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Luke 8:26-39
The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man
26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!”29 For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him.31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
Lots of modern readers find this story confusing and disturbing. That’s mostly because it has religious symbols that had meaning in first-century Palestine, but that go right over our heads. But every story in the gospels has some kind of lessons for our lives of faith, so it’s important that we try to think through the religious imagery and figure out what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in this strange story.
It might be helpful to think of this story as an “enacted parable.” As you might remember, that’s what the Bible scholars call a story in which Jesus’ actions, rather than his words, have a theological meaning. And like all the parables of Jesus, understanding this one requires understanding what it meant to the culture in which it took place.
In the story, Jesus meets a man who is possessed by a bunch of demons. The demons describe themselves using a Greek word the NIV Bible translates as “Legion.” But that translation seems a little misguided to me – it calls to mind the discipline and order of the Roman army. But some scholars say the Greek word really means something closer to “mob.”
The possessed man is wearing no clothes, which the scholars say symbolizes his inability to experience shame. He’s also able to break the chains used to bind him, symbolizing that he’s beyond human control. We’re told that the man lives “in the tombs” – in the local cemetery. Cemeteries were understood to be unclean places, so the man was possessed by unclean spirits and driven to live in an unclean place.
So like we said, there are a lot of cultural symbols in the story. Their meanings aren’t clear to us, but they would have been understood by people reading or hearing it.
This is also one of the gospel stories about demonic possession where the demons possessing the man address Jesus directly and know who he is. They also know that he has power over them, so the demons beg Jesus not to hurl them into “the Abyss.” That was another religious symbol – the Hebrews understood the abyss as a place where evil spirits were imprisoned.
Instead, the demons ask Jesus to cast them into a herd of pigs feeding nearby, and Jesus grants that request. The pigs then subsequently rush down the bank into “the Lake” (probably the Sea of Galilee) and drown themselves. This offends our sensibilities. It seems like an inhumane destruction of animals, not to mention an economic blow to the village. But pigs were considered unclean animals, so in the context of ancient Hebrew culture, it would be appropriate for unclean spirits to be cast into unclean animals. As the people of the time would have heard this story, the demons get what they ask for and are still destroyed.
At the end of the story, the formerly-possessed man is found to be sitting calmly with Jesus, “dressed and in his right mind.” So the exorcism of the demons has effected a mental and moral transformation in the man. The point of the story seems to be to demonstrate the power of Jesus over the forces of evil.
Luke tells us that the people of the village are afraid when they see what has happened, and they ask Jesus to leave. Notice that the text doesn’t say it’s because of the loss of the pigs that the people want Jesus to leave – it’s because what has happened has freaked them out. This was probably a gentile village, because Jews wouldn’t be keeping pigs. So from the perspective of the villagers, a mysterious figure had shown up and defeated an evil force that had terrorized their community for years. You would think the villagers would want him to stay, but it seems that Jesus’ power was so threatening they just wanted him to go away.
The man from whom the demons have been cast out wants to go with Jesus – in fact Luke says that he ‘begs’ to go with him. But Jesus leaves the man in the community as a witness to the power of God. Presumably, Jesus’ plan is for the story of a frightening struggle involving evil powers to be replaced in time with a story about God’s healing and liberating power.
So, as I said, this is a story that would strike ancient people who heard it or read it very differently than it strikes us. To them, it would be story about how Jesus could use the power of God to overcome evil forces and set us free from them. It probably won’t ever seem as powerful to modern readers as it did to people who heard it during Jesus’ earthly ministry. But at least we can wrap our heads around the meanings it would have held to the people who first heard it or read it – not to mention the people who witnessed it first-hand.
Let’s pray. Lord, we rejoice that you have the power to set us free from the evil powers that threaten us. We thank you for communicating this truth to people throughout history in ways that they were able to understand and appreciate. Help us to understand that message now, and to live with the confidence that comes from knowing we serve a God with the power to heal and liberate us. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
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