Lives of Scripture

In the region of the Gerasenes, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus encountered a man possessed by an overwhelming number of demons. He lived among the tombs, cried out constantly, and cut himself with stones; no chain could restrain him, for he repeatedly broke free (Mark 5:2-5). When Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out, He asked its name, and it answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many" (5:9) -- a Roman legion numbered several thousand soldiers, so the name signaled an overwhelming multitude of demonic power occupying one man. The demons begged not to be sent out of the region, asking instead to enter a nearby herd of about two thousand pigs. Jesus permitted it; the herd immediately rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned (5:11-13). Local residents, alarmed by the loss and by the sight of the formerly tormented man now "sitting down, clothed and in his right mind," begged Jesus to leave their region (5:14-17) -- fear, not gratitude, was their first response to His power. The healed man asked to go with Jesus, but Jesus instead sent him home to tell his own people what the Lord had done for him, and he proclaimed it throughout the Decapolis (5:18-20). The episode is one of the Gospels' starkest demonstrations that no bondage, however overwhelming, exceeds Christ's authority.