Jesus removes the "Legion"

In Mark 5:1-20, Jesus encounters a man possessed by many demons. The man seems in especially rough shape (verse 5, KJV),

Always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

When Jesus asks his name, the demons answer (verse 9, KJV),

My name is Legion: for we are many.

Jesus then orders the demons out of the man and into a herd of nearby pigs. The pigs, now possessed, proceed to drown themselves in a lake.

It's a strange story, and I can't claim to completely grasp the full theology of the event. (The role of the pigs especially confuses me, although perhaps their "unclean" label holds some kind of importance.)

The larger message, as I see it, centers on the fact that we, as sinners, are in a similar state to that of the demon-possessed man. Like him, we are beset by our own legion of sinful behaviors. And they are many! The path to freedom from those demons comes not from our own power, but from the mercy of God.

After Jesus removes the legion, the people (verse 15, KJV),

see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.

And thus the reward for trusting in that cleansing power! We, too, can find ourselves in our "right minds," and the path is easy. Just believe.

Lessons from Philemon

Owing to its brevity and personal nature, Paul's letter to Philemon is easy to overlook. But closer inspection of the letter reveals some important spiritual insights.

In the letter, a slave named Onesimus has wronged his master Philemon and fled to Paul. (The letter does not specify Onesimus' wrong -- much to Paul's credit -- but the transgression must have been relatively serious to warrant Onesimus' running away from Philemon.)

The letter basically is Paul's appeal for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and take him back. But Paul pushes a step further, by requesting Philemon to accept Onesimus not as his former slave status, but as an equal (Philemon: 15-16, KJV),

He ... departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.

This seemingly personal story has corollaries to our relationship with God. Like Onesimus to Philemon, we are subservient to God and dependent upon him for survival. Also like Onesimus, we sin against our master, which brings us far away from him. But rather than destroying us, as we deserve, God forgives us, and even restores us to a higher state as heirs to his kingdom!

Paul's letter does not report what happened when Onesimus returned to Philemon, but assuming Philemon followed Paul's advice, Onesimus must have expressed his heartfelt thanks. Let us do likewise toward God for his forgiveness.