I hope you are doing well today, and thank you for joining us. Today, we’re reading through Mark chapters 5 and 6.
Jesus Meets the Demoniac
Jesus crosses the lake (Mark 5:1), where He encounters two men, according to Matthew’s account (Matthew 8:28), though Mark focuses on one. This man is incredibly strong but disturbed. His behavior—crying out and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:5)—suggests what we now recognize as a psychological condition called non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). (1)

I’ve had friends and family members who would cut or burn themselves. Many of them later turned to drug abuse. These are ways people deal with internal struggles—what we often describe as “fighting demons.” And while we sometimes use that phrase metaphorically, this passage reminds us that demons are real.
Demons Need Permission
In Job 1–2, Satan had to ask God for permission to afflict Job. In Mark 5:10–13, the demons beg Jesus not to send them out of the area and instead ask to enter a herd of pigs. I believe those pigs may have been at the heart of this man’s torment.
Feeding Sin or Righteousness
When we compromise and try to “live with” sin, it eats away at us. Sin doesn’t stay small. It feeds. You either feed sin or righteousness, but you can’t serve both (Matthew 6:24). The one you feed is the one that grows. And when sin grows large enough, it consumes you.
The Problem with the Pigs
God commanded the Jewish people not to eat pigs (Leviticus 11:7). Yet here, in a region with Gentiles, they saw an opportunity for profit. Instead of teaching the Gentiles about God, they adapted to the surrounding culture—just like we see in the Old Testament with idolatry.

So here they are, tending a herd of about 2,000 pigs (Mark 5:13), and they’re struggling. They’re living in disobedience, and that opens the door for the enemy. Jesus casts the demons into the pigs, and they rush into the lake and drown. In doing so, Jesus not only frees the man but also removes the root of the problem—the pigs, the sin, the compromise.
A New Mission Begins
Afterward, Jesus tells the man to go home and tell everyone what God has done for him (Mark 5:19). This introduces Gentile evangelism.
Faith in Medicine vs. Faith in Christ
The story then shifts to a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years, who reaches out to touch Jesus’ robe (Mark 5:25–28). She had spent everything she had on doctors, but her condition only worsened (Mark 5:26). This speaks to another kind of modern struggle—our misplaced faith in medicine.
The God Complex
Today, some people say that doctors have a “God complex.” During COVID, I witnessed what I believe was an overreach by the medical community. In their efforts to control behavior, they disrupted worship and community life. People placed their faith in experts, much like the woman placed her faith in touching Jesus’ robe. But it wasn’t the robe that healed her—it was her faith in Jesus (Mark 5:34).
The Danger of Misplaced Faith
When we place our faith in objects or individuals instead of Christ, we miss the point. In the U.S., medical errors cause about 250,000 deaths each year.(2) I see commercials for conditions I’ve never heard of, each with a list of side effects longer than the benefits. It makes me question modern medicine.
My Family’s Story
My family has felt this. When my mother went to the hospital with chest pains, the doctors didn’t take her seriously. After a day, they ordered a stress test. Her main artery burst during the test, and they couldn’t save her.

Because of my family history, I had my cholesterol checked twenty years ago. Though I had no heart problems, the doctor insisted I take a statin drug, or I’d have a heart attack. He painted a picture of my wife raising our son alone. So I took them. For fifteen years, I dealt with muscle weakness, cramping, and cognitive fog. And then—I still had a heart attack.

Turns out, your body needs cholesterol. (3) Too much is dangerous, but too little is harmful too. I’m not saying the statins caused my heart attack, but they didn’t prevent it. And I wasn’t out of shape. I was six feet tall, under 150 pounds, completed a marathon, and played professional tennis.
Where Is Your Faith?
I’m not a doctor, and I’m not telling anyone to ignore medical advice. But I am saying this: we need to examine where we place our faith. When we trust in robes, pills, or people more than we trust in Jesus, we’re opening ourselves up to modern demons. Just like the man in the tombs, we need to let Jesus cast them out—and drown them. We do that by spending more time listening to Him, and less time listening to the noise of the world.
Tomorrow, we will read Mark 7-9.
Footnotes 

Mayo Clinic Staff, “Self-Injury/Cutting,” Mayo Clinic, accessed October 2025, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/self-injury/symptoms-causes/syc-20350950.

Martin A. Makary and Michael Daniel, “Medical Error—The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US,” BMJ 353 (2016): i2139.

Harvard Health Publishing, “What is cholesterol and why is it important?” Harvard Medical School, accessed October 2025, https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/what-is-cholesterol-and-why-is-it-important.