The man with an unclean spirit AKA Legion.
The man with an unclean spirit AKA Legion.
Most of us have heard this story a thousand times. Jesus crosses the sea and arrives on the outskirts of a city called Garasenes, a gentile region of the Decapolis and a wild man approaches Jesus. This man lives among the tombs cutting himself with broken pottery. There are no restrictions on his life; no chains and no clothes. But he has to come to Jesus, whether by the command of God or out of duty to destroy Jesus. But in the presence of Jesus, he has to bow! Then Jesus asked his name. To which he replied, “Legion, for we are many”. This man had 2,000 demons inside of him. Finally, Jesus cast the demons out of the man and they went into a herd of pigs numbering 2,000 and they ran down the steep bank toward the sea.
This man lived in a cycle of sin opening himself over and over to demons. He may have been freed on several occasions but fell into the same cycle so much that his one demon had now turned into a legion of demons. There are cycles in our lives that open us up to sin and demons. Most of us can immediately put a finger on it but most of us will not want to mention it, for it is shameful to speak about it.
But Jesus! But Jesus had compassion on this man for he was still a child of Adam, son of God. So he was able to sit there clothed and in his right mind in the presence of the one who cleaned him of his demons and cycles. Jesus too can clean us up from our cycles of sin and put us in the right mindset once again.
Now, the man wanted to continue to travel with Jesus. But Jesus had other plans.
“But He would not let him; instead, He told him, “Go back home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how He has had mercy on you.” So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed.”
We want to continue traveling away from those things that remind us of those cycles of sin, but God wants us to go home and talk about how God had mercy on us and cleaned us up. Last night (October 15, 2023) my family and I went to watch “The Blind” and it was a good movie displaying the cycles of sin and demons that plagued the early life of Phil Robertson. But God won him over and now he has built a family and a business based on Jesus.
“So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification — and the end is eternal life!”
Romans 6:21-22 HCSB
“Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.”
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