Jesus Removes a Legion of Demons
Mark 5They came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gadarenes. When he got out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs to meet him. He lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with chains. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he tore apart the chains and broke the shackles into pieces. No one had the strength to restrain him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell on his keens before him, and screaming with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, don’t torment me!” For he said to him, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!”
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He begged him repeatedly not to send them away out of the region. Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. They begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, so that we may enter into them.”
Jesus gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. Then the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they drowned in the sea. Those tending the pigs ran away, and reported it in the city and in the country.
The people came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, the very one who had the “legion.”
They were terrified. Those who had seen it described to them what happened to the demon-possessed man, and about the pigs. Then they began to beg him to depart from their region.
As he was entering the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to be with him. Jesus didn’t let him go. Instead he said, “Go to your home and to your people, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.”
So he went and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
Jesus Heals a Woman on the Way to Resurrect a Girl
When Jesus had crossed back over by boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him while he was by the seashore. Then one of the rulers of the synagogue, named Jairus, came, and seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him profusely, saying, “My little girl is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be healed and live.”
He went with him, and a large crowd followed him, pressing in on him. A woman was there who had a discharge of blood for twelve years. She had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, yet had not gotten better, only worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. For she was saying, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be saved from this.” Immediately the flow of her blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus immediately perceived in himself that power from him had gone out. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
He kept looking around to see the one who had done it. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?”
But Jesus, overhearing what was said, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. He came to the synagogue ruler’s house and saw a commotion, with weeping and loud wailing. He went in and said to them, “Why are y’all making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”
They ridiculed him. But he cast them all out, took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum!” which translated means, “Little girl, I tell you, get up!” Immediately the girl rose up and began walking around, for she was twelve years old. And immediately, they were massively astonished. He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this.
And he said to give her something to eat.