Legion: Mark 5:1-20

The boat scraped ashore in Gentile territory—the region of the Gerasenes, where pigs rooted in the hills and Jews rarely ventured. Before Jesus could step fully onto the beach, a figure came hurtling from the tombs.

He was a horror. Naked, filthy, his body a map of self-inflicted wounds. The townspeople had tried to restrain him—chains on his wrists, shackles on his ankles—but he had torn them apart like thread. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and in the hills, he shrieked and slashed himself with stones. The living dead, haunting the houses of the dead.

But when he saw Jesus, he ran toward him—not to attack, but to fall at his feet.

"What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" The voice was his but not his—a chorus of voices tangled together. "In God's name don't torture me!"