Why Did the Demons Enter the Pigs? Understanding the Strange Story in Mark 5

You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone

podcast, a ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone

Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan

Merrick and it's our prayer that this message

strengthens your faith and draws you closer to

Christ. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to Christ

Our Cornerstone Church podcast. My name is Pastor

Logan and I'm back again with another question

and answer time and I'm really excited to dive

into this one. If you have questions like this,

Feel free to reach out to me anytime. I will

have my email at this in the bottom of the show

notes, but also in At the end there. I'll let

you know what that is. So the question today.

I'm really excited to dive into It gets into

a lot of fun things but specifically about demons

and that is what is going on and mark chapter

Mark 5 · chapter mention

5 with demons being sent into The pigs like what

is going on with all that stuff? So that's what

we're gonna dive into in this episode and I'm

ready to go into the pigs Like what's going on

in mark 5 now? It's the stories in Matthew and

it's also in Luke. And so there are details I

will go into that aren't necessarily in mark

5 But are in the other accounts and that's another

question I can answer for you of why do the Gospels

all have different accounts? I actually have

a blog about that. If you'd like to read that,

I'll connect it in the show notes at the bottom.

And so anyway, again, welcome back and glad to

have you here with me. And so this is one of

the wildest scenes in the New Testament to me.

So I love it because there's so much going on

and. Yeah, I'm just really pumped about it. So

I'm going to I'm going to read from Mark five.

And then I'll begin to unpack it. So here's what

it says. And I'm reading from the New King James

version. So it might be a little bit different

than what you may have if you're going to follow

along. Then they came to the other side, they

being Jesus and the disciples, came to the other

side of the sea, to the country of the Gedarians.

And when he came, had come out of the boat, him

being Jesus, immediately they were met. They

were met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean

spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs.

So he's in a cemetery and no one could bind him

not even with chains because he had often been

bound with shackles and chains and the chains

had been pulled apart by him and the shackles

broken in pieces. Neither could anyone tame him

and always night and day. He was in the mountains

and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself

with stones." Now, the strength of this man is

important because of what I'm going to dive into

in the first point about what demons are. But

I'll go into that in a little bit. When he saw

Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him. That's

important. He cried out with a loud voice and

said, what have I to do with you, Jesus, son

of the Most High God? I implore you by God that

you do not torment me. For he said to him, come

out of the man, unclean spirit. Then he asked

him, what is your name? And he answered saying,

my name is Legion, for we are many. Also, he

begged him earnestly that he would not send them

out of the country. Another thing that I can't

go into, but is also really neat when you get

into demonology. Demonology being the study of

demons. Now a large herd of swine was feeding

there near the mountains. So all the demons begged

him saying, send us into the swine that we may

enter them. And at once Jesus gave them permission.

Then the unclean spirits went out and entered

the swine. There were about 2000. Okay. And the

herd ran violently down the steep place into

the sea and drowned in the sea. And it's like,

Whoa, that's weird. Like, what's up with that?

So those who fed the swine fled and they told

it in the city and they told about it in the

city and in the country. And they went out to

see what had happened. Then they came to Jesus

and saw that the one who had been demon possessed

and the Legion sitting and had the Legion sitting

clothed and in his right mind because he was

naked and they were afraid and those who saw

it told them how it happened to him and who had

been demon -possessed and about the swine then

they began to plead with him to depart from their

region and when he got into the boat he who had

been demon -possessed begged them begged him

Jesus that he might be with him however Jesus

did not permit him but said to him go home to

your friends and tell them What great things

the Lord has done for you and how he has had

compassion on you And he departed and began to

proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done

for him and all marveled That was brutal to read

from the New King James. I apologize. That's

it's a study Bible I have and I'm not used to

reading from it and so it gets a little janky

for me All right, so much to unpack so much to

say so let's go ahead and get started. I've got

Six or seven points that I'm going to make. All

right. First one being this demons need a body

to dwell in. That's why they leave and they beg

to go into the pigs. OK, so Jesus permits it.

So why do they even ask to go into the pigs?

All right, so so here's this. So demons in the

Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism understood

that demons were disembodied spirits. What does

that mean? OK. It means that they are spirits.

All right. They're kind of like ghosts, if you

will. They're not fallen angels. That's important

for you to know. Fallen angels are different.

They are not demons. They are lingering spirits

of the Nephilim that were destroyed in the flood.

Who are the Nephilim? The Nephilim are, and I

can't go into a whole lot of that now, but the

Nephilim are, they were the offspring of when

the sons of God, the fallen angels, looked upon

the daughters of men. You can read about this

in Genesis six and had relations with them and

thus created the Nephilim. The Nephilim were

huge giants. That's where we get Goliath from

and things like that. They were massive giants.

And a lot of the reason why God sent the flood,

because they were these crazy half breeds. They're

half divine, half human. And that's where we

get a lot of the stories of the Titans like Hercules

and a lot of that stuff. I'm not going to go

into all that, but just know that's one of my

favorite things to talk about if you ever want

to talk about it. But anyway, that's important

to know. So when they were destroyed in the flood,

their physical bodies, their spirits remained

as lingering spirits. OK. And so demons seek

embodiment. They seek to torture us as human

beings made in the image of God because they

are not. They want a physical host with which

to torment, okay? And so that's why they cling

to this man. And when they're confronted by Jesus,

they ask for another physical vessel, just any

vessel. It can be an animal, it can be a person,

but they just want any vessel so that... would

be the pigs. They see the pigs and because they

knew that Jesus was not going to allow them to

go into another person because Jesus is about

bringing freedom. OK, from captives. And that's

part of this. And so here's the second part.

The demons know exactly who Jesus is. All right.

Well, you like, well, yeah, because they're demons.

They know everything. No, they don't. I'm going

to get into that in a little bit. They don't

know everything. How do they know who Jesus is?

OK, well, there are many theologians. And I take

to this myself, I believe where Jesus was baptized

would have been right there where the demons,

the pigs run into the sea. And so the demons

being in that country would have seen Jesus be

baptized, would have seen the Holy Spirit descending

upon Jesus and the voice of God saying, this

is my son in whom I'm all pleased. And so they

would have known who he was. They know he's divine.

Okay. And they know of a permanent judgment that

is coming because of him. Okay. They know, they

know there's a permanent judgment coming period,

but they know of the prophecies. And so they

know that it's, it's, he's the reason. Okay.

And so they're terrified, the demons, they're

terrified at this moment that Jesus will send

them to their final destruction, their final

judgment in hell. And this is why they beg for

an alternative. They want to go into some other

place, but they don't want to be sent out of

the region. They want to be sent into the pigs.

And so again, the region part I would love to

go into, but I can't. But even powers of darkness,

they recognize the authority and the identity

of Christ before many humans do. As a matter

of fact, I mean, we're going to see that in just

a second. We see that when they beg him to leave,

which you read about in other passages. as well.

And so here's the third point. So the presence

of the pigs tells us something very important

for us today. One, it tells us that it's Gentile

territory. What does that mean? Well, we are

Gentiles. We are not Jewish by lineage and by

heritage. And so we are Gentiles. And so. Jews

had nothing to do with pigs because they were

considered unclean. So they wouldn't have used

them for business. They wouldn't have been using

them to eat. And so this tells us they were pigs,

that this place was a Gentile region. So the

Gentiles, this tells us that there's Gentile

region. This is Gentile land. OK, so Jews don't

raise pigs. As I said, they don't eat pigs. They

don't touch pigs. And so they didn't own pigs.

So this story and what is happening in this region

is Gentiles and it's and this is a foreshadowing,

which brings to my next point, a foreshadowing

of Christ's mission to the Gentiles as well.

So like Jesus didn't just come to redeem the

people of Israel, the Jews, he came to redeem

all of mankind. And this foreshadows that because

this is a powerful scene, a preview of the mission

of Jesus breaking out beyond Israel. And so Jesus

isn't only freeing Israelites from bondage. He

is freeing everyone. And so he comes for the

Gentiles too. And that's important that you see

that in this. And so, which brings me to my next

point, which is demons don't know everything,

only God does. And so again, I'm going back to

the pigs here. It's fascinating because demons

are intelligent. Like, don't get me wrong. They,

they, they are intelligent. But they're not omniscient.

Omniscient is a theological term for all knowing.

And so they didn't foresee what happened next.

And what would that be? That would be the moment

they enter the pigs. Remember, they begged not

to be in that final judgment. And so they enter

into the pigs, but then the pigs rush down a

cliff and they drown in a water. And in so doing

so, the demons run literally straight into the

very judgment they're trying to escape. Now you'd

be like, why? How do you know that? It has to

do with the water. OK, and it has to do with

the study of Sheol and where Sheol is and water

and all that, which, again, I can't get into,

but just know that it brought them. They're no

longer able to to be in something. And so therefore,

they're then. brought into the judgment of Sheol.

Uh, and so Jesus allows their request to go into

the pigs because he knows that destruction is

coming. And remember what I said, he would not

have allowed them to go into another person to

torment those people. Cause Jesus comes to bring

freedom. All right. So that's why he's like,

okay, pigs, that's fine. Cause I also know where

those pigs are going to go. Those pigs were like,

yeah, this isn't right. This isn't normal. And

they run headlong into the water. And so this

moment exposes the limits of demonic knowledge

and the sovereignty of Christ over all spiritual

powers, which I think is really awesome. And

so hopefully so do you. Now, let's let's continue

to think about this pig thing. So it says in

Mark that there were two thousand pigs, two thousand

pigs. So think about that. There's two. They

said they're a legion for they are many. There's

two thousand demons, at least inside of this

man. That's terrifying. And again, I told you

to look at the strength of this man. What did

I tell you? Nephilim were they were giants, right?

So it tells you the strength of so then you've

got two thousand at least these demons. So now

you're getting an idea of how strong they are.

So, but why, why does it tell us 2000 pigs? Like

why that detail? And that detail isn't in the

other accounts, but it's important. They, the

others say there are many pigs. 2000 though is

important because in modern day time, okay, this

is somebody's business. So in modern day time,

all right, that would equate to about a half

a million dollars of somebody's business and

it's now gone. And so why does that matter? This

is why it matters. Remember they, They beg him

to leave. So this isn't a hobby farm. This is

a massive commercial operation. This is someone's

livelihood. All right. So when the pigs die,

the townspeople, they don't rejoice that the

demonized man is free. This man who has terrorized

them and lived in a cemetery and in a mountain

terrorizing the region. They don't care about

that. They don't celebrate the power of God.

They actually focus on the financial loss of

it all. And so they actually beg Jesus to leave.

And this is a sobering moment. Why? Because they

choose monetary comfort. They chose money over

spiritual freedom. They'd rather have their pigs

than to have Jesus. And so the question is for

you and me, do you choose monetary gain over

Jesus? Do you choose idolatry over Jesus? It's

just something to think about. And then the last

one is this, something that you should really

celebrate. And that is that the man was restored.

He got his humanity back. And so the man who

was once naked, who was raging, who was violent

and isolated is now described as clothed, right,

in his right mind and sitting at the feet of

Jesus. He's forever changed. So he gets his humanity

back. He gets his dignity back and he gets his

identity back. And so this is what Jesus does.

He restores people spiritually, emotionally,

mentally, and socially. And the man becomes the

first missionary to the Decapolis, a Gentile

region, declaring what Jesus had done for him.

So with all that being said, why did the demons

go into the pigs? Because demons seek a body.

They feared judgment because they were in a Gentile

territory. All right. because Jesus is signaling

of his coming salvation for the whole world.

It's showing that demons don't know everything

and that Jesus is sovereign and over them. Okay.

And because the townspeople, they value money

over deliverance. So these are all the points

I want you to remember. And because in the end,

Jesus shows his heart. He restores broken humanity.

And that's the real miracle of Mark 5. I hope

that makes some sense for you. I hope that helps.

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see you later. Bye bye.