The Master of the Storm and the Legion
Jesus Delivers the Possessed in the Country of the Gergesenes
Matthew 8:28–34 • Mark 5:1–20 • Luke 8:26–39
Matthew 8:28–34 • Mark 5:1–20 • Luke 8:26–39
Introduction
Immediately after Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, His disciples were left asking a question:
"But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"
— Matthew 8:27
The boat then landed on the eastern shore, and the answer to their question came walking out of the tombs. The same Lord who commands wind and wave now stands before a legion of demons, and they obey Him just as readily.
This event is recorded by three Gospel writers: Matthew 8:28–34, Mark 5:1–20, and Luke 8:26–39. For the new Bible student, this is a wonderful passage to study, because it shows us the reality of the unseen spiritual world, the absolute authority of Jesus Christ over it, the value He places on a single soul, and the tragedy of a people who asked the Saviour to leave.
Before we begin, read all three accounts. Mark's is the fullest, and we will lean on all three throughout this study, comparing them as we go.
The Setting: Where Did This Happen?
"And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way."
— Matthew 8:28
"And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes."
— Mark 5:1
A careful reader will notice that Matthew says "Gergesenes" while Mark and Luke say "Gadarenes." Is this a contradiction? Not at all. It is the difference between naming the district and naming the locality.
Gadara was a principal city of the region east of the Sea of Galilee, part of the area known as the Decapolis, meaning "ten cities" (see Mark 5:20). Its territory extended to the shore of the sea, so the whole district could rightly be called "the country of the Gadarenes." Gergesa was a smaller place on the eastern shore itself. Saying the event happened in "the country of the Gadarenes" and "the country of the Gergesenes" is like saying an event happened "in the Toronto area" and "in Scarborough." These are different levels of precision, but the same place.
There is a striking detail here for those who love the accuracy of Scripture: on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, near the traditional site of Gergesa, there is a steep slope that runs down close to the water, the only such place on that coast. The Gospel writers, recording that the swine "ran violently down a steep place into the sea" (Matthew 8:32), described the geography exactly.
One more important observation about this region: it was largely Gentile territory. This explains something that should puzzle any student of the Old Testament. Why is there a herd of about two thousand swine (Mark 5:13) anywhere near Israel? Swine were unclean animals under the Law:
"And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you."
— Leviticus 11:7
No faithful Jew would keep pigs. This detail quietly sets the stage: Jesus has crossed into a dark corner of the land, a region of Gentiles, tombs, and unclean beasts. And He has come there on purpose, for the sake of men no one else could help.
One Man or Two? Comparing the Accounts
"...there met him two possessed with devils..."
— Matthew 8:28
"And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,"
— Mark 5:2
"And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs."
— Luke 8:27
Matthew records two demon-possessed men; Mark and Luke mention one. Skeptics call this a contradiction. It is not, and understanding why will strengthen your confidence in the Scriptures.
A contradiction requires two statements that cannot both be true. Mark and Luke never say there was only one man. Where there are two men, there is certainly one. Mark and Luke simply focus their accounts on the more prominent of the two: the man who spoke ("My name is Legion: for we are many," Mark 5:9), the man who afterward begged to follow Jesus, and the man whom Jesus sent home as a witness (Mark 5:19–20). He was the memorable figure, the one whose testimony spread through all Decapolis, so the narrative naturally centers on him. A newspaper reporter covering an event involving two people will often build the story around the central figure without ever denying that the other was present.
Notice also that this is a pattern in Matthew's Gospel, not a one-time oddity. Matthew records two blind men healed at Jericho (Matthew 20:30), where Mark names only one, Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46). Why might Matthew consistently preserve the detail of two?
Matthew wrote especially to a Jewish audience, presenting Jesus as Israel's Messiah and King. Under the Law, valid testimony required more than one witness:
"One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established."
— Deuteronomy 19:15
By carefully recording that there were two men delivered, two legal witnesses to the power of the Son of God, Matthew presents evidence his Jewish readers would recognize as established testimony (see also Matthew 18:16).
Far from undermining the Gospels, these differences argue for their honesty. Men who conspire to invent a story make their accounts identical. Honest eyewitnesses, telling the truth from their own vantage points, give us exactly what we find here: complementary accounts that harmonize without strain.
For the remainder of this study we will follow the fuller accounts of Mark and Luke, which trace the one man's story in detail, while remembering that a second man shared in this deliverance.
The Condition of the Possessed Man
"And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones."
— Mark 5:2–5
Take a moment and consider what Satan's kingdom had made of this man. He was made in the image of God, yet look at his condition:
He dwelt among the tombs — cut off from the living, at home with the dead.
He wore no clothes (Luke 8:27) — stripped of dignity.
No man could bind or tame him — beyond all human remedy. Chains and fetters had been tried and had failed.
He cried night and day — in constant torment, without rest.
He was cutting himself with stones — driven toward his own destruction.
This is a portrait of what the devil does with a human life when he has his way. Jesus said of Satan:
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
— John 10:10
Isolation, degradation, torment, self-destruction — the enemy's program has not changed.
And here is the sobering truth for every reader: this man is also a picture of the sinner's condition apart from Christ, painted in its most extreme colors. The Scripture says the unsaved walk "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), and are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Most sinners look far more respectable than this poor man, but respectability is not freedom. Every man without Christ is under the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13), whether the chains are visible or not.
No man could tame him. No chains could hold him. Human effort, human restraint, human remedy — all had failed. Then Jesus stepped out of the boat.
The Demons Meet Their Judge
"But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not."
— Mark 5:6–7
"For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit."
— Mark 5:8
"And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
— Matthew 8:29
Several things in these verses deserve careful attention.
First, the demons know exactly who Jesus is. While the disciples in the boat were still asking, "What manner of man is this?" (Matthew 8:27), the demons answer the question without hesitation: "Jesus, thou Son of the most high God." The demons have no doubts about the deity of Christ. As James wrote:
"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."
— James 2:19
This is a vital lesson for the new believer: merely knowing facts about Jesus, even true facts, is not saving faith. The demons know who He is, and they are not saved. Saving faith trusts in Him; it does not merely acknowledge Him.
Second, the demons know their judgment is fixed and coming. "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29). Before the time — the demons know there is an appointed time of judgment awaiting them. Jesus spoke of it plainly:
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:"
— Matthew 25:41
Their doom is certain and they know it; their only question is the timing. There is no gospel for fallen angels, no offer of redemption — which makes the grace offered to fallen men all the more astonishing.
Third, notice the name.
"And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many."
— Mark 5:9
A Roman legion numbered in the thousands of soldiers. This one man was indwelt by a vast host of unclean spirits, and yet the entire legion trembles before one Man standing on the shore. This is not a battle. There is no struggle, no contest, no uncertainty. The demons beg. Jesus commands. That is the whole account of the conflict between the Son of God and the kingdom of darkness.
Why the Swine? Why the Sea?
"And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea."
— Mark 5:10–13
"And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep."
— Luke 8:31
Here we come to the questions every student of this passage asks: Why did the demons want the swine? Why did the swine drown? And why did Jesus permit it?
Why did the demons request the swine?
Luke tells us what the demons feared: they begged not to be sent "into the deep" — the abyss, the place of confinement for certain fallen spirits. The demons dreaded disembodied imprisonment before their appointed time of judgment. Scripture indicates that evil spirits seek embodiment. Jesus taught:
"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out..."
— Matthew 12:43–44
A disembodied spirit is restless, seeking a host. Faced with expulsion from the man, the demons begged for the nearest available bodies, even the bodies of pigs. Any embodiment was preferable to the deep.
There is also a fitting symmetry that a Jewish reader would not miss: unclean spirits requesting unclean animals (Leviticus 11:7). The unclean sought the unclean.
Why did the swine drown?
The text does not say the demons deliberately drove the herd into the sea, and it is not necessary to conclude that they did. The most natural reading is that the animals simply could not endure demonic indwelling. The possessed man had been supernaturally sustained in his torment for a long time (Luke 8:27 — "which had devils long time"); the swine were destroyed within moments. About two thousand animals were seized with violent panic, stampeded down the steep slope, and were choked in the sea.
Whichever way one reads it, the lesson is the same: destruction is the nature of the kingdom of darkness. What Satan touches, he ruins. The demons destroyed the man's life among the tombs; given the swine, they destroyed the swine. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10). And notice the irony: by destroying their hosts, the demons defeated their own request, very possibly leaving themselves in the disembodied condition they had begged to avoid. Evil is ultimately self-defeating; even the demons' "granted request" turned to their loss, under the perfect sovereignty of Christ.
Why did Jesus permit it?
This question troubles some readers: why would the Lord allow the destruction of two thousand animals? The passage itself supplies the answers.
First, it gave visible, undeniable proof of the deliverance. A man claiming "the demons are gone" might be doubted. Two thousand drowned swine cannot be argued with. The scale of the destruction revealed the scale of the bondage this man had been under, and the scale of the power that freed him.
Second, it declared the value of a soul. One man (indeed, two men) delivered was worth more than two thousand swine. The people of the region did the arithmetic differently, as we shall see, but heaven's values are not market values.
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
— Matthew 16:26
Third, it exposed the hearts of the people. The loss of the herd forced the Gergesenes to make a choice between their property and the Saviour. Their choice, recorded in the next section, is one of the saddest verses in the Gospels.
Fourth, it displayed Christ's absolute authority. Note the words carefully: "And forthwith Jesus gave them leave" (Mark 5:13). The demons could not enter even a herd of pigs without the permission of the Son of God. A whole legion of the kingdom of darkness cannot touch a pig without leave from Jesus Christ. Let the believer take comfort here: the enemy of your soul operates on a leash, and the hand holding the leash was nailed to a cross for you. As with Job, Satan can do nothing beyond what God permits (Job 1:12; 2:6).
Finally, remember who owns all things:
"For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."
— Psalm 50:10
The Lord of glory does not answer to men for the disposal of His own creation, and He judged two souls to be worth infinitely more than two thousand swine.
The Two Requests: A Region's Tragedy and a Man's Joy
"And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid... And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts."
— Mark 5:14–15, 17
Look at the transformation in verse 15. It is the picture of every soul saved by grace:
Sitting — at rest, the ceaseless crying and wandering ended.
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
— Matthew 11:28
Clothed — dignity restored. The naked shame is covered, as God covered Adam (Genesis 3:21), and as the returning prodigal received the best robe (Luke 15:22).
In his right mind — sanity and self restored. The man is himself again, perhaps for the first time.
And the response of the people? "They were afraid... And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts." Here is the tragedy of the Gergesenes. Standing before them was living proof of the power and mercy of God, a man they had known only as a naked terror among the tombs, now sitting calm and clothed at the feet of Jesus. And their response was to beg Jesus to leave.
Why? The text suggests the answer plainly enough: the swine. Two thousand head of livestock represented enormous wealth, and it was gone. They counted the cost of having Jesus among them, and decided He was too expensive. They preferred their pigs to the Person of Christ.
Before we judge them too quickly, we must ask: how many souls today make the same bargain? How many keep Christ at a distance because they fear what His presence might cost them — a habit, an income, a reputation, a lifestyle? The Gergesenes asked Jesus to depart, and the solemn record of Scripture is this: He did. "And he entered into a ship, and passed over" (Matthew 9:1). The Lord does not force Himself on those who refuse Him. There is no more fearful prayer a person can pray than "depart from me," because it may be answered.
But there was a second request that day.
"And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him."
— Mark 5:18
"Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."
— Mark 5:19
"And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel."
— Mark 5:20
The delivered man begged the exact opposite of his countrymen: they begged Jesus to go; he begged to go with Jesus. Both requests were denied, and both denials are instructive. Jesus left the region that rejected Him, but He did not leave it without a witness. The man who wanted to follow was given a harder and better assignment: "Go home to thy friends, and tell them."
Notice this is the reverse of the Lord's usual instruction in Galilee, where He often told those He healed to "tell no man" (e.g., Matthew 8:4). In Jewish territory, premature publicity stirred up crowds and forced misunderstandings about His kingship. But here, in Gentile Decapolis, there was no such danger, and a region that had asked Jesus to leave desperately needed a testimony left behind. So the first great missionary to the Gentile Decapolis was not an apostle. He was a man who, hours earlier, had been naked among the tombs.
Notice also the simplicity of his commission. He was not sent to seminary first. He was given no course in theology. His message was his testimony: "how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." Every believer, however new, holds the same commission. You may not be able to answer every hard question, but no one can refute what the Lord has done for you. Like the blind man of John 9, you can say, "one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25).
And notice one last detail, easy to miss. Jesus said, "tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Mark records, "he... began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him." The man said Jesus, and the Scripture counts it the same. The inspired text quietly testifies: Jesus is the Lord.
It appears the seed bore fruit. When Jesus later returned to the Decapolis region, great multitudes came to Him, and He fed the four thousand there (Mark 7:31; 8:1–9). The region that once begged Him to depart later gathered by the thousands to hear Him — prepared, we may well believe, by one man's faithful testimony.
Summary of Lessons
First, Jesus Christ has absolute authority over the kingdom of darkness. A legion of demons cannot resist His word, cannot enter swine without His leave, and trembles at His presence. The believer need not fear the devil more than he trusts the Saviour: "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
Second, the demons believe, and are lost. Correct knowledge about Christ, even confessing Him as "Son of the most high God," is not saving faith (James 2:19). Salvation is trusting in Him, not merely acknowledging Him.
Third, Satan's program is always destruction. Among the tombs or among the swine, the result is the same: torment, degradation, death (John 10:10). Sin never leads anywhere else.
Fourth, no case is beyond the power of Christ. Chains failed, fetters failed, every human remedy failed. Jesus spoke, and the man was free. There is no sinner so far gone that grace cannot reach him.
Fifth, one soul is worth more than any earthly property. Heaven counted two men worth more than two thousand swine. The Gergesenes counted otherwise, and asked the Saviour to leave (Matthew 16:26).
Sixth, Christ may be asked to depart, and He may go. The most dangerous response to Jesus is not violent opposition but polite rejection. The Gergesenes did not persecute Him; they merely preferred life without Him. And He passed over to the other side.
Seventh, the saved are sent. "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Your testimony is your first commission. You need not know everything to tell what you know.
Eighth, the Gospel accounts are trustworthy. The differences between Matthew, Mark, and Luke — two men or one, Gergesenes or Gadarenes — are not contradictions but the natural, complementary perspectives of honest witnesses, and Matthew's care to record two witnesses fits his Jewish audience perfectly (Deuteronomy 19:15).
Questions for Reflection
1. The demons immediately recognized Jesus as "the Son of the most high God," yet this knowledge did not save them. What is the difference between believing facts about Jesus and believing on Him? (See John 3:16; Acts 16:31; James 2:19.)
2. The possessed man was beyond all human help: "no man could bind him... neither could any man tame him" (Mark 5:3–4). What "chains" do people rely on today to restrain sin without Christ? Why do they fail?
3. The Gergesenes valued their swine above the Saviour. What things in your own life could tempt you to keep Jesus "at a distance"? What did their choice cost them?
4. Jesus denied the healed man's request to come with Him, and instead sent him home as a witness. Why might staying home have been the harder assignment? What does this teach about where our own testimony should begin?
5. Compare Matthew 8:28 with Mark 5:2. How would you answer someone who claims the Gospels contradict each other here? How do the differences between the accounts actually support their truthfulness?
6. Read Mark 5:19–20 again. Jesus said "tell them how great things the Lord hath done"; the man told "how great things Jesus had done." What does this teach us about who Jesus is?
Conclusion
The disciples asked, "What manner of man is this?" The country of the Gergesenes gave the answer. He is the One whom winds, waves, and legions obey. He is the One who crossed a sea to reach two men everyone else had given up on. He is the One who counts a single soul worth more than all the wealth of a region. And He is the One who, when asked to depart, will depart — but who leaves a witness behind, still calling men to Himself.
If you have never trusted Him, learn from the Gergesenes: do not send Him away. And if you have trusted Him, learn from the man of the tombs: go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.
"Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."
— Mark 5:19