Mark 5:1-4 - A man with a demon

5:1

The country of the Gadarenes was  part of the Decapolis, a largely Gentile region. Gadara was one of the cities. .Mark was aiming at Jews and Gentiles living outside the holy land. Gadara was a larger and well known city, and so is used to identify the region.

5:2-4

On getting out of the boat Jesus is met by a demon possessed man. The man was in a very poor state. He lived among the tombs for one thing, and was uncontrollable. People had tried to bind him with chains, but he always managed to break free. No one could do anything about him. When evil takes hold it reaches a point where human methods are no longer able to do anything.

5:5

The man was in a very poor state. He went about the tombs crying out and cutting himself with stones. Self-harm is nothing new. In some cultures cutting oneself was part of pagan cults. God strictly forbade this (Deut 14:1). Disobedience to God always results in harm in the end. This man was demon possessed. That raise the question of whether or not people who self-harm today are “demon possessed”. I am certainly not going to give a blanket answer, but let’s look at how the world would react if someone was to say a person who self-harmed was demon possessed. There would be outrage! They would say we were denigrating or insulting the person.But look at what the outcome was here, the man was set free and restored to his right mind. Both the world and us need to look at our attitudes and understanding (or lack thereof). Jesus came to set people free.