Jesus the Healer- Mark 5:1-20

Jesus has such a different perspective of people than we do. In our natural, sinful minds we are so judgmental of other people. We always seem to notice all the issues people have rather than their qualities. We can so easily become hypocritical, arrogant, bitter, jealous, self righteous and disgusted when we think about certain people, inside or outside of the body of Christ. These mentalities are sinful and are an example of how wicked our flesh is. One example of this is the man with a legion of demons. This man was absolutely crazy, dangerous, uncontrollable and full of darkness (Mark 5:3-5). I imagine that guy in prison that must be confined at all times, the one that is the worst of the worst of bad guys, who everybody fears. In our fleshly minds we would have (and probably the minds of the people in that day) passed all kinds of judgment and extreme ideas of who he was. But Jesus on the other hand saw His beloved brother in the beautiful form that he was created in and had compassion on him because of the demons controlling him. Jesus saw that it wasn’t actually the man doing all the craziness, it was the 6,000 demons that had utterly taken him over.
Something that really speaks to my heart is that this man with a legion of demons, was really no different than you or I. He was created by the same God, for the same purpose. The power of darkness manifests differently in people, some are driven into mental illness, some homosexuality, some addiction, some a religious spirit, some pride, some lust, some offense ect… My point is that darkness is darkness, there is no better or worse form of darkness. The truth is that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) We all need the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, just as much as the demon possessed man.
It almost seems like it would be better to have blatant sin which could easily be identified and delivered from; rather than having hidden areas of darkness of heart, that gets covered up over and over again. I think it was for this reason that Jesus spent so much time with the blatant sinners (prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners), because they were the ones who were humble enough to recognize and repent of their sin. Much more than those who struggled with the sin that could easily be hidden from people (Pharisees, Sadducees). Our sin is never hidden from Jesus. There is a certain level of willingness and desperation among those who are slaves of the obvious sin.
The authority that Jesus walked in is far beyond what meets the eye. Because of Jesus’ perfect discernment of good and evil, He was able to confront the evil and preserve what was good. So when Jesus approached the man with a legion, what He saw was His creation who was very much so created with a right mind (Mark 5:15), a gift in the area of evangelism (Mark 5:20) and he longed to be with Jesus (Mark 5:18). The only problem was 6,000 demons had gotten ahold of him, and caused the true person to be masked by these demons. So, Jesus having all authority and faith to cast out the demons, simply says, “Come out of the man, unclean spirits.” (Mark 5:8) And they had to submit, leaving the man in the way he was created to be. It is amazing the Lord gives us this same authority to cast out demons. We fallen and sinful beings have been entrusted with the same power and authority that Jesus walked in.
Out of the joyful and grateful heart that the man experienced after being healed and delivered from the hand of the enemy, he begged to stay with Jesus. He knew that what He experienced with Jesus was truth. After this Jesus gave him instruction to go and tell his hometown about all that He did for him and the compassion He showed. So the man went and proclaimed Jesus, “and all marveled.” (Mark 5:20) I believe that the people marveled for two reasons, one because the man was in his right mind. Second because there was probably a certain level of zeal and authority in his preaching, due to having such a dramatic encounter with the living God. He was a changed man, marked by the holy God to be a recipient of the eternal inheritance. Going back to the worst prison criminal, can you imagine him all of a sudden being completely ruined in love by love, full of compassion, marked with eternity, proclaiming Jesus to the prison guards and prisoners. Not impossible, but hard to picture, right? Well that is pretty much what happened in Mark 5:1-20. This is probably why the people were afraid in Mark 5:15, because they were used to seeing this man totally mental, destructive, using his strength to break chains. So to see him in his right mind was foreign to those who came out to see what was going on, they probably were cautious not knowing if at any moment he would go back to the craziness. I love that the man became an evangelist and proclaimed Jesus! It’s just like Jesus to do something so unthinkable as to save and deliver the one who everybody assumes to be incurable. But He does this to demonstrate the nature of God to have mercy on His people. This story encourages believers to hope for the ones who seem the most unlikely to get saved, healed, delivered and endued with power from on high. These testimonies are usually the ones that carry much power to release a spirit of revival to those who it is appointed. Jesus’ compassion and mercy on this man was a direct view of the person of Jesus. Whenever the person of Jesus is revealed, there is power that hits the human heart. And when that power hits the most hardened of hearts are rendered to that of Christ’s.