Meditations in Mark Chapter 5

I have enjoyed this story ever since I was a child

When spending the night with cousins or friends,
- we would sit in the dark and tell ghost stories
• it surprised me to find one of the spookiest of ghost stories in Mark's gospel
◦ and this one is true – it really happened
◦ Mark turns flashlight into his face and tells "The Legend of Legion"
• “It all began on the other side of the sea”
◦ this is like saying, “the other side of the tracks” -- it was a bad neighborhood
◦ it was Gentile territory – and anything awful could happen there
- in fact there was a wild man there, tormented by demons, and who lived in the graveyard
• he lacerated his body with stones and was heard howling night and day
◦ he was like an animal, but too strong to capture and cage
for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him (v. 4)
◦ doesn’t Mark begin this story well?