Legion

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

Mark 5.9, NIV

At the end of a long day of teaching, Jesus tells the disciples they are going to go to the other side of the Sea. On the way they suffer an unexpected storm, which I covered in the Seeing the Kingdom book.

What happens next? When they get out of the boat they meet an extremely demonised man, Jesus tells the demons to leave him, and once he is free and in his right mind, they head back across the Sea.

It is hard to avoid the thought that the whole journey, including the storm, was just about setting this one man free: which is a thought worth meditating on. And yes, as far as we know, this man was the first to carry the news of Jesus outside the territory of Israel.

But still: why? Were there not enough people in possession of a demon in Judaea?

Well, this man did have quite a number of demons.

We don’t know if the name Legion is to be taken literally, in which case he had between 4,200 and 5,200 demons – assuming that the demons were only counting the citizen soldiers in a Legion. Camp-followers and servants and so on could take the number over 10,000 for a legion.

What’s it like having 4,000 or 10,000 demons?

Well the man lived among the tombs and cut himself and cried out day and night. Actually though, the clearest picture comes from the pigs the demons entered. We are told there were around 2,000 pigs in the flock, so each pig got at least 2 demons, and possibly as many as 5. Imagine being a happy pig, grubbing out worms and grubs and truffles, and thinking happy pig thoughts; and suddenly your head if full of demons, arguing and shouting and carrying on.

Apparently all the pigs could think was “MAKE IT STOP” – and they all ran down the hill and off the cliff to drown themselves in the Sea. If a couple of demons could do that to a pig, think what it was like being the man, with thousands of screaming demon voices in his head.

No wonder he could break shackles and chains, and spent his time crying out and trying to injure himself.

Why did Jesus allow the demons to enter the pigs? I think He could see better than the demons how the pigs would react; and He definitely didn’t want them – the demons – to find another human victim. And if you are feeling sorry for the pigs, they were all being raised to be slaughtered and roasted for sacrifice, and at least this way they were saving people, instead of appeasing other demons, in the form of Roman or Greek gods.

Was it worth going all that way, just for one man? You would probably have to ask the man himself, but he seems to have been… extremely grateful! The townspeople who owned the pigs, perhaps not so much.