David Bahn – Reflections

Mark 5:1-5

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ 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. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

Our kids loved going to the pizza place where they could earn tickets to buy prizes by paying for video games. It was surely a good deal for the pizza restaurant. They had an additional income stream from the video games and it took many tickets to buy even the cheapest prize. One prize I remember was the Chinese finger trap.

Wikipedia defines the finger trap as:

a simple puzzle that traps the victim’s fingers (often the index fingers) in both ends of a small, woven bamboo cylinder. The initial reaction of the victim is to pull the fingers outward, but this only tightens the trap much more. The solution to escaping the trap is to push the ends inward toward the middle, which enlarges the openings and frees the fingers. – Wikipedia

This demon-possessed man whom Jesus encounters is a victim of something far worse than a Chinese finger puzzle. And his actions to free himself from his bondage are destructive and serve only to exacerbate the problems he faced. The people’s solution was to try to bind him and constrain him even with chains. But no one could bind him, and his relentless craziness resulted only in further trouble and even injury.

Jesus comes along and realizing the real problem seeks not to constrain him, but to set him free by removing the true cause of his craziness. Sometimes we rely more on brute force or restraint to solve the problems we face in life. But the root of our problems are spiritual (cf. Ephesians 6: 10-20). Not until Jesus frees us from the tyranny of the devil and his schemes will we find peace. Thank God he has done just that. Where can you apply the freeing grace of Jesus today and bring someone newfound peace?

Mark 5:1-13

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ 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. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. ⁷ 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.” ⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³ 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.