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.