Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 7
January 5, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: That Jesus was dealing with "Legion" compels the reader to address Jesus' "name".
Introduction: As we have been working our way through Mark's arguments that Jesus of Nazareth is "God-Descended" (John's claim was that "the Mighty One was coming" is now past and the reality is that "God has come into the world"), we have seen the ways people have responded to Him. In the light of the paragraph before us,
we are compelled to respond. The caution that arose from chapter three is obvious: there are only three "decisions" people can make about Him, and two of the three are not "honest" in the face of the facts on the ground. This has one major implication: "facts" are not the ultimate basis for the decisions people make.
This evening we are going to look into Mark's record of Jesus' reaction to the unclean spirit's loud confrontation as we saw it in our last study.
- I. It All Hinges Upon The Significance Of A Name.
- A. Under the hermeneutical principle of "first mention", we understand that "names" are significant in respect to their ability to "identify, characterize, and predict".
- 1. At the beginning, when God first assigned a "name" to something/someone ("...He called the light 'Day' and the darkness He called 'Night': Genesis 1:5), the issue of "names" became crucial to the entire process of revelation and illumination so that sentient creatures could begin to "know", "love", and "believe".
- 2. From that point, "names" have been significant in their ability to transfer "knowledge" from one mind to another.
- B. Within our current text/context, we are told that the unclean spirit in the man "knew" (1:34) Jesus as "Jesus" and as "Son of the Highest God" and was immediately aware of the "prophetic" significance of that "identity": it signified the unclean spirit's impending "torment" because he was both "an unclean spirit" and "an incorrigible opponent".
- 1. As "unclean" he was a deceiver who did not have the ability to accomplish his ultimate objectives.
- 2. As "opponent" he was set to attempt his "impossible task": opposing the development of the Plan of the Highest God.
- a. This opposition was full of specific details of specific actions.
- b. But this opposition had its "Root" in the overall intention of Satan to supplant the Kingdom of Light with his own kingdom of darkness so that he might "become" the highest god.
- 3. For whatever reason, the unclean spirit supposed that if he "named" Jesus and described Him accurately, he might be able to thwart what the name "Jesus" meant in predictive terms.
- a. "Jesus" was going to "save" this man from the power of the kingdom of darkness and then use him to "save" many others through the impact of "salvation" upon him.
- b. Clearly, the unclean spirit's speech to Jesus was rooted in the prior demand by Jesus that the human host of unclean spirit be set free.
- C. Once Mark used the unclean spirit's "naming" of Jesus, he immediately turned to Jesus' question to the unclean spirit.
- 1. The question was, "What name to you?"
- a. This was not a question to which Jesus did not already have the answer.
- b. The question was for the sake of the disciples (for sure) and (perhaps) for the sake of the man possessed.
- 2. The purpose of the question was to "set the stage".
- a. In respect to the unclean spirit, it "set the stage" by characterizing the magnitude of the unclean spirit's "power".
- 1) The "Legatus legionis" was the derivative identity of the unclean spirit's "name": Legion.
- a) In the context of that day, a "legion" was not, most fundamentally, about the number involved ("for we are many").
- b) The name "Legion" was, rather, about the power possessed.
- c) In the Roman context of this interaction, a "legion" was a military unit made of ten "cohorts" of something between 500 and 600 soldiers.
- i. This military unit was known as "The Might of the Roman Empire" and was led by a junior senator of Rome, known as a "Legatus Legionis" and a highly experienced warrior who would give military advice to the "Legatus".
- ii. In that day, Rome could field 28 legions if it became absolutely necessary.
- 2) This gives us to understand that the "spokesman" (the unclean spirit in control of the man's speech) was the spirit-world's equivalent of the "Legatus Legionis" and that he was revealing both the greatness and the weakness of his "power".
- b. In respect to the disciples, it "set the stage" by ramping up the issues of the prior night and the present day.
- 1) In the events of the night before, the disciples had been terrified by the appearance of "power" in the form of a raging storm at sea, and then further terrified by the actual demonstration of "power" by "The Son of the Highest God".
- 2) At the announcement of the "name", the disciples were confronted with a greater appearance of power than what they had faced in the night, and, since they had not been able to "settle" upon "Who" Jesus was, were likely in some consternation about the presence of a "legion" of "demons".
- c. In respect to the man possessed, it "set the stage" for the outcome of the towering superiority of Jesus' power: the witness to be given to the Decapolis.
- D. Then Mark recorded the "piling on" of "appeals" for Jesus to "come alongside" the Legatus in respect to the future dominion of the Kingdom of Darkness in that "region".
- 1. This "piling on" is the meaning of the phrase "he was imploring Him" to not send them out of that region.
- a. The word translated "imploring" has its basic meaning of "to summon alongside".
- b. As such, the unclean spirit was contradicting his own declaration that he and Jesus had no common ground.
- c. Thus, he was revealing the reality of his "divided kingdom" and was aware that it was doomed to fail.
- 2. Attempting to get Jesus "alongside" of him in his own agenda was his admission that his "name" didn't mean anything in terms of its most basic "sense" (Power).
- II. It Really Is All About The Significance Of A Name.
- A. In Mark, chapter three, we have Mark's record of Jesus giving different "names" to three of His disciples (Simon, James, and John).
- B. In Revelation 3:12 we are told that the "overcomer" will have three "names" written upon him: the name of God, the name of the City of God, and "My new name" [as a promise, this should not be allowed to go by the wayside as if unimportant).
- C. In Revelation 17:8 we are told that it is the presence of a person's "name" in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world that will keep that person from being deceived by the antichrist and his miracles and claims.
