THE
DEMONIAC
On one occasion, Lord
Jesus arrived to the shores of the town of Gergesa, on the eastern shore of
Lake Galilee.
When He arrived,
together with his disciples, a possessed man came to Him and dropped to his
feet, saying:
“What
have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not
torment me.” (Luke 8:28).
In other occasions demons
would express in the same way as soon as they saw Lord Jesus coming. They knew that sometime in the future, they will
be gathered and condemned eternally, and worried what kind of punishment had the Son of God prepared for them in the
meanwhile; so they did not wait, they ran to Him and begged.
In this occasion, they
identified themselves as Legion, for they were many.
A Roman legion was
about 5000 men. This does not mean that was the exact number of demons inside
that man, but certainly they were a great number.
What sins this man
could have committed to be possessed by such a large number of evil spirits, we
don’t know; but being unusual, we can only imagine the worst, including murder,
moral degradation or witchcraft.
These demons, in the
mouth of their leader, spoke to Lord Jesus in upmost anguish to please let them
go anywhere, but not to the dark place where evil spirits await the Lake of
Fire. (2 Peter 2:4)
Deprived from Light,
hope and submitted to the tyranny of Satan and his principalities, demons must
suffer terribly to be afraid to go there, but still nothing in comparison to
what awaits them after the Last Judgement.
(Judas
1:6)(Revelation 20:10)
The demons saw a herd
of pigs nearby, instead of being sent to the Abyss, the demons begged to Jesus
to be send to these pigs instead. To them, inhabiting the body of such a low
form of life was better than the discarnate existence of condemned spirits in
darkness.
Lord Jesus took pity
on them, and accepted. In his mercy, the Son of God allowed these demons to
enter the pigs, 2000 of them (Mark 5:13).
When they entered
these pigs, the sudden invasion of around 5000 demons, sent the herd mad and in
their despair, the pigs rushed into the nearby cliff and dropped in the waters
of Lake Galilee. Jesus had not intended
that, but the reaction of the animals did not work out the way the demons
expected.
ALL
HUMANS
These demons had not
only rebelled against God, and perpetrated the worst sins imaginable, but also
provoked humans to sin as well, for this reason they were cast out of God’s
Glory. By entering living material creatures, these demons bought time, and
that is why they possessed the Gerasene.
However, when Lord Jesus ordered them out of the man, He had the mercy
to avoid them further suffering and granted their petition.
But the worst of
humans does not compare to the evil of 5000 demons together. If these demons;
condemned angelic spirits who knowingly became enemies of God attained mercy,
how much more not a human being.
NO HUMAN should feel
that is so involved in sin as to be too far from God’s mercy.
Other humans can be
hash in their judgement, sometimes even the people we love the most would
condemn us without mercy.
Murderers, rapists,
thieves, liars, paedophiles, homosexuals, incestuous, terrorists, blasphemers,
atheists, abortionists, witches, warlocks, Satanists, and any other kind of
sinner can have access to God’s mercy in Christ while on this earth. While he
or she is still alive and has the opportunity to repent and change.
No sin is too great
for the mercy of Jesus Christ, who even forgave those who nailed Him to the
Cross alive, right then, in the middle of his pain, minutes after the suffering
they had put Him through. (Luke 23:34).
For this reason the
author of Hebrews also said:
“For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
(Hebrews
4:15-16)
Omar Flores
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