My Name is Legion

This week we read an interesting passage from Mark, chapter six, that concerns a man with demons. The subject of demons can be difficult for those of our times to grasp.  Do you think people were actually possessed by demons or do they represent something else?

In this passage, Jesus has just performed the miracle of stilling stormy water.  They arrive on "the other side of the sea."  Some speculate that Jesus and the disciples have arrived in a Gentile community (not Jewish) as there is a herd of swine.  Jewish people do not eat meat from pigs.

Jesus and his disciples come across a man that is described in great detail.  This man comes out of "the tombs" (probably caves) and is described as having an unclean spirit.  People have done their best to restrain this man but he continually breaks loose.  He now wanders the desert, "howling and bruising himself with stones."

Mental illness has been a disease that society has tried to handle in a variety of ways.  It's possible that in those days, people with mental illnesses were restrained with shackles and chains.  When being restrained didn't work, they left him to his own devices in the desert.  There he could cause no harm to anyone but himself.  Like many with mental illnesses, he was isolated and cut off from society.  He probably had trouble meeting the expectations of society.  Friends and family probably felt helpless and full of grief, not knowing what to do for him.  How have you experienced society's reaction to mental illness?

The demon within this man confronts Jesus, knowing, as so many of the demons in this gospel do, the true identity of Jesus.  When Jesus asks his name, the demon says, "My name is Legion; for we are many."

Legion was a word used to define a unit of soldiers that numbered between 2000 and 6000.  Some see a political message in this passage from Mark.  Just as this demon possessed this man, the Roman Empire possessed Palestine.  Just as this demon controlled this man and made his life miserable, as did the Roman Empire in Palestine.  Jesus though is able to cast out these demons.  He casts Legion into the swine and the swine run themselves of a cliff and into the sea and drown.  Does this passage show the power of Jesus over Roman control?  Does it send a message of deliverance to Israelites, who had experienced the destruction of their temple at the time Mark's gospel was written?

"Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it.  They began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood." (6:16-17)  Jesus had cured a man of possession and yet the witnesses beg him to leave.  Does his power scare the witnesses?  Is Jesus' action political and do the people fear the reaction of the Romans?

The man, now released from demons, asks to become a follower of Jesus.  Jesus refuses and instead encourages him to go home to his friends and family.  Are there times when it is better for us to focus on relationships rather than become a disciple, share the message close to home rather than travel to far off places?  How might we fulfill our call close to home?