Externalize the Lies:
Legion and the Pigs
The Rev. Solomon J. Keal
Lessons: Mark 5:1-20; True Christianity 614, 530;
Divine Providence 320; Psalm 27:11-14
Then He asked him, “What is your name?”
And he answered, saying,
“My name is Legion; for we are many.” (Mark 5:9)
H
ave you ever felt like you have way too many problems and issues to
handle? Does it sometimes feel like you work on one area of your spiritual
life, and then some other area comes around and bites you? Two steps forward
and three steps back. Sometimes it can feel like we’re not just battling one or
two personal demons, but we’re battling all the forces of hell at once.
We often struggle in many areas of our life at once. Issues in our
relationships, our families, our work, our health, our finances, our spiritual
growth. Sometimes it can feel like we’re failing at everything, all at once. Have
you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like Legion has got you? And what
can we do about it?
This is an amazingly powerful story describing how we can be possessed or
obsessed with false ideas and negative emotions. We can let lies and negativity
control us. In general the analogy in this story is fairly simple: the Lord has
the power to cast hell out of us. Without the Lord, we are enslaved in our own
negativity. But there are some fascinating details to this story that help bring
the process of our spiritual liberation into more clarity.
You might have some questions or confusion about aspects of this story.
For example: why are the evil spirits sent into pigs? In every other exorcism
recorded in the Gospels, Jesus simply casts out the demons. It’s a one-step
process. But here, it seems to involve more than one step – into the pigs first.
So let’s work our way through the story. What we’re specifically looking
for is, why did Legion get sent into the pigs? Why is this a two-step exorcism?
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