Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
We now come to the strangest story in Mark’s gospel. It started when Jesus and his disciples crossed a lake, to an area where Jews and Gentiles lived (Mark 5:1).
A man with demonic superpowers met them. He lived in a graveyard, shouting, screaming and cutting himself. The locals tried restraining him, but he broke chains and ankle-irons, and resumed his cemetery existence.
Jesus said to the demon, “Get out of this man!” The demon replied, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Don’t torture me” (Mark 5:7).
Surprisingly, Jesus negotiated with this spiritual terrorist. “What’s your name?” he asked.
The demon replied, “My name is Multitude, because there are many of us here. Don’t send us far away. Why don’t we go into the pigs on that hillside?” (Mark 5:9).
“Ok,” Jesus said. “Leave the man and go into the pigs” (Mark 5:11-13).
So the multitude of demons made the move, and 2,000 pigs raced down the hill into the lake and drowned.
– That can’t be good for the pigs
– And it can’t be good for the lake
– And it can’t be good for the local farming economy
– And we can’t tell if it was good for the demons, but apparently that was what they wanted.
– We do, however, know it was good for the man Jesus delivered.
The newly unemployed pig herders became journalists, reporting the disturbing story everywhere. People came from all over to see the man Jesus healed, now sitting quietly and acting sane. Then they asked Jesus to go away (Mark 5:14-17).
Let’s pray.
O Jesus, we don’t have your experience with demons. But we see pictures of demonic devastation–war-torn cities where cement buildings are reduced to rubble graveyards of rubble, marked by shattered metal and broken glass, where desperate searchers listen for desperate cries, where ambulances rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead. O Jesus, the demons you confronted still torment our modern graveyards.
O Jesus, free us from demons that attack our minds and sanity. Free us from demons that drive our society. Free us from demons of war and destruction.
Allow us, as you did the man you saved, to sit quietly at your feet, clothed and in our right minds.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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