The Mad Man of Gadara: Restored and Sent

From the tombs to the towns, the story of the first evangelist of Decapolis

Theme

Deliverance · Restoration · Identity · Sending · Testimony

Scripture

Mark 5:1-20 · Mark 5:19

Beloved, before you read another verse, I want to set the scene with your imagination, because the geography matters. Jesus had just crossed the Sea of Galilee. He had calmed a storm in the middle of the night that nearly drowned His own disciples. He set foot on a foreign shore, the country of the Gadarenes, on the eastern side of the lake, Gentile territory, a region called Decapolis because it was a confederation of ten cities. And the moment He stepped off the boat, before He could greet anybody, before He could even say peace, there came running down from the cliffside graveyard a screaming naked man covered in his own blood from cutting himself with stones.

Hear me, friend. Jesus had calmed a storm at sea to get to one man on the shore. The crossing was for him. The wind and the waves of Mark 4 had only one purpose, to deliver Jesus to the feet of a man nobody else would visit. That is how heaven assigns value. That is how the Father feels about the most discarded person in any region. The whole crossing of the lake for one man in the tombs.

So I want to ask you, if Jesus would still a storm to reach Legion, what storm has He stilled lately in order to reach you? What recent calm came right after a stretch you thought would drown you? Maybe the disturbance was not punishment, beloved. Maybe the disturbance was transportation. Heaven was moving to come and meet you.

And then I want to ask the harder question. Who is the Legion in your life right now that Jesus is crossing a storm to reach, and is He using you as the boat? Because some of you are the man on the shore in this story. And some of you, the storm in your life right now is heaven's vessel, getting you into position to be a deliverer for a Decapolis you have not yet seen. Jesus crossed a sea for one man in chains. He has not changed.

Look carefully at what the demons had taken from this man. They had not just made him miserable. They had taken everything that made him a person.

First, they took his dwelling. He had no house. He lived among the tombs. The place of the dead became his address. Whatever home he had once had, wife, children, hearth, table, was gone. The territory of his life had been seized.

Second, they took his community. No man could bind him. Notice the verse does not say nobody tried, it says no man could. The town had tried. The town had brought chains. The town had tried fetters. The town had attempted again and again to contain him. And every time, he broke loose, and finally they gave up and ran when they saw him coming. He was outside the boundary of any human relationship.

Third, they took his purpose. He had a calling on his life. We will see in a moment what kind of calling, Jesus would not commission him to ten cities unless there had been ten cities of destiny on him already. But the demons had buried that purpose underground. The man who was supposed to be publishing in Decapolis was instead screaming in graveyards.

Fourth, they took his identity. When Jesus asked the question What is thy name?, the demons answered. The man could not even speak his own name anymore. My name is Legion: for we are many. That is not a name, beloved. That is a condition. That is an occupant. The occupant had taken over the mailbox.

And fifth, they took his dignity. He was naked. He was cutting himself. Night and day, crying. That is not the picture of a man who hates himself only sometimes, that is the picture of a man whose hate of himself is constant because something else has crawled inside and is teaching him to despise the temple of his own body.

Friend, I want to pause here. Because somebody reading this is recognizing themselves in one or more of those five things. Your dwelling has been seized, the home that was supposed to be peaceful has become a battlefield. Your community has been seized, relationships keep falling apart and no man can bind together what keeps tearing. Your purpose has been seized, what you were called to do is buried under what you actually do. Your identity has been seized, you cannot answer the question who are you without hearing fifteen voices try to answer for you. And your dignity has been seized, there is a quiet self-hatred you do not yet have words for.

Hear me. Jesus crossed a sea for somebody just like that. Jesus crossed a sea for you. He is on this shore right now. Run to Him.

Beloved, watch what happens before a single word of conversation. He ran and worshipped Him. From far off, the man, or what remained of the man's free will under all of the legions, ran and worshipped. Even in the deepest bondage, something in the man recognized the Son of the most high God. There was a recognition deeper than the demons could suppress. That is hope, friend. Even in the worst bondage, there is something in a person made by God that recognizes God. The image of God in the man was not erased by the legions. It was buried, but it was still there. And the moment it saw Jesus, it ran.

Then comes the confrontation. The unclean spirit speaks. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. See how desperate the demon is. He recognizes Jesus' authority fully. The doctrine of the demons is sometimes more orthodox than the doctrine of the religious. He named Jesus correctly, Son of the most high God. He acknowledged Jesus' jurisdiction over him. He begged not to be tormented. Demons know the chain of command in heaven better than many believers do.

And then comes Jesus' question, What is thy name? Now beloved, this is a question to the man, not to the demons. But the demons answered, because the demons had been answering for the man for so long that the demons had forgotten the man was supposed to answer. My name is Legion: for we are many. In the Roman military a legion was six thousand soldiers. We do not know if the number was literal or whether it was simply an honest admission that the case was overwhelming. Either way, the point is the same, there were many, and they had been many for a long time.

Friend, look at the strangest detail in this whole chapter. The demons begged not to leave the country. They were willing to leave the man, but they pleaded not to leave the territory. Why? Because they were not just oppressing one man. They were occupying a region through him. They had gained legal access to the airwaves of Decapolis through the bondage of this one citizen. When his bondage was the doorway, their dominion was over ten cities. Get the man free, and the country has a chance.

This is one of the most important truths in the whole book of Mark, beloved, and the religious eye misses it. Personal deliverance is sometimes territorial warfare. What looks like one person's suffering is sometimes the foothold by which an entire region is held under darkness. That is why heaven crossed a sea for one man. Not just because heaven loves one man, though heaven does, but because the deliverance of one man was the unlocking of ten cities.

Now hear what Jesus did. He gave the demons leave to enter the swine. The swine ran into the sea. Two thousand pigs drowned. People have argued about the economics of this scene for centuries. But the spiritual point is clear, the dominion that had ruled the country was removed. The legal access was revoked. The man was free. And the country, although the people did not know it yet, had been spiritually cleansed.

Beloved, look at these three words, sitting, clothed, in his right mind, because they are a complete picture of what biblical restoration looks like.

Sitting, the man who used to run night and day, cutting himself, screaming in mountains, is now at rest. Sitting is the posture of one who has stopped striving. The chains have nothing to break anymore because there is nothing pulling. Where there used to be agitation, there is now stillness. Sitting is the posture of an heir, not a fugitive. Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high after He had purged our sins, because there is a sitting that becomes possible only after a purging. The man could sit now because the legions were gone. Friend, when the Lord finishes a deliverance, He always seats you somewhere.

Clothed, the naked man is now dressed. Whose clothes? We are not told. Probably somebody from the boat, perhaps one of the disciples, perhaps Jesus Himself draped a covering over him. But the point is, the shame has been covered. The exposure of the bondage is behind him. The dignity is restored. And listen, beloved, when the Holy Ghost delivers you, He also clothes you. He does not leave you naked in the new freedom. He puts garments of salvation, robes of righteousness, change of raiment (we will see Joshua's change of raiment in Chapter 4) on you. The deliverance and the dignity go together.

In his right mind, the man can think again. The man can speak for himself again. The man can answer the question what is your name with his own voice instead of the legions speaking on his behalf. The mind is restored to the man. That is huge, friend. Bondage steals the mind. Bondage thinks for you. Bondage answers questions about your life that you would not answer that way if you had full possession of yourself. Deliverance gives you your mind back.

Beloved, this is the verse the whole book pivots on. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not. Watch what the man wanted, he wanted to get in the boat and follow Jesus across the sea, back to where the safer crowd was, back to where the religious culture was. He wanted to join the disciples' caravan. He had every reason to, the Gentiles of Decapolis were not exactly going to welcome him back warmly; the same townspeople who had tried to chain him up were the ones whose pigs had just run into the sea. But Jesus said no. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not. He would not let him in the boat. Instead, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Three commands packed into one verse.

Go home. Go back to the very place that broke you. Go back to the people who knew the worst version of you. Go back to the country whose chains failed on you. Do not run to a fresh start in a city where nobody knew your tombs. Go home.

Tell them. Open your mouth. Use the voice that has just been restored to you. Speak. Do not let the testimony die unpublished in your private joy. The deliverance is not just for your relief, beloved, it is for announcement.

How great things the Lord hath done for thee. Not how great things you did. Not how great things you discovered. Not how great things you deserved. How great things the Lord hath done. Keep the testimony Jesus-centered. The minute the story drifts toward what you achieved, it loses its breaking power. People do not need your strategy, friend. They need your Jesus.

And the man obeyed. He departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him. He became the first preacher of the Gospel in ten Gentile cities, before Paul, before Pentecost, before the church was even officially birthed. He preached Jesus to the Decapolis region. By the time Jesus returned to that region in Mark 7 and 8, the same crowds that had once driven Him away were now bringing the sick to Him by the thousands. What changed the region? One man, restored and sent.

Friend, hear me before this chapter closes. There is a difference between being delivered and being deployed. Many believers stop at deliverance. They get free from the tombs and they want to follow the boat. They want to leave the painful country. They want to join the safe caravan and let somebody else deal with the dark places.

But Jesus' word to the delivered is rarely come. His word to the delivered is usually go. Go back to thy friends. Tell them. Go back to the country that broke you. Publish what I did. Because heaven does not save you only to make you safe. Heaven saves you to make you a sign in the very territory that thought it had buried you. So here is the question for you to sit with, beloved, what is your Decapolis? Where are the ten cities of your assignment? They are probably not exotic. They are probably your family, your workplace, your old friend group, your hometown, your industry, the corner of online life where you spent the worst years of your spiritual life. That is the Decapolis. And if Jesus stopped you from getting in the boat, it is because He is sending you back to publish.

Lord Jesus, thank You for crossing the sea for me. Thank You for setting foot on the shore of the country where I was bound. Thank You for sending the storm only because the storm was carrying You toward me.

I receive what You did for Legion as a picture of what You are doing for me right now. Every legion that has been answering for me, be cast out in Jesus' name. Every chain that no man could bind, let it fall in the presence of Your authority in Jesus' name. Restore my dwelling. Restore my community. Restore my purpose. Restore my identity. Restore my dignity. Let me be found at Your feet sitting, clothed, and in my right mind in Jesus' name.

Beloved, Chapter 4 is going to take us deeper into one specific thing the demons stole from this man, his name. We are going to set Mark 5 side by side with Zechariah 3 and we are going to watch the same pattern repeat with a high priest named Joshua. Demons steal names. Demons steal territory. Fire restores both.

So do not turn the page yet without one quiet act. Speak your own name out loud. My name is . Not Legion. Not failure. Not abandoned. Not cursed. My name is , son or daughter of the most high God, restored and sent into my Decapolis in Jesus' name.

You are not just delivered. You are sent. The country is waiting.