I want to say, "Thank you!" for praying for me; those of you who regularly attend know that I was not here last Sunday. I got a very severe food poisoning; my body violently protested and reacted in haste and left me without strength. I am not there yet, but I'm on my way to full health, so thank you for your prayers. I was raised in Toledo, Ohio, and anyone who is a driver in Ohio knows of the Ohio State Highway Patrol films. There is a tradition in Ohio that whenever there is a violent accident, the State patrol comes out and takes graphic films of the accident.
Traffic Court Films
And when you have been caught speeding, or you're found guilty of a traffic violation, or you cause an accident, part of your sentence is to watch these films. They're much worse than any fine, and people tell the horror stories of what they saw. Now, the purpose of these films is warning. It's to warn you against the dangers of breaking traffic laws because breaking traffic laws doesn't seem so dangerous at some times. Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. You do, because you break those laws.
We have such a passage this evening. It is very interesting that this casting out of these evil spirits from this man is given so much ink in Mark. It is really told to us in rather graphic detail; it's one of the longer narratives in Mark, and surely the narrative has, at the center, the stunning power of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, over evil. But, there's more here than that. There's tremendous warning to us as we can see in the physical picture of this man, the evil of evil. We can see when evil takes over what evil causes and what evil does because, for all of us, there are times when evil just doesn't seem so evil.
There are times when gossip doesn't seem so evil to you. There are times when lust doesn't seem so evil to you. There are times when greed doesn't seem so evil to you. There are times when lying doesn't seem so evil to you. And we all know that we live in a culture where bad just isn't bad anymore. It's just not! In fact, we actually live in a culture that is so audacious to call wrong right and right wrong. In fact, you could argue in Western culture that the highest moral standard is not a standard of moral right and moral wrong; the highest moral standard is actually a standard of tolerance and acceptance.
You must never call anything wrong; and you must always tolerate whatever the person next to you chooses to do. And so God, knowing our hearts and knowing the fallenness of the world in which we live, blesses us with this kind of narrative so we would be warned and we would remember: "watch the video and take notice." Well, this is a continuation of the previous story. Remember Jesus had gotten in a boat and asked his disciples to take Him across the Sea of Galilee for some rest. We know Jesus was tired; He fell asleep in the middle of a violent storm.
But when He gets to the other side, in a region that was mixed ethnic, a lot of Gentiles in this area, Jesus doesn't actually get rest, sort of the story of His life. He's immediately greeted by this man with an evil spirit. And this is where we begin to get this elaborate detail about this man. Look at verse 3 with me: He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.
No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" (Mark 5:3-8, ESV) There are three things in the beginning of this passage and then one later on that really do jump off the page when you see what happens when evil takes over the heart and soul of a human being.
Here's the first one: this man was literally unable to be restrained. Sadly, in these days, chains were the psychiatric hospital. When someone was crazy and out-of-control, he was driven outside of town, and he was chained lest he hurt himself and others. And yet this man had such supernatural power, he broke all the chains that were ever put around him. And there is in this inability of this man to restrain this first lesson about the evil of evil. Hear this: it is absolutely impossible to restrain, subdue, conquer evil by external means.
You Cannot Ask the Law to Do What Only Grace Can
Evil cannot be conquered that way. You don't solve the problem of evil by some kind of external restraint. You can't ask the law to do what only grace can accomplish. And there's a tendency to think that, somehow, some way, we can hold evil; we can chain evil; we can hold it down apart from the intervention of God. It just cannot be done. And you see that very powerfully in this man. If you're a parent here, there's a lesson here for you because parenting must be more than external restraint and control of the behavior of your child.
Because the problem is not the child's behavior; the problem is the evil in the heart of that child that shapes his behavior; and unless that is dealt with, that behavior won't change in a lasting way. There are thousands of supposedly Christian young people who go off to college every year and forsake the faith. I would say to you, "They are not forsaking their faith; it wasn't theirs in the first place. It was the faith of their parents; and once the restraint was lifted, what actually is revealed is the true heart of that child."
Now, hear this: you and I have zip, nada, ability to restrain evil; none! And conquering evil starts by recognizing your utter helplessness to restrain it yourself. This man was helpless! And the external things done for him didn't solve the problem. Notice the next thing that it says about this man: "Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones." You see it in the physical picture this man what evil does. Evil, in its very nature, is destructive; sin is self-destructive.
Hear this: sin is always self-destructive! Evil is always destructive. There is no such thing as constructive evil. Did you hear what I said? There's no such thing as evil that's going in a right direction. There's no such thing as evil that has wisdom. There's no such thing as evil that is building something that you're going to look back later and say, 'This is a good thing.' And if you are giving yourself to evil, whether you realize it or not, you are on a sure pathway to self-destruction. That's what evil does!
The problem is it's not always as apparent as this. And that's why we're given this powerful picture of this man so we would see when evil takes over, what it actually produces. When you're overeating, maybe trying to numb your feelings in an idolatrous action which makes food your substitute 'messiah,' it doesn't seem so evil because it tastes good. When you're on the Internet, and there is a beautiful woman in front of you, and you are taking in that beauty, and you are feeling the buzz, it doesn't seem so evil because it's so pleasurable.
When you have fudged on your taxes, and you've acquired a little extra money to put in your pocket, the extra money in your pocket doesn't seem so evil because you've already spent it twelve ways, and the fun of pre-spending that money makes you miss the fact of how evil it is. When you have gossiped against another person, perhaps dirtying or destroying their reputation, it doesn't seem so evil, that person is not there in front of you, and you're feeling the buzz of passing the story to somebody else.
Looking at Evil and Not Seeing Evil
We ought to be afraid; we have, still within us, a perverse tendency at moments to look at evil and not see evil. May God help us. And so we need warning. We need the video in front of us: this is what it looks like when evil takes over. And then the passage moves toward this man's approach of God under the influence of these evil spirits. Verse 6: And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" Now you have to understand there is nothing in that little vignette of this man's approach to Christ that remotely pictures worship. This is not worship in any way, shape, or form. And this is our third observation, that evil is always against God; it's always at war with God. In fact, evil has as its goal to conquer God. And so the man comes; he falls down before Christ, and he says, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?"
Just think, if I walked up to you and I said to you, "What have you to do with me?" Would you feel loved? Would you feel respected? Would you say, "Paul likes me?" Well, of course you wouldn't. This is an attack! This is a defense! This is rebellion! This is not worship although there is an honorific title used there. And then, even more outrageously, he says, "I adjure you by God, do not torment me." Now, I don't know why there are points in our modern translations where the translators decide not to use a modern word.
I won't ask how many of you know what 'adjure' means. I don't think any of you adjured anybody this week. We don't look like an adjuring crowd. So I want to explain this. It actually means, "I charge you or I command you." Now, get what's happening here. If this is actually an honorific title, Son of the Most High God, if this is the Lord of lords, the Sovereign, the Creator, the Messiah, God Himself, you don't command Him. It's an outrageous act of frontal disrespect. "Before you do anything for me, I want to tell you what I would like you to do."
How outrageous. And so here's what we need to remember: evil is absolutely unrestrainable by external means; evil is always destructive, it never ever is constructive; and evil is always against God, the goal of evil is to defeat everything that is righteous. Now, this is where it gets glorious, verse 8: For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them." So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. If this, at this moment, is a contest between evil and the Righteous One, the Lord, Captain of everything that's righteous, there is no contest; there is no contest. This is a threesecond KO!
If it was a boxing match, you'd be asking for your money back, because your Lord has power over evil. Praise His name. And I want to theologize with you for a moment. In your battle with evil, the 'who you are' and 'what has been done for you' must come before 'here's what to do.' Do you understand that? You must first affirm the work of Christ and your identity as His child, His warfare for you, His battle on your behalf, His conquering of evil. That gives you the courage then to fight evil, because your strength over evil is found in His cross and His grace, because you don't have any yourself.
Indicative Before Imperative
Theologians say the indicative comes before the imperative; that's what we're talking about. And so, what we have in this moment is a demonstration of the power of Christ over evil that's bracketed by two events. You want to get this. The first event is His temptation where He clearly demonstrated His power over the evil one. And remember, He said, "I've gone into the strong man's house, and I've bound him up so I can take whatever I want." He's taking at this moment. And then it looks to the cross; because on the cross, Jesus is not temporarily defeated and bailed out by the resurrection.
That's poor theology. Paul says, Colossians 2:15, "He made a public spectacle over the enemy, triumphing over him by the cross." The cross was a defeat of evil. And so, this moment looks back to the temptation and looks forward to the cross. And so, here's the model: You should fear evil, but hear what I'm about to say - You should fear Jesus more! And because of your awe of His power, awe of His righteousness, your celebration of His sacrifice, you stand against evil with hope and courage, you will not let evil do its nasty work because you are the child of the Conqueror, King Christ!
The Lamb is your power. I love this stuff; it gets me up in the morning. Now, I have to say this. There's is a whole lot of speculation about the conversation and the pigs, and I just think that we could waste a lot of time trying to speculate about things that the Bible doesn't actually uncover for us. You know, there are theologians who want to know what kind of pigs they were. I don't find that very interesting. "Was it a slope or a cliff?" "Did they actually..." I won't go on. And so, what I want to do is I want to say there are a couple things that I think that jump out of this account that are really germane.
First of all, these evil spirits are actually coming to Christ and asking what? What's the word? "Permission" Your Lord is sovereign over everything, even this evil! And why is that important to believe? Because His promises can only be guaranteed in the situations over which He rules. And if He doesn't rule it all, then there are places where we don't have any hope. There's a second thing that you see again what evil does. Evil creates chaos, and destruction, and death. And that's what you see as two thousand pigs commit mass swine suicide.
Now, notice what it says next, "The herdsmen fled." I would imagine these guys were scared for their jobs; maybe even their lives. They were on the watch. Imagine going back to the townspeople, particularly the owners of the pigs, and telling this story: "We've lost the pigs." "What happened to them?" "They all drowned." "How did that happen?" "Well, there's this Jesus fellow, and He cast all these unclean spirits out of this man, and they just happened to get into the pigs, and the pigs all ran into the water and drowned."
Now, if you were the boss, what would you be saying? "You're fired!" That's probably what you'd be saying. And so, the townspeople come out to see the scene because it's hard to imagine what has actually taken place here. And what they see is Jesus and this formerly demon-possessed man sitting there, clothed, and in his right mind. Now I want to add a fourth thing to this; look at an evil that is so powerful in this passage. Evil cannot be restrained by external force. Evil is always destructive, never constructive.
Evil Robs You of Your Humanity
Evil is against God. And here's a fourth thing; evil will rob you of your humanity. Not just your spirituality, not just that noticeable God-consciousness, but of your very humanity. The Bible talks about people who are without 'natural affection.' I was reading the news a couple of weeks ago, and some of you know we live in a loft. And I was down in the living room when Luella was up in the loft bedroom, and she heard me say something like, "Oh my goodness!" And she said, "What?" I said, "Well there's a man who has just been charged with murder who seemed to get mad at a two-year-old, and in an act of anger, washed the baby with Drano."
Now, I know that's graphic, but think about this; think about any human being, even if you weren't related to the child; there is meant to be built inside of you, hardwired by creation, restraint. But evil destroys all of those restraints, and in destroying those restraints, removes all those natural stop mechanisms and all those natural tendencies of love and goodness that would ever be in a human being. You see the culmination of that before the flood when it says in Genesis 6:10, "That every thought of people was always evil continually."
And now you see this man, because he had encountered the rescuing power and grace of the Messiah, restored to his full mind. He's gotten his humanity back again. It's a gift of grace; he's just not the same man. In fact, he's so restored that he can't think of anything but wanting to follow Jesus, "Let me go with you; let me be part of these people. Oh, please, Jesus, don't leave me." And Jesus says, "I have a better commission for you. Tell your story; go everywhere and tell the story of what's been done to you.
Tell the story of grace, and rescue, and deliverance from evil. Tell the story!" Well, I've left out a very important part of this vignette, verse 17: "And they (the townspeople, the owners of the herds) they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region!" Please leave! Why? Grace was bad for the economy. Deliverance is bad for business. Perhaps they're not alone in that; perhaps there are times, for all of us, when we'd rather have our little moment of evil than rescuing grace. Perhaps we would say in our own subtle way.
"Please leave, because right now, this is making me happy." I would ask you, "Is there a place in your life where rescuing grace is in the way of what you call happiness?" Sadly, in the face of the horror of evil, and in the face of the glorious gracious power of the Messiah, people would still say, "Please leave." It would argue that we need grace even to desire grace in our moment of need of grace. We need grace even to desire grace in our moment of need of grace. Evil should make us afraid, but not weak or timid or paralyzed because this Jesus marched up that Hill; He allowed Himself to be placed on that cross in order to mock and defeat the power of an evil enemy and conquer him once for all.
Your hope is not found in your activity; your hope is found in your identity as a child of this Conquering King. Do you know Him? Have you confessed your need? Do you confess again and again and again and run to the One who says, "Get out," and evil must obey. Let's Pray: Lord, we thank you for the graphic detail in this passage. We know that that was not an accident. We know that there are times when we're not so impressed with Your power; we're not so excited about Your grace; we're not so serious about sin and evil where that doesn't look so bad.
And even the fact that this account in Scripture that elevates Your power and glory, and that makes evil look as ugly as it is, even the fact that that's in the Bible is itself a grace. And oh, Lord, we pray that You would put a hatred of evil in our hearts and a rest in Your power that produces hope and courage; the courage to say, "No!" and turn and go in another direction; the direction that You called us to. And may we, too, gladly, tell the story of our deliverance. In Jesus's name, Amen.
