The Struggle: Mark 5:5-8

Getting what we need is seldom as easy as it looks.  A good education takes lots of consistent work.  Raising a good family takes an enormous amount of continued effort.  Thriving in a good marriage takes regular intentional action.  All these are good, and the work required should be satisfying and enjoyable.  Yet, they are all work.  Nothing truly satisfying comes without effort.  In fact, satisfaction often lies in the effort required to grow more than in the growth itself.  The journey is frequently more significant than the destination.

As the man with the unclean spirit meets Jesus, there are interesting dynamics at play.  The man is tormented.  He has cut himself, he cries out, and he clearly needs help.  Jesus is the solution.

The man comes running.  Perhaps he comes because the human within hopes Jesus is the answer.  Perhaps he comes because he’s an outcast and happily looks for interaction wherever he can.  Perhaps he comes because the unclean spirit wants to force a confrontation.  After all, Mark tells us that the spirit adjures Jesus – or puts him under an oath – to not torment it.

It is interesting this unclean spirit is concerned about not being tormented.  Tormenting life is what the unclean spirit has been doing all along!  This is a pristine picture of evil.  When we act without ethics, we are willing to do to others what we would not have done to ourselves.  This is opposite what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:12, where He says we should treat others as we want to be treated.

Why is torment even a concern in this story?  Mark uses the imperfect tense when describing Jesus’ command to the unclean spirit.  Jesus didn’t command the spirit once.  If that was the case, Mark would have used the aorist, or the simple past, tense.  The imperfect tense indicates continued ongoing action in the past.  Cleansing the man from his unclean spirit was a struggle, not a clean and easy victory.

The struggle to rid the man of the unclean spirit is not an indication of weakness in Jesus’ power.  The struggle is within the man.  Jesus could have banished the spirit with supreme power, but to do so would violate the man's free will.  Jesus is willing to heal, but the man must also want it.  Jesus can heal, but the man needs to let go, too.

Who knows how long this man had lived in this condition.  As strange as it may seem, giving up the unclean spirit is akin to giving up his identity.  To let go of the unclean spirit means starting over completely with a new identity.  We can wonder why this is a hard decision, yet we all know that giving up our sin is a battle with the flesh. Even when we know our new life in Christ will be better, the struggle is real.

Getting what we need is seldom as easy as it looks.