The Miracles of Jesus

Casting Out the Legion of Demons

Country of the Gadarenes · East of the Sea of Galilee · Mark 5:1-20

On the far, Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee, in the country of the Gadarenes, a man lived among the tombs, possessed by many unclean spirits. No chains could hold him; he cut himself and cried out night and day. When Jesus stepped from the boat the man ran and worshipped him. Jesus commanded the spirit to come out and asked its name; it answered, Legion, for they were many. The demons were sent into a herd of swine that rushed into the sea. The townspeople found the man clothed and in his right mind, and were afraid. Jesus sent him home to tell how great things the Lord had done for him.

The scene

Jesus had just calmed a storm crossing the lake, and he landed in unclean territory, a Gentile region marked by tombs and pigs. There, at once, the darkest human ruin the Gospels describe came running out to meet him.

Mark piles up the horror: the man lived among the graves, could not be bound even with chains, and spent his days and nights crying and cutting himself with stones. He was a living picture of what evil does to a human being, driving him out of society, out of his mind, and into the place of death.

What Jesus did

Even in his torment, something in the man recognized the authority that had arrived. He ran to Jesus and fell before him, and the spirits inside him could not withstand the command that came.

Jesus asked its name, exposing the scale of the bondage, and the answer named a Roman army.

He permitted the spirits to enter a herd of swine, which stampeded into the sea and drowned, and the whole legion was gone. The result was a man restored, and the townsfolk saw it.

What the sign reveals

This sign reveals the absolute authority of Jesus over the powers of darkness. A whole legion, many thousands strong by the Roman count, could destroy the man but could not resist a single command from Christ. The evil that no chain could bind was undone by a word. There is no depth of bondage below the reach of his rescue.

It reveals what deliverance actually looks like: a man who once raged naked among the tombs now sits clothed and in his right mind at Jesus' feet. Sitting, clothed, sane, at rest by the Savior, this is the portrait of a soul reclaimed. The demons had scattered and torn him; Jesus gathered and healed him and gave him back to himself.

And it reveals a sobering truth about the human heart. The townspeople, faced with a saved man and a lost herd of pigs, were afraid and asked Jesus to leave. They preferred their commerce to his presence. The same power that terrifies evil can be resented by people who would rather keep their comfort than welcome their King.

It is worth seeing how the demons themselves confessed him. They recognized Jesus at a glance, cried out that he was the Son of the most high God, and begged him not to torment them. The powers of darkness knew exactly who he was while the townsfolk sent him away. Evil does not disbelieve in Christ; it trembles before him. What it lacks is not knowledge but surrender, and knowledge without surrender only deepens the dread.

Its place in the Gospel

Mark places this on the heels of the calming of the storm, and the two belong together. Jesus has just shown mastery over the chaos of nature; now he shows mastery over the chaos of the demonic. Wind, sea, and spirits all obey him. Mark is building a portrait of one who has authority over every hostile power. You can read the storm at calming the storm.

It is also striking that this happens in Gentile country, among tombs and swine, the most unclean setting imaginable to a Jewish reader. Jesus crosses the sea, endures a storm, and lands, it seems, for the sake of one ruined man. The lengths he goes to reach one outsider foreshadow a gospel that will run out to all the nations.

Finally, the healed man becomes the first missionary to the region. Jesus, who often told people to be silent, here commands the opposite.

How it meets us

No one is too far gone for Christ. If the man among the tombs, self-harming, unclothed, beyond every human remedy, could be set free and seated in his right mind, then no bondage in any life is beyond the reach of Jesus. Whatever has held you that no discipline or chain could break, it cannot hold against his word.

The scene also warns us to examine what we truly love. The townspeople had a man restored and asked the Restorer to go, because his presence cost them a herd of pigs. It is possible to prefer our comforts and routines to Christ, to want him at a safe distance. Deliverance may disturb our economy before it heals our souls.

And it gives every rescued person a commission. The freed man wanted to stay with Jesus, but Jesus sent him home to tell what the Lord had done. Your testimony, the plain account of what he has done for you and the compassion he has shown, is exactly what he asks you to carry to your own friends. Begin by coming to meet him.

The man obeyed, and Mark tells us he began to proclaim in the Decapolis, the ten Gentile cities, how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men marvelled. Jesus was asked to leave the region, but he left behind a witness who could not be sent away. Where the King himself was refused, the story of his mercy stayed and spread. Often the seed of a whole harvest is a single life visibly changed.

Where it points

This deliverance points to the cross, where Jesus disarmed the powers of darkness openly. At the tomb-side he expelled a legion by a word; at Calvary he broke the whole dominion of evil, not by driving demons into pigs but by taking the judgment of sin into himself. What he did for one man in the country of the Gadarenes he did for the world on the hill outside Jerusalem.

And it points to the resurrection, the proof that the powers were truly defeated. The man rose, as it were, from among the tombs to a new life; Jesus rose from an actual tomb, having conquered not only demons but death itself. The legion knew who he was and trembled. His empty grave is the announcement that their terror was justified and their reign is over.

There is one more echo. The man had lived among the tombs, and Jesus came across a deadly sea to reach him, then left him seated in life. In a small way it is the whole gospel in a single afternoon: the Son of God crosses into the place of death to find the ruined, and rises again, so that those who were as good as buried can sit at his feet alive. What the storm and the legion could not stop, the cross and the empty grave would seal forever.

See the victory that sets every captive free at the resurrection.

Can these things really happen?

Many honest readers ask whether miracles can happen at all. Since the Enlightenment, some have argued that the laws of nature rule them out, that a report of a wonder is always less likely than a mistake or a legend. Christians answer that the laws of nature describe how the world normally runs; they do not forbid the God who made it from acting within it. A miracle is not nature breaking down but its Author drawing near. You do not have to settle that question before you read; you only have to read honestly and ask what best explains the witness before you. We look at this more fully in miracles and the laws of nature.

Frequently asked questions

What is the meaning of the casting out of the legion of demons?

It reveals the total authority of Jesus over the powers of darkness. A single command frees a man that no chains could bind and no one could help, leaving him clothed and in his right mind. It shows that no bondage is beyond Christ's rescue, and that his deliverance restores a person to himself.

Where in the Bible is the casting out of the legion of demons?

It is recorded in Mark 5:1-20, with parallels in Matthew 8 and Luke 8. The event took place in the country of the Gadarenes, on the Gentile side east of the Sea of Galilee, and the man is often called the Gerasene or Gadarene demoniac.

Why did Jesus send the demons into the pigs?

The text does not fully explain it, but the drowning of the herd made the deliverance visible and undeniable, showing the reality and destructiveness of the spirits that had tormented the man. It also confronted the townspeople with a choice between their livelihood and the presence of Christ, and they asked him to leave.