Mark 5:1-13

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. -Mark 5:1-13

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One of my favorite Christian authors C. S. Lewis made this observation about people and their views on evil:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

I believe in our western society, we tend to gravitate toward the former.  Because of a growing disbelief in God, there’s been a growing disbelief of the devil and evil.  Anything horrific that anyone does is explained away by their upbringing, environment, biology, etc.  Many don’t believe there’s a supernatural metaphysical evil that is at work.

But the problem of explaining away evil is obvious: If someone’s horrible act is simply a result of their upbringing, environment, biology, etc. then we should be able to fix people by changing their upbringing, environment, biology, etc.  But that hasn’t happened.  Society has tried so hard to fix problems that have never gone away since the beginning of humanity—poverty, racism, oppression, greed, sexism, and the list goes on.  

No matter what we do as a society to try to change things, there’s still poverty, racism, oppression, greed, sexism, etc.  It’s because at the heart of these issues is true evil.  The Bible speaks about the evil that exists in the heart of men that only God can change.  Only in light of the existence of a supernatural evil do the problems of the world make sense.  It reminds us that we can’t fix the world’s problems on our own, we need God’s help.  Supernatural problems require supernatural solutions.

This  crazy passage about Jesus casting out demons from a man into pigs that fall off the cliff into the sea teaches us that.  Evil is real.  But God is bigger and more powerful than that.  The evil in our hearts and the evil in our society is still nothing compared to the might of our God.  May that thought gives us comfort and hope as we continue to follow Jesus.

If you want a great intelligent explanation of the problem of evil, check out Tim Keller’s podcast.  Here’s a link to an episode that really help me think about this topic:

https://chtbl.com/track/92298/mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/gap7nf/200325_WithATroubledMan.mp3