Mark 5:1-5 1And they came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2And after he got out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. 3He had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him with a chain any longer, 4because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he pull apart the chains and smashed the shackles in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5And night and day among the tombs and on the hills he was crying out and cutting himself with stones.
It was not accidental that the boat came ashore in the area of the Gerasenes in what may be near Gergesa. The exact location is difficult to determine but it would have been near the Decapolis across the lake from where Jesus spent a significant amount of his ministry. Two ideas from the passage indicates that this was mostly Gentile territory: the herd of pigs because Jews were not swine herders; and the reference to Jesus as Son of the Most High God, a phrase that Jews would not say. Mark 4:35 implies that Jesus intentionally went to this area. This idea is confirmed in that the group returned to the other side after this episode.
This story took place quickly. As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, the demon-possessed man came rushing at him. The text does not indicate how long Jesus and his disciples were there, but verse 21 implies that it was not long. Mark records three major descriptions of the man who met Jesus. First, he was as unholy as a person could get for two reasons. First, he was possessed with an unclean spirit, which is another way of saying a demon. Mark uses the same description for the man’s problem throughout this story. The man was also unclean because of where he lived among the tombs. Numbers 19:11–14 states that Jews were considered unclean when around the dead. The connection with pigs later on adds further uncleanness to the story based on Leviticus 11:7. This man was far from the holy presence of God in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Second, the man was very violent. His strength was super-human because he could break apart the chains and shackles that people put him in. There is no indication why he was chained, but it may have been for his own good and to keep him away from other people. He could not be held as a prisoner of the people because he was a prisoner of the demons. Third, he was self-destructive. Satan and his demonic forces seek to destroy and distort the love and care we should have for ourselves. Self-mutilation is not only a psychological problem but a deeper spiritual one.
This man was a powerless victim of the unclean spirit that controlled him, his community that ostracized him, and himself in his spiritual bondage. He had no hope of rescue outside of Jesus. Although this man’s situation may have been extreme, the appearance of Jesus the great healer offered hope to the situation. The story reveals that no situation and no person are too difficult for Jesus to change.
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