Based on Mark chapter 5
The Unclean
As the boat approached the shore after the terrible storm, the disciples saw the man running their way. He was hard to miss! Naked and unkempt from years of living amongst the tombs and wandering in the wilderness - he hurried to where their boat was landing. Even as Jesus climbed out of the boat the man ran towards Him. And at seeing Jesus, he shrieked, threw himself on the ground and started screaming! ‘Why are you bothering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I’m begging you – don’t torture me!’ He was pleading with Jesus because already Jesus had started to tell the evil spirits to come out of the man and leave him alone.
The evil spirits had often taken control of the man. When people had tried to put him in chains to control him, he simply smashed the chains and ran out amongst the tombs or into the wilderness screaming and shrieking and hurting himself with rocks, totally under the power of the demons.
‘Tell me,’ Jesus asked, ‘What’s your name?’
‘Legion,’ replied the man, ‘Because there are many of us inside this man’. And then they started to beg Jesus again and again not to send them to some far off place. (PAUSE)
Just nearby was a very large herd of pigs. ‘Send us into those pigs instead,’ the demons begged, and Jesus gave them permission.
So, at Jesus’ command, the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs. (P) As they did, it looked as if the whole hillside was moving. The herdsmen watched in horror as the whole herd of two thousand pigs stampeded down the hillside and drowned in the lake!
The herdsmen were terrified and ran as quickly as they could to the nearby city telling everyone they met what they’d seen and what had happened to the pigs!
Within no time at all a crowd gathered around Jesus, the people wanting to see for themselves if what the herdsmen had said was true. And what they saw filled them with fear, for as they came to Jesus, there in front of him sat the man they’d always know to be demon possessed. Before, he’d been like a madman, screaming and shrieking and running around the tombs, but now, although they recognised his face, it was almost as if a new man was sitting there. For he was no longer controlled by demons, but completely sane, clothed and sitting quietly at Jesus’ feet. As the crowds gathered, those who’d seen the whole thing happen told the newcomers how Jesus had healed the demon possessed man and what’d happened to the pigs. (PAUSE)
How should the people have responded to have amongst them One so powerful? Surly they should have welcomed Him into their homes having decided to turn away from all their evil deeds. They should have begged Him to teach them, to show them how they could become children of the Most High God. But instead, in their fear and because of losing their pigs, they begged the One who had come to heal them - to go away and leave them alone. (P) And so Jesus started to leave.
As Jesus got into the boat, the man who’d been possessed begged Him, ‘Lord please, let me come with you.’ But He refused to let the man come, and instead told him, ‘No, you stay here and go home and tell all your friends what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful He’s been.’
And so as Jesus and His disciples set sail for the other side of the lake, the man stayed and did just as Jesus had commanded. Travelling to all the towns and cities of that area he told everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him, and all who heard these things were amazed. (PAUSE)
When Jesus’ boat arrived back on the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around Him on the shore. News of all that Jesus had done was well known in the region, so it wasn’t too surprising when someone came to Him, begging Him to heal their daughter. This person, Jairus, was the leader of the local Jewish meeting place, the synagogue, and he was terrified that his precious daughter, his only child was about to die.
‘Please,’ he...
