(a) Explain how Jesus healed the Demoniac. (b) Give two reasons why the devils were sent into the swine.

Answer Details

(a) How Jesus healed the Demoniac (Mark 5:1-20; the Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac)

• Jesus and His disciples crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to the country of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes).
• As Jesus came out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit met Him coming out of the tombs.
• The man lived among the tombs and could not be bound, not even with chains. He had often been bound with fetters and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and broke the fetters 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.
• When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped Him, crying with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." for Jesus had said, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
• Jesus asked, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." The demons begged Jesus not to send them out of the country.
• A great herd of swine was feeding nearby on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them."
• Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered the swine, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned.
• The herdsmen fled and told it in the city; people came and found the former demoniac sitting, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. The healed man begged to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to go home and tell his friends how much the Lord had done for him. He went and proclaimed it in the Decapolis.

(b) Two reasons why the devils were sent into the swine

1. To grant the demons' own request: The demons pleaded not to be driven out of the country but to be allowed to enter the swine; Jesus permitted this, so their destruction into the sea was a result of their own petition.
2. To provide visible proof of the deliverance: The drowning of the herd demonstrated publicly the reality, number and destructive power of the demons that had left the man, confirming beyond doubt that he had been truly and completely healed by the authority of Jesus.