Pleas for Mercy on Their Knees, but No Fight Here
When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.
For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)
Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. ’
These demons didn’t listen. Did you catch that? Look at how the story progresses
1. Jesus steps out on land
2. The man cries out “What have you to do with me?” because —
1b. Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man
3. Jesus asks for his (their?) name
This man was savage. Chains couldn’t hold him. Guards couldn’t keep him locked up. He was legendary in this region of towns. Thankfully, I’m not sure we have a modern-day, local person to compare to this guy. He was serial-killer, bar fighter, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler combo.
Also consider the disciples. They’ve already been shook up by the storm on the sea that they thought was going to kill them. (Don’t you even care, Jesus!) and they are all about in their late teens except for maybe Peter. The don’t know what to think when they land at the shore of Geneseret and out comes savage wilderness man.
And he falls at the feet of Jesus.
For all the action movies and drama that we love, it wasn’t ever like that between Jesus and demons. Even while being tempted in the desert by the devil himself, Jesus doesn’t get in much of a fight with the devil. The exclamation mark at the end of “Away from me, Satan!” in Mark 4:10 was added later. They didn’t have a ! in Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic.
That’s because Jesus is Total Authority. He doesn’t have to raise His voice or even talk loud enough to be heard. Legion is subject to the King, and the only response they have is to fall at the King’s feet and ask for mercy. They know that their end is going to be in the abyss as we’ll see in Rev. 20. There is no fight here.
There are times where Jesus is already engaged in taking care of evil that we don’t even notice. The disciples didn’t notice that Jesus was already delivering this man before they were fully on the shore. When we look back on spiritual breakthroughs of our own or from our friends, we find that God was at work much earlier than any of us ever expected.
Jesus is working right now, today, all the time. He’s been working 24/7/365 since He invented time to bring us deliverance from evil and salvation in Him.
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