Right after I graduated from film school, I worked on a movie in Fortaleza, Brazil. It is called The Broken Chain. It is a story about two brothers who got involved with spiritual entities  in a religion called Candomblé. In Brazil, Candomblé manipulates the “saints,” or spirits, who represent forces of nature, natural phenomena, or the spirit of long-dead Africans. You can request the protection or blessing of a saint by following the taboos, performing rituals or giving them food or blood sacrifices.

In the movie, the younger brother was a medium, possessed by a “saint,” which was considered to be a great privilege. When possessed, he would smoke a cigar, speak in a low voice, dance in a squat fashion, and give prophecies. The older brother was seeking help from the spirits to help cure his insomnia.

As directed by the “father of the saints,” a type of priest who controlled the mediums and ruled the different communities, the older brother preformed rituals and submitted to the presence of the spirits. As a result, he was blessed with sleep, academic honors, promotions, even a new girlfriend. Meanwhile, his younger brother devolved into a kind of madness because of the spirit’s manifestations. He had ceased to be able to control his own body. The family was terrified at what was happening to him.

As disturbing as this was, there was one thing that disturbed the older brother more. He had noticed a group of people at his university called crentes. This is Portugues slang for “believer.” Whenever the crentes were around, the spirits were unhappy and would refuse to manifest. These “believers” caused him pause in his pursuit of the spirit’s power. Who could be more powerful than the spirits?

In time, the spirits began to turn on both brothers. The sleeplessness returned. The spirits haunted them both. In desperation to be free of the spirit’s torture, the older brother remembered the crentes and in a last desperate attempt to help his brother, he asked a woman he knew was a believer.

“Why are the spirits so afraid of you?”

Maybe whatever she had could help his family. She explained her relationship of trust with Jesus and that His Holy Spirit lived in her. The spirits were afraid of the Most High God who dwelled with her. The older brother listened to her testimony and believed and became a crente himself, but the younger brother did not. 

The younger brother’s journey with the spirits became disastrous. Unable to control when the saint would take over, he would lose control and twist on the ground uncontrollably. The spirit would walk him into oncoming traffic. At the end of the film, the spirit took over and crashed his car, killing the younger brother.

This movie could be the story we read in today’s passage in Mark 5:1-20.

Mark 5:1-20

And they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, immediately, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 

Shouting the top of his voice, he says, “WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME, JESUS SON OF GOD MOST HIGH? IN GOD’S NAME,  DON’T TORTURE ME!”

Jesus had just said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

Now, there was a large herd of pigs feeding on the nearby hillside. They begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 

He allowed them, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowning.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 

Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 

So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Spirits are real, but Jesus is in charge.

In our modern, materialistic, rational, American world, this story seems unreal. However, there are unclean spirits who want to harm humans. As I learned from my time in Brazil, these types of visible possessions and physical manifestations still occur in places where people worship and welcome the involvement of the spirits. The spirits are active and unseen all around us, as well.

The spiritual dimension is a reality. It is inhabited by spiritual – or if you’d prefer a scientific term- interdimensional creatures. The spirit world recognizes Jesus as the son of the Most High God. He is in charge. This title “Most High” is a term that reveals the spirits believe there are levels of spiritual authority. Jesus is at the apex. The crente’s  experience of resisting the presence and power of the spirits in Brazil also confirms that Jesus is the authority over the spirits.

Today we are reading this story by itself, but when you read it in context of the previous story, we see this declaration of “Jesus, son of the Most High God” as an answer to the question the disciples asked at the end of Mark 4.

The Twelve have just come off a terrifying experience at sea. It wasn’t the unusual storm that threatened to drown them in the waves of Galilee that had scared them, it was Jesus who had terrified them. They had experienced Jesus turn the weather in an instant, with a thoughtless word. “Peace!” One second, pouring rain and hurricane winds. Then next, perfect calm.

They had asked in terror, “Who the #*$* is this?!”

They get their answer from the voice of 6,000 demons. Jesus is the heir of the most powerful spiritual being in the universe, the Creator, God Most High.

When Jesus delivers the wild man of the tombs from his tormenting spirits, the disciples get another terrifying glimpse at the authority and power in the humble voice of their teacher.

Sometimes it takes dirty, unclean and evil presences to help us see that Jesus really is God Most High.

• God Most High went out of his way through time and space and storms to set a filthy, disgusting, dirty man free.
• God Most High is not fazed by 6,000 demons.
• God Most High can be a terrifying experience for some, but he is the only hope for those plagued by unclean spirits.

Curiosity about the paranormal is rising.

As I write this post in 2025, a Gallup poll found that roughly half of Americans say they believe in ghosts, while only 28 percent believe people can communicate with the dead. A Barna poll found that 82 percent of U.S. adults say they believe in—or are open to—the possibility of a spiritual or supernatural dimension.  Curiosity about the paranormal is rising in America. (Read the article.)

If you are on the search for proof of the spiritual world, or for an experience beyond our realm, remember the stories and experiences of the followers of Jesus. Spirits are very real. However, if you attempt to contact or control them, they will turn on you with degradation and death.

Jesus offers freedom and life. Jesus is more powerful than the spirits.