Some of us are in chains that nobody can see.
For some, it is what we have said about ourselves. You made a mistake, and now the mistake is your name. That is who I am. That is what I did. You cannot change the past. So you settle for it.
For others it is what somebody else said about you. You're beautiful. You're ugly. You're smart. You're not. You're in. You're out. You're going somewhere. You're not. And if we are honest, at some point we started believing it.
Either way — chains. And they are holding us back from the more that God put in our hearts.
The man in Mark 5 had both. He said things about himself. The whole town said he was out of his mind, and they were right. But something else was going on too, something that put him in literal chains — until he met the only one who could break them.
Spiritual attack is real
I know some of you are in different places on this. And I know some of you are thinking this was just mental illness. Maybe. Or maybe there was something more.
Jesus cast out demons everywhere he went. And Scripture says our fight is not only against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness.
On Sunday I showed you two things I did not enjoy showing you — accounts from this year of people describing something inside them they did not recognise and could not stop. One wrote it down as a plea: I don't want to do this. Something inside me says I must. Another said it out loud to police: there are voices telling me what to do, and they are not mine.
I am not making a political argument. I am asking one question. Where does that come from?
Unclean on every count
Look at where this man is. Gentile territory — unclean. Living in the tombs among the dead — unclean. Surrounded by pigs — unclean. And possessed by demons. Unclean.
I do thank God that on this side of the Testament pigs are edible. Can I get an amen from the bacon lovers.
On every count this man is dirty, isolated, cast out, torn apart. And that is exactly where Jesus sails. It was not on the way. It was not convenient. It was not comfortable. That is what love looks like every time.
Here is why the disciples did not run. In chapter 4, fishermen who had spent their lives on that water were certain they were going to drown, and Jesus stood up and told the storm to be quiet, and it was. Mark is building a case. Chapter 4: the one the weather obeys. Chapter 5: the one the demons obey. Chapter 6: the one who heals and raises the dead.
So when a naked man who snaps chains comes howling down the hill at them, they stand. Not in their own strength. These same men later ran from a servant girl. They stood because of who they were standing next to.
And the man falls at Jesus' feet and begs for mercy.
What the demons knew
Demons have good theology. That should unsettle you. They know God exists. They know he is sovereign. They recognize exactly who Jesus is, and they know the day of judgment is coming and they are not ready for it. What they never do is surrender.
Jesus asks his name. Legion, for we are many. In that day a legion was around six thousand soldiers. Demons lie, so we do not know the number — but two thousand pigs went over the cliff.
Notice what spiritual attack always does. It isolates you. It drives you to dark places. It turns you against your own body, until you are cutting yourself with stones.
And notice what Jesus does not do. He is not nervous. Not once. Scripture never tells us to fear Satan or his demons. It tells us to fear God alone — and the demons themselves bow. Even in Job, the enemy has to ask permission. Nothing in this world happens outside the reach of our God. Plenty of it breaks his heart. None of it is out of his hands.
Three times somebody begged
Watch this word. It shows up three times in one chapter.
The demons begged Jesus not to send them where they were headed.
Then the townspeople came out, saw the man sitting there clothed and in his right mind — and begged Jesus to leave. Think about that. The only one who could set any of them free, and they asked him to get back in the boat. They were more comfortable with that man out of control than they were with him changed by the power of God.
Some of you know that feeling. God has done something real in you and the people around you would rather you go back to how you were.
And then the man himself begged to go with him. He is the one who wanted Jesus. And Jesus said no.
Not never. Not yet. Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. And he went out into ten cities and would not stop talking.
That is the pattern. Christ comes in, breaks the chains, changes you from the inside out — and then sends you. He does not save you only for himself. He saves you for his mission. Not building your kingdom. Building his.
Augustine said our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. You were made for more than possessions and position and popularity and pleasure. Every one of those will eventually wrap around you like a chain.
So what is your chain — the one nobody else can see? And who have you been letting name you?
