually impressive to see them one after one or two and clumps, whatever, flying into the lake to drown. Um there was more significance to that. Uh the pigs were used in Canaanite practice to sacrifice to their gods. So their archaeologists have found altars around this region for um for the purpose of sacrificing pigs to idols. So they needed the people of this region, it was primarily a Gentile region, and they needed the pigs for their economic system and for their religion. So healing the man, I think he's I'm I'm mixing two. Many metaphors here. Let me start over. So when he heals the man, he makes clear that he is inwardly free from evil. Drowning the pigs means I'm challenging those other gods as well. I am here to clean this area of all the other places that you might sacrifice to other gods. So this stronghold has now been taken by one who was stronger. Now think about the demoniac watching those pigs go. That to me is is also an amazing act of compassion. Because for him to see this thing, these this legion that had tormented him flying into oblivion, it must have been, I was trying to think what it must have feel like, like maybe an alcoholic seeing every bottle he's ever drank, you know, crashed or drunk from broken, or every bar stool he's ever sat on broken, or uh every beer commercial, you know, whatever, all just banished. For him, it must have been this incredible freeing sense of they are really gone, and I am really free. Um so I think in addition to telling all the people around the area was cleaned, I think it was also a sign to this man, yes, you are in fact free. These they cannot come back. You are free and clear and forgiven and cleansed. Now, Mark doesn't make clear whether the townspeople react with ungodly motives or godly motives. I'm not sure. It says they were afraid. Is that a good reaction or a bad reaction? I'm not sure. Um you can debate that in your small groups, but you can certainly see why they would have been afraid. Um presumably this is the next morning by this time or early morning, the pig herders are there. Other people may have been coming to see what happened, uh, if the storm had done any damage during the night. They have this howling demoniac, and suddenly he's clothed and sane and in his right mind. And all of these pigs are now drowned in the lake. I mean, they must have been overwhelmed with this and thought, what is going on? And they're afraid. They don't know much about Jesus. He hasn't been in this region yet. And so they ask him to leave. But notice that Jesus leaves them a witness. When the man says, Can I go with you? He says, No, you stay here and tell everybody what happened. Um and he leaves them essentially a messenger of the gospel. And we know that the gospel flourishes in this area. If you follow through the book of Acts, um, you'll find that there's a strong church in Damascus, which was in this area, one of the cities. It's where Paul went after he was first converted, and he was welcomed and discipled there, and so this region became a little field of evangelism, partly because of this man and also the woman at the well, the woman from Samaria would have been in this region. So there were at least two witnesses Jesus left behind. So the people were afraid, they weren't ready to hear yet perhaps what Jesus tried to do or who he was, and instead of forcing himself on them, he leaves him a witness to tell them who he is. I think that's why he won't let the man come with him. Not that he didn't love him or care for him, but he had a plan for him. He wanted to use him. And in fact, later in the gospels, we'll come back to this region and you'll see, because we're going to do that story, the people come running to greet him now. So they're no longer afraid of him, they come running. And I think partly because of the witness of this man. Okay, let's see how much time do we have. All right, so let me try to tie all this together. What are we supposed to learn from this? How I've thrown a whole lot of information at you. I think the main point of this is to realize your real enemy has been defeated. And the real enemy is the evil within. And that's the point of the story, essentially. Some commentators compare this story with the Exodus, which is a really there are a lot of interesting parallels. You have this calming storm. Not this story and the one right before it. So just as Israel came through the sea under divine protection, and then they watched all the Egyptian armies swallowed in the sea by the sea. Now you see the disciples coming through the storm that Jesus stopped, and then the demons drown themselves in the sea. So there's some parallels there. Only this time the army's not Rome, it's not Egypt, it is evil itself. And in both of the accounts, you see God delivering him from his enemies, but the real enemy is the evil within. And that's the enemy Jesus came to defeat, and it's no problem for him. During Israel's exile, Isaiah wrote, this is Isaiah 43, but now thus says the Lord your creator, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flames burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. See, I don't know if Jesus deliberately picked up on it with this. I mean, God orchestrates all the details, but I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the storms, I will be with you, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched. That's the name we have. The real enemy is the evil within, but when we're asked, who is your name? we can say, I am a child of God. I have been bought by the blood of Christ. I am redeemed and forgiven. God called me and you by name, and we are his. And so the enemy within us has been vanquished. So what is your name? If you're a child of God, you have nothing to fear. You don't have to fear the external circumstances or storms of life or the internal demons that you that you struggle with because God has defeated them both. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. The path is not going to be easy. It will be hard. There will be suffering, but you will succeed. God will not let you fail against the real enemy. So the second thing I think is to remember who the real enemy is. Sometimes we we get confused and we think, you know, we fight the wrong enemy. We think, oh, it's those um Republicans, or it's the Democrats, or it's the liberal academics, or it's um, I don't know, pick your group. We often fight against other people thinking they're the real, maybe it's Hollywood or the ACLU. Um those people may be prisoners of the enemy, but they are not the enemy. And we should treat them as such, as prisoners of the enemy, but not the enemy themselves. Legislation is not going to remove idolatry from our land. It's going to take God changing people's hearts. It's going to take the gospel. So part of that, I mean, think about in the church when we squabble over, you know, what kind of music should we have, or um, whatever battles we like to fight, uh what committees should do what and who could do what. We tend to get drop our little thiefstrums, you know, in our battle lines and insist we're all right, but the but we are that is not the enemy. The enemy is the sin within us. Um now, I'm not gonna solve all those problems. That's where all the other passages about speaking the truth in love and not wrangling over words and bearing each other's burdens come in. All right. The other thing I think one more point I want to draw out of the story is notice that Jesus does not force himself on the townspeople, he leaves them aware. He calms the storm with a word, he subdued the demon-possessed man with a word, he commanded the demons to yield into the pigs in a with a word, and the townspeople come and say, Will you leave? Um and he could have commanded them or changed them instantaneously or done something, but instead he does, he leaves, he treats them gently. Um I suspect that the report of the pig herders must have spread like wildfire. Verse 14 says they ran off to tell the town what happened, and uh and the people arrive and they see all these this nameless man clothed and sane and whole in the sitcom. And it's a miracle, and yet they're afraid, but they are not ready yet to learn. And this miracle cost them. Those 2,000 pigs were a huge economic blow to them. That was their livelihood, and that was how they sacrificed to their gods. So they are, I think, overwhelmed. And like the demons before them, they entreat Jesus to leave. Um, and instead of when they ought to ask their idols to leave, but he leaves. But so he doesn't force themselves on their resistant hearts, but he leaves them a witness. He leaves them this nameless man to tell what has happened to him and what has done. So I think his presence among them testified to the glory of God as he uh the man, just think about it, as he went about his daily routine, whatever he did, the fact that he could pick up his trade, uh, whatever his trade was again and handle it, that he could carry on a sane conversation, that he was not violent, maybe he was compassionate, but just going through his day-to-day life, every day the people saw him, they had a vivid reminder of how Jesus changed him. And I think that uh had to be a huge witness to them day after day that they must have asked what happened, what um maybe they even asked him, What is your name? And he could say, I have been called by name by the the uh son of God. So there's a I think that's a lesson for evangelism. Sometimes you have to know when to press forward and sometimes you have to know when to back off. Maybe it's maybe it's the time for aggressive words and strong speech, or maybe it's the time to say no and just live your life and let them watch. Um So I wish I had the wisdom to know when to do that. Usually I pick the wrong one and go, oh, that was it. But should have been the other way. But at least it's another way to realize that sometimes the best thing to do is back off and leave a witness behind. Let me just pray and then we have lots of time for questions. Father, I just thank you that you're a God who calms the storms, both the external and the internal, and that you came to free us from our true enemies, the evil and the sin and the death within. And I pray that um anyone who doesn't know that yet, or who doesn't yet know that you are the Son of the Most High God, and that you came not to condemn, but to love us and to save us. That you will be working that truth and the first time.