This is the third part of a series on what I call the Gadarene incident – the well known account in the gospels of the deliverance of a man from many demons by Jesus Christ. In this post, I focus on the deliverance itself, but there are some bigger picture things happening in this encounter. There are also some details about the demonic realm which may be helpful for anyone, but particularly followers of Christ, to understand in possible encounters with the fallen realm of evil spirits.

Ever wonder where all those demons we read about in the gospels went? The fallen realm is real, still with us, and their activity in our own day is increasing. Why? I think the presence of spirit filled believers who are trusting and honoring God suppresses the activity of demonic forces. But society, even the church itself, has largely turned its back on God and disregard His Word. As a result there are fewer spirit filled believers. When a culture turns its back on God, then God turns His back on that culture. When the Lord withdraws His blessing and protection, then a spiritual vacuum develops and the demonic rushes right back in, making things worse than they were before they were first cast out.

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Matthew 12:43-45

The Gadarene demon possessed man is an example of just how bad it can get. So its wise to learn as much as we can about how it operates so we, believers that remain faithful to the Lord, can prepare. We who remain faithful to the Lord must: 1) recognize demonic activity when it happens, 2) understand what opens doors to invite their activity in a person’s life, and 3) be prepared to biblically engage. Now, back to the Gadarene incident.

The Landing

In the last post, I discussed how the storm that came upon the boats crossing over the Sea of Galilee may have been of demonic origin. Jesus neutralizes the storm with a command to both the wind and the waves at the request of the disciples. The Lord Himself was not concerned about the chaos around them and the attempt by the enemy to stop Him and perhaps even drown them all in the middle of deep water before they landed on the other side. The Lord was sleeping. He was unconcerned about the enemy’s plans against Him. His entire ministry up to this point had been a strategic assault on the kingdom of Satan – the very kingdom Satan offered Him in exchange for worship. Perhaps the evil one had no idea at that time, that Messiah came to forcefully take that kingdom away, person by person.

Every powerful demonic force Jesus encountered thus far was swept aside, cast out with a word from Him. But the disciples who had witnessed all of this were now in a boat, crossing deep water in a demonic originated wind, terrified instead of trusting.

How about us? In the chaos of the demonic storm around us in our culture today, are we terrified? Oblivious? Unconcerned? Have we turned our back on the Lord by placing our trust in mortal men? I think the culture is deceived. Its a shame the church has largely sided with the culture on the perversions extant around us. We suppress the Word of God in favor of the demonic deceptions and then we wonder why things around us have descended into the abyss. Back to the account in the gospels…

Satan had no intention of standing by to watch his kingdom taken from him by Messiah. In this particular circumstance, Jesus was about to encounter the most powerful of demonic forces. The demons knew he was coming and were dispatched to the location where the boats would land and Jesus would come ashore.

These demons were residing within a human host. It was this demon possessed man who was standing ready to meet Jesus and His followers the moment they touched shore and got out of the boat.

They [Jesus and His disciples] came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He [Jesus] got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him.

Mark 5:1-2

The Confrontation

So Jesus lands at the exact spot where the demon possessed man was – or actually, the scripture says the man met the Lord immediately when He came ashore. He was waiting for Messiah. The wind on the water had failed to stop the Lord and so the encounter between the Lord and the demonic was inevitable. What exactly was it that was waiting?

The scripture says that Jesus asked the name of the demonic entity.

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

Luke 8:30

Legion is the name the group of entities had taken for itself, because there was not one entity, but many resident in the man. This is consistent with Matthew 12:43-45. Was there a time when the man had been delivered but left unoccupied? Unknown. But both Luke 8:30 and Mat 12:43-45 indicate that many demonic entities can occupy the same person. In this case, its “Legion” which can be about 6000, or if we go by the number of pigs in the herd, about 2000, and assuming one demon per pig, then 2000 demons. So the demons numbered between 2000 – 6000.

What is the effect on a person of being possessed by a demon, or many demons? Here is a list of some of the characteristics of demon possession built from the gospels:

• They [the demon possessed men] were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. Matthew 8:28
• No one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Mark 5:3-4
• Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Mark 5:5
• It [the demons possessing the man] had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Luke 8:29
• [The possessed man] had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs. Luke 8:27

How would this list look today? I have heard pastors say that self abuse behaviors such as “cutting” happen so that the person can “feel alive”. Really? That’s not what I see in the gospels. How many times have we heard of people exposing themselves in the schools, in parks, in locker rooms, etc. Would that be similar to a man running in the wild without any clothing? What about the bizarre fascination our culture has with death and violence? Skulls and other images of death are common on tattoos and clothing. Images and lyrics of death and violence are replete in the media, under the auspices of “entertainment”. What about screaming, violent people on the streets of our cities?

The church tends to go along with the cultural diagnosis of drugs and mental illness, implementing our own versions of psychiatric therapy and 10 step programs.

The behaviors of people on the streets are eerily similar to the behaviors of this demon possessed man Jesus meets. Perhaps the church has been too quick to jump on the secularized bandwagon of how these afflictions of society today are characterized.

The problems we see today are not political or social, they are spiritual. They are demonic. As it was in the pagan first century, so it is today with the resurgence of paganism and the abandonment of the gospel. We are behind the power curve and off-mission. God’s people, the church, are the only people on the planet who can adequately address these issues. And yet we reject the lessons in the gospels and refuse to engage as Jesus and the Apostles trained us.

Isn’t it interesting that a violent, demon possessed man with thousands of demons, and with superhuman strength, sent to confront Jesus in the pagan, demonic realm of the Gadarenes drops to his knees at the feet of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus delivers this man with a word after permitting the demons to go into the pigs. The demons, as many of them as there are, and as powerful as they are, know they are no match for the God of heaven and His Messiah.

A few final observations to make about this encounter:

• There was a reason the Lord allowed them to go into the pigs. The pigs would be drowned in the Sea of Galilee. The demonic forces that attempted to drown Jesus and His disciples as they crossed the deep water were themselves drowned in the same waters. A reversal? Perhaps.
• Jesus left a new follower – the man who had been delivered from thousands of demons – in the region of the Decapolis to declare the great things God had done for him.

The message of Messiah to the evil one was that He was coming to bring the power of God to forcefully take back that which belonged to Him. A gale force wind on the waters could not stop Him. Thousands of demons, the greatest force of the demonic mustered against Him could not stop Him.

The Lord did not stay on that side of the lake but He didn’t intend to. I believe His intent was to bring the fight to the enemy on his own territory and send a strong message over the next few years of His ministry that He was coming, His church was coming, and His Kingdom was coming – a Kingdom that would pulverize the kingdom of darkness into a fine powder, no matter where it existed. It would continue through the testimony of a man delivered from the demonic to become a voice in pagan lands about the great things God had done and that Messiah was here.

Why have we so quickly forgotten that message?