Can you imagine, you’ve just crossed the Lake of Galilee for the umpteenth time – and that was strange enough, a choppy crossing to say the least and Jesus had commanded the wind and waves to abate as the boat had been taking on water and He had wanted to sleep. Well they were all tired. It had been another long day and they arrived at the country of the Garasenes, when out of nowhere some mad, naked and very large intimidating man appears. He still had shackles attached to him and he falls down at his master’s feet, shouting – ‘What have you to do with me Jesus, son of the most high God?’ A mad demonic possessed by evil spirits.
Jesus takes it all in His stride as though an everyday occurrence. What happens next seems strange though; Jesus orders the demons out of the man and into the pigs – poor pigs. Why the pigs? And then the whole herd appear to throw themselves off the cliff – the herdsman/farmer is going to be a very unhappy man – his livelihood has just disappeared.
And the man, like new, quiet, compliant and in his right mind, he wants to travel on with Jesus but Jesus says he should return home and tell of the wonderful things God has done for him.
This is a very odd passage, I think and one which at first glance doesn’t seem to have all that much bearing for our lives today. But we need to look more deeply at the passage. I began by jotting down just a few bullet points as they occurred to me and slowly the picture changes and widens.
The first thing I looked at was the swine. The demons actually begged Jesus to go into the swine rather than return to the abyss – consequently the whole herd disappeared over the cliff. Obviously the herdsman lost his possessions and even perhaps his livelihood – but by giving the demons permission to enter the swine Jesus is putting the man’s needs first. The man needed to be healed and in order to be returned to his right mind he needed to be demon free. This cost our herdsman but human life is restored to sanity and human life is of far greater value than material wealth – the wealth of possessions.
Secondly the Demons, when Jesus arrived on dry land they called out. ‘What have you to do with me Jesus, Son of the most high God?’ The Demons recognised Jesus for who he was – so even the devil himself recognises the power and authority of the Lord and is subject to that power and authority.
Thirdly – we have in this story many witnesses. There are those who had been on the boat; there were the people of the city and in the country who saw the mad man reclothed in his right mind and of course we have the man himself – who unlike in previous stories where Jesus tells people to say nothing about who he is – here he tells him to do the opposite and go and tell and witness to all that God has done. All those recognise the power and authority they have seen and go to spread the word.
Let’s take things a step further – our man having first recognised the authority of the Lord, subjects himself to that authority and in so doing experiences a life changing, life enhancing moment. Whatever his past was, his encounter with Jesus changes everything and he is given a new life.
This is where it becomes more relevant to each of us who hear it – it means once we have acknowledged and accepted Jesus’ authority for ourselves, our past history is just that, past history and we can move on – clothed in our right mind, we can move on with Jesus and also witness to Jesus and to what he has done for us and in our lives. Hopefully many people will come and witness to change for themselves in their own lives too.
Submitting to Jesus, frees us from the tyranny of sins – in our story not only was the man freed from his demons but the neighbourhood which he had inhabited was also set free. In Jesus our spirit becomes free and our lives change for the better.
Now I am going to bring us bang up to date and leave you with these final thoughts. If we go back in the scriptures, to the passage just before, we read about Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee – then comes our man with his demons, followed swiftly by Janus’s daughter raised from the dead and the woman with haemorrhages healed. The authority of Jesus 1) calming the storm – His authority over nature, 2) His authority over evil, 3) His authority over sickness and death and in all cases Jesus’ authority and power transforms – transforms people, transforms lives. The people and their lives begin to form the church. We are the people of today, the church of today. Dare we let Jesus transform us and so transform His church as we accept again and acknowledge His authority.
Jan (reader)