When Pigs Fly // Pastor Michele Arndt // Mar 30 2025

Idioms can be a fun form of speech used to exaggerate a response. For example, if a friend shares an outrageous account of something that sounds almost unbelievable, you might say “Yeah, right! When pigs fly!” Well, our story in Mark’s gospel is exactly this kind of account. It is outrageous and certainly presses against all kinds of things we believe, and in the end, some pigs actually fly right over the edge of a cliff.This is the story of the demoniac. Yes, we might call him “The Demoniac” because while Jesus heals plenty of people from demons in scripture, this one seems to carry more weight. Why? For starters, we learn that this tortured soul in Mark 5 doesn’t just have “a” demon, but a “legion” of demons – a word referring to thousands. Is this, too, hyperbole? Jesus’s encounter with this man poses a handful of uncomfortable questions: What do we believe about evil spirits? What assumptions do we have about a person possessed by demons? What do demons know? And of course, there is the curious question: Why does the story end with pigs flying?