by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Aug. 12, 2026) — One of the chief complaints about God is that He tolerates evil. You’ve heard the accusations, maybe even asked the questions yourself.
If God is so powerful, why doesn’t He squash Satan?
If God is good, then why did this happen? (Replace this with your choice of distress or disaster.)
Unsettling, for sure. Why doesn’t God stop all this misery?
I addressed this in a recent post, asserting that God has a purpose and has shown us His strategy. But the questions are so significant and persistent that we cannot examine them enough. Let’s look again through the eyes of a tormented Middle Eastern community that I suspect was also perplexed.
Chapter five of Mark’s gospel records a dramatic encounter between Jesus and an uncontrollable man. A demon mastered the man and terrified Gadara, a community east of the Sea of Galilee.
Our attention goes immediately to the demoniac: his strength to snap chains and shackles, his self-loathing and slashing himself with stones, his wailing night and day throughout the graveyard and mountains. So many were his demons that he went by the name Legion. (A Roman legion comprised about 5,500 soldiers.)
He grabs our attention, but let’s watch the townspeople.
Two worlds, side by side
The Gadarene countryside was home to two worlds.
Legion lived in the graveyard and ruled the tombs and mountains. He lived among the dead. His was no life at all, even while he lived.
The townsfolk hunkered down in the seacoast city, afraid of the madman, passing their days in the shadow of the tombs.
Not that they hadn’t visited and tried to break the spell.
The strongest among them hauled chains and shackles to the graveyard, and Legion would calmly submit. His tranquility was only a tease. One tug, and he yanked the chains apart and shattered the shackles.
Everyone fled.
Every time.
The compassionate proposed to tame Legion, like a mule or horse. But the demons weren’t about to be domesticated. The raving loner chased them away.
The neighborhood boy had become a wild man. Too wild for anyone to subdue.
An uneasy truce with resentment and fortune emerged.
Resentment, because Legion haunted the community. His wailing disturbed the peace, his nakedness shamed the moralists, and his wildness depressed their property values. They couldn’t drive him out, subdue him, or hide him. Legion held the reins; they were powerless.
Fortune, because the demoniac attracted the curious.
Come, hear the wild man of Gadara! Lucky ones may even get a glimpse. Visit the graveyard, if you dare, and see if you can spot him. Caution: Adults only; not suitable for children.
They settled into co-existence.
Then came Jesus
One day Jesus came to Gadara and did what they wanted but couldn’t achieve.
He tamed Legion.
The man who had shredded chains and shackles and clothes was dressed.
The graveyard was still. No one darted, naked, among the tombs. There was only the silence of the dead.
Birdsong wafted in the mountains. The wailing had ceased.
There was peace.
Legion sat—calm and in his right mind—and made the most sensible request, “Take me with you.”
Jesus declined. He had a greater mission for Legion.
He had found the man living among the tombs; Jesus sent him to another graveyard.
Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how He has had compassion on you.
The friends back home looked and behaved better than Legion had, but the presence of the demons mocked their helplessness. And now, the legion of spirits, with Jesus’ consent, tore from the man into a nearby herd of swine. Two thousand pigs immediately stampeded into the sea and drowned.
You would think the town—haunted no more by a streaking, shrieking demoniac—would have a parade grander than Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
It didn’t.
They were afraid and furious.
Jesus had plundered their economy. Two thousand pigs were a lot of spareribs and bacon. Months of income drowned in the sea.
The Gadarenes begged Jesus to leave.
He did, but left Legion behind.
I suppose the town was unaware, but Jesus had done what He taught.
First bind the strong man, and then plunder his house. (Mark 3:27).
Jesus bound the legion of devils and freed Legion, the man.
He plundered the town’s compromised livelihood, entwined as it was with non-kosher stock.
Gadara would be haunted no more, except for the memory of casting out Jesus. They preferred life as they knew it, without Jesus around.
Jesus wouldn’t let them forget either His grace or their sin.
He sent Legion back home.
He was living among the dead again.
I have come that they might have life, Jesus said.
He came to Gadara, and one came out of the tombs.
Legion.
The madman whose life had been no life at all was a new man with a new life ahead.
Gadara had settled for years with the devil for a neighbor. Powerless to overpower him, they built their lives around him, all the while wondering, probably even wishing, “Why doesn’t God do something with that man?”
He did, and now Legion walked their streets—an ambassador of grace to the ungracious, of hope for the hopeless, of peace to the fearful.
Legion remained, a testimony that life as they had known it was over.
The Gadarenes had compromised with Legion, the demoniac, for years. Now, the time of their conviction with Legion, the saint, had come.
God had done something, after all, and Legion reminded them every day.
In your words
- Tormented by Legion, the Gadarenes no doubt murmured, “Why doesn’t God do something?” God did, through Jesus. Have you been in a circumstance where you wanted God to intervene? Describe it.
- The Gadarenes did their best to tame Legion but couldn’t. Jesus did, yet they begged Him to leave. Why? Has God ever done what you have wanted, and you weren’t pleased with the result?
- Jesus left Legion to witness to a town that didn’t want Him around. When Jesus returned (Mark 7:31–37), the people received Him enthusiastically. It seems Legion witnessed effectively. How can this encourage you?