Sorry, this one’s not a verse, but a chapter – the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 5: 1-20:
Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac
5 They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘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 had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ 9 Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits[c] begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.
14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus[d] to leave their neighbourhood. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But Jesus[e] refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
So, how I came to Mark Chapter 5:
There's this seminar where Timothy Keller delivers a talk and I've been listening to it over and over, and in this talk he mentions the story about Jesus Christ liberating a demon-possessed Gerasene man (The Gospel according to Mark, Chapter 5). (It is a very powerful story.)
This Bible story is about Jesus healing the demoniac Gerasene man. The possessed man “was naked, was in chains (which he had broken), basically he was enslaved, he was isolated, he was away from everyone else, he was screaming, crying out all the time, crying out in the dark, crying out in agony.
“What does Jesus do? He liberates him, the man in chains. He brings him into the community, so he is no longer isolated. He clothes him, so he is no longer naked, and he puts his life back together.”
What does this story tell us about Jesus Christ and us?
“Come to Jesus with your problem, no matter how big or terrible it is, because he will liberate you from whatever is torturing you.”
But aside from this knowledge, this particular Bible story has a bigger message and “shows something about ourselves. Because of our sin we are in a way possessed, we are naked, we are in chains, we are enslaved by sin, we are all isolated--because of sin our relationships break down and we are torn apart from others, especially from God, we are screaming in the dark and crying out in agony, because we have unfulfilled longings and we are suffering.”
How exactly does Jesus liberate the demoniac Gerasene man?
How does Jesus liberate us?
“At the end of Jesus Christ's life, we see him naked at the cross, a prisoner, isolated--he was crucified outside the gates, he was crying out in the dark and in agony, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ He was able to heal the demoniac because he took his place, he was the substitute. Jesus could come into the man's life and heal him because Jesus went to the cross and paid the penalty and essentially took those things on himself and bore them himself.”
“He was stripped so we could be clothed; he was thrown into the deepest agony so we could know God's love and forgiveness.”
You can watch the talk by Timothy Keller on YouTube. Just look for the "Dr. Timothy Keller at Reformed Theological Seminary: Lecture 3". It's really amazing.
