What Mark 5 Tells Us About Demons, Borders, and Belonging

A Scary Movie and a Sacred Story

The Exorcism of Emily Rose—it’s creepy, suspenseful, and taps into a deep cultural well of fear and fascination with the demonic. But did you know it riffs on a biblical story? Specifically, Mark 5, where Jesus encounters a man possessed by a demon named Legion.

Now, let’s be honest: for many of us, these demoniac stories are hard to take seriously. Are we really meant to believe there were demons prowling the Roman countryside, jumping into people at random? But ironically, it might be our modern suspicion that blinds us to the story's depth. Because what’s happening in Mark 5 isn’t just about demons. It’s a parable.

What the Story Really Tells Us

This encounter between Jesus and a demon-possessed man is layered with cultural, political, and religious meaning. It takes place in the "region of the Gerasenes" or more evocatively, "the land of the cast out ones."

Whether that name refers to Gentiles or Jewish communities who had migrated or been pushed out, it signals something significant: Jesus is stepping into enemy territory. He crosses a literal lake to enter a symbolic space—the land of them, the other, the not-us.

When he arrives, he’s met by a man living among tombs, cut off in every conceivable way—socially, religiously, ritually, and politically. He is unclean, naked, bleeding, and living among the dead. He is the epitome of separation, the embodiment of everything a devout Jew would avoid.

Naming the Chaos

When Jesus asks the man his name, he replies, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

Legion isn’t just a spooky word. It’s a Roman term. It meant 5,600 infantry, 200 non-citizen soldiers, and hundreds of cavalry. In Jesus’ time, Legion was an occupying military force. So when this man says he is Legion, he’s saying something profound: I am occupied, overwhelmed, not just by inner torment but by everything Rome symbolizes.

So Jesus sends this Legion into a herd of pigs—unclean animals, wandering on once-Jewish lands. They rush into the lake and drown in the waters that Jesus had just calmed. And here's a curious historical detail: the symbol of the 10th Roman Legion, the one stationed in Jerusalem? A wild boar.

Mark is not just giving us a spooky story. He's crafting a political, social, and theological parable. One where the forces of Empire and exclusion are drowned by divine grace.

The Real Enemy

You might believe this is a literal exorcism. Or you might see it as a metaphor for all the ways we are burdened and separated. Either way, what becomes clear is this: Jesus is not just healing a man. He is confronting the entire system that cast this man out in the first place.

He crosses borders. He breaks taboos. He enters the land of the other to remind us that there is no them.

Where Are Our "Cast Out Ones"?

Most of us won’t face a demon named Legion. But we do know the stories that tell us some people aren’t worth the effort. We have categories for who is in and who is out. We have names that mark people as unworthy.

And yet, Jesus steps into those places. He calms the chaos, meets the man where he is, and asks his name. He confronts the real enemy—not the man, but the forces that isolated him.

That’s the challenge for us, isn’t it?

To recognize the ways we’ve unknowingly contributed to someone else’s pain. To see how our religious language can alienate. To admit that we’ve sometimes dreamed of violence as a means to justice.

And then, to let Jesus teach us a better way. A way that sees no enemies, only beloved children of God.

The Takeaway

The story of Legion is not just about a man in a graveyard. It’s about all the ways we convince ourselves that some people don’t belong. It’s about how Empire, religion, and fear conspire to cast people out.

But Jesus? He gets in the boat anyway.

He goes to the other side.

He asks the man his name.

And he reminds us—again and again—that them does not exist.