Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
By crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus was intentionally entering a landscape dominated by pagan worship, ritual impurity (the tombs), and "unclean" animals (the pigs). Jesus does not wait for the "unclean" to come to Him; He invades the space where pagan gods and local spirits were thought to hold jurisdiction.
Matthew tells us there were two demoniacs, while Matthew 8:28-34 and Luke 8:26-39 only mention one of the two. Mark and Luke do not say there was “only one” demon-possessed man. They simply state that one of the two met Jesus and spoke to Him. For whatever reason, Matthew simply gives us more information than Mark and Luke. The fact that the three accounts differ in some minor details only proves that they were written by three different authors, each of whom chose to focus on a different aspect of the account
Mark 5:1–20 - They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
“Son of the Most High God” - The Gerasene demoniac calls Jesus by this title and thus providing supernatural testimony to His divinity. In the Old Testament, "Most High" (El Elyon) was the title used to emphasise God’s supremacy over the pagan "gods" of the Gentiles.
Psalm 97:9
For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
By using this title in Gentile territory (the Decapolis), the demons acknowledge that Jesus is the transcendent God of the whole earth. In ancient Near Eastern "magical" thought, knowing and speaking the exact name of a spirit or person was believed to give you power over them. By shouting Jesus’ full title, the demons were attempting a spiritual counter-attack to bind Him.
"I adjure you by God, do not torment me" - the demon desperately tries to use God’s name to protect itself from Jesus. This confirms that Jesus is not an intermediary; He is the Source of the judgment the demons fear.
“Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” - Against this "army" of darkness, Jesus uses no ritual, no incense, and no long-winded incantations. He simply commands.
“Legion, we are many” - Jesus commands them outA Roman legion consisted of about 6,000 soldiers. By adopting this name, the demonic force was claiming to be an occupying army—invincible and terrifying. The "Legion" is reduced to begging for permission to even inhabit pigs.
Death of 2,000 pigs - The destruction of the 2,000 pigs often troubles modern readers, but it serves a vital polemic purpose. The drowning of the swine provided a physical, undeniable sign that the "Legion" had truly departed. The townspeople's reaction (begging Jesus to leave because they lost their livestock) proves that they valued their "unclean" commerce over the restoration of a human soul. By driving the "Legion" into the sea (the abyss), Jesus performs a "New Exodus" act—just as Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea, the spiritual "army" occupying this man is cast into the waters.
The "Lord" Identity: After the healing, the man is clothed and in his right mind. There is an amazing transformation. Jesus tells the man to report what the "Lord" (Kyrios) has done for him. In verse 20, the man goes and proclaims what "Jesus" had done. This synonymous use of "Lord" and "Jesus" is seen by scholars as a clear high-Christological claim.
Because this was a Gentile region, there was no risk of a misguided Jewish political uprising. Instead, this man became the first Christian missionary to the pagan world, preaching that the God of Israel is indeed the Most High over all their local deities.