Set free by Jesus for paper
In my last column we looked at one aspect of the section of scripture in Luke 8 where Jesus travels to the region of the Gerasenes where he is met by a man possessed by a legion of demons. We see Jesus come along in this riveting text to set free a guy who was shackled on the outside with iron chains, and on the inside by a pile of demons out to destroy him. In this column I want to focus not just on remembering something Jesus did long ago and far away. God brings this text to your ears today so that you will treasure the fact that Jesus also sets you free.
In this text we see a man chained in more ways than one! First he was shackled hand and foot with iron chains that tried to restrain him. Even though whenever the demons seized him they empowered him to break the chains. They represented the power and control that the demons had over his life. He was shackled because people in the area were trying to protect themselves and to try to protect this man from himself. Secondly he was shackled hand and foot because, in a deeper way, an evil spirit had seized him. He was no longer in control of his own life, these demons used him to terrify those close to him and all who knew him. So they attempted to chain him up to protect themselves and to protect the man from himself.
These physical and spiritual chains held him back in many areas. The demons drove him to solitary places where those who cared for him could not influence him. In this way the demon-possession kept him away from a healthy life in the community. This text said for a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. These choices were not his, but were what the demons drove him to. They were the ones who would be comfortable living in tombs.
If we look at the parallel account of this incident in Mark we see the demons actually made him self-destructive. “No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” Mark 5: 4b, 5
He was totally powerless against these demons, since the demons even hijacked his mind and voice. The possessed man had no reason to fear Jesus but when he sees Jesus he cried out and fell at Jesus’ feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” The man himself has no reason to fear this stranger he did not know as he approached him, but the demons did. And they reacted as those who know the power of Christ and their eternal destiny. They drove the man to fall on his knees before Jesus.
We now get to watch as Jesus Christ, who has all power and authority deals with these cohorts of Satan and who sets people free from their oppression! Jesus aimed his full power as the Son of God at these cohorts of Satan. He commands this evil spirit to come out of the man. And notice he does not plead with this evil spirit, he commands it to leave. This legion of demons, in their terror, confess who Jesus is, Son of the Most High God. Their terror is brought about by their knowledge that Jesus is both capable of torturing them and consigning them to the Abyss, the place where some of the evil angels are held. They know what awaits them in the abyss and plead not to be ordered to go there.
Totally under the power of Jesus, they respond immediately to his demand for their name. It is legion since many demons had entered and controlled this man. They plead with Jesus to be allowed to enter a nearby large herd of pigs. So the demons are quite willing to leave, but are terrified of torture and the abyss. We are not told why, but Jesus accedes to their pleading and allows them to enter the pigs. So the man is set free, but now the pigs are possessed by this legion of demons. They all rush down the steep bank into the lake and are drowned. The pigs’ “suicide” shows clearly how the evil one seeks to destroy God’s good creation.
We also need to realize today that Jesus gives himself to us as our liberator. His death in our place shows what he did to the evil one.
1 John 3: 8b The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
John 12: 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
And Jesus’ death also shows how he wants to be your Savior. Read the next verse in:
John 12: 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
Jesus is able to set people free from many things the evil one uses to enslave them: besetting sins like addictions and ancestral bondages, despair, selfishness, depression, demonic activity in their lives, and so on. As Jesus had the power and authority to deal with this legion of demons, he can deal with those things that enslave us. He does so though our personal prayers, the prayers of others, and the spiritual gifts he has given to his church.
Blessings