Locals Troubled when a Madman is Healed. Hunch 33
They went across the lake to the
Gerasene region. When Jesus got out of
the boat, a man with an evil spirit came and met him from the cemetery. He lived among the graves, and no one could
bind him, not even with a chain. He had often been chained hand and foot, but tore
the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to
subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he raged, cutting himself
with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in
front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with
me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture
me!" For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil
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. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.
The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into
them." He gave them permission, and the evil 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 drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported
this in the town and countryside, and the people came 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 what had happened to the pigs as well. Then they pleaded 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 family 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.
In a Nutshell
Jesus healed a troubled man and the local
people fail to meet the challenge because they only see the threat. They can't
easily face up to the fact that there's nothing more important in God's eyes than
for a person to be freed from deep trouble?
Questions
Think about the way this man and his family would respond when they read this part of Mark's gospel.
Mark's
was written for people like you and me who never shook hands with Jesus. But
not only for us. It is likely he wrote for those who knew Him and had met Him,
for those who knew about John the Baptist, for those who repented of their sins
and had been baptised in the days before the gutless Herod executed John. The
Gospel was put to paper also for the many people Jesus met and taught when He
was visiting the coastal villages of Galilee. At points, Mark's gospel seems to
have been specially written for them; it's as if he was reminding them of what
Jesus was doing before and after their own encounter with Him. And it seems to
me that Mark may well have put this story into his gospel so the man who was
healed could be further encouraged and stay healed after his terrible torment
had been broken by the kindly Rabbi.
This man became God's way of helping the people of the region -
herdsmen and townspeople - understand that healthy people are more important than
our customs, crops, herds and possessions. We need our eyes opened to see this,
to see what God is doing in our lives. This story tells how the local herdsmen
and townspeople found new life, free from their troubles, and this began when
the Kingdom of God came close … in a fishing boat, down by the cemetery, the
day of the massive pig stampede. After he was healed this man became a
well-known disciple of Jesus throughout the Decapolis region, the so-called ten
free towns. The people there knew about Jesus because of what this man had told
them. Mark wrote keeping in mind the people who had asked Jesus to leave. They
had to be persuaded to think again. It is a story of God's forgiveness. Forgiveness
was available to those who told Jesus to stay away.
Gerasa
(or Gedara) was south and east of Lake Galilee, south and east of where Jesus
grew up and did most of his teaching before He went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem
is further south and to the west of the lake. Jesus' influence spread to regions
on the other side of the lake; this man was involved in that. He had been
tormented with deep-down demonic troubles. He thought they had come to stay but
Jesus freed him. He thought the demons were some kind of judgment; that's why
he asked Jesus to back-off. But Jesus stayed around long enough for him to know
God's gift of healing. Jesus reassured Him and made sure the evil spirits would
not bother him again.
Jesus didn't
need to shout so the whole region would hear. His anger toward the demons may
have been intense, but He didn't need to shout. The man had done enough
shouting already. Maybe the pigs were used to it. Maybe from where they were
grazing, a kilometre or two away, they became troubled when an eerie silence
came up to them from the bottom of the steep cliff.
But the
important point is that the troubled man was healed. The evil spirits were sent
away; they would trouble him no more. Jesus gave the pigs permission to storm
off down the cliff and they did and they were destroyed, the whole pile of
them. That brought the locals out! They were terrified and pleaded with Him to
go away. Fancy that! This man was now well, but they preferred to be terrified,
worried senselessly about the loss of their pigs. They couldn't rejoice and
thank God that this man had been healed.
Keeping
pigs was something that Jewish people did not usually do. You'll remember the
story Jesus told about the Lost Son who was so hungry and so sad that he was
hanging out for another helping of pigs' mash. And long ago God's people had
been forbidden to have contact with pigs. Whatever the evil was, Jesus had
overcome it. Mark makes a point of telling us that the evil spirits only
entered the massive horde when Jesus allowed them to. Now that's a little
scary, isn't it? But so is madness. And Jesus changed this man by healing him,
and helping him not to be afraid. That day the man's life was changed when the
evil spirits met their match shortly after Jesus' boat came into land near the
cemetery.
The
townsfolk could have no legal complaint about the pigs. They just wanted Jesus
out of there. And He was willing enough to go. In Matthew 8:28-34 we are told
that two men were living in that cemetery. In Mark's story we have no mention
of this other guy. I wonder why?
It's
interesting. The people asked Jesus to leave and He did so. The healed man
asked Jesus if he could come and Jesus told him to go home. In time this man
would help his friends and family and other people of that region marvel at
God's power and love. They would get over the loss of the pigs when they saw
that it is far more important for a person to be freed from torment to live for
God than it is to maintain a guilty life-style. The man discovered that Jesus
knew what was best. He came to realise that he didn't have to fear going home.