NL 223: Gerasene Demoniac

image: from “Crazy Bill: the Gerasene Demoniac Revisted” by Tim Melton

Mark 5:1-20

Initial Thoughts

Bible Study

  • Context

    • Parable of the Sower, Jesus saying, “My mother and brothers are those who hear my words and do it.”  and Jesus calming the storm (which he did on this trip to other side of the Sea of Galilee).

      • Stories of people not understanding.

      • Sower and the seed is about ¾ of seed that doesn’t take.

      • Jesus redefining family

      • Disciples fearful in the boat

    • This is a story of the demon knowing exactly who Jesus is.

    • Strange story of Jesus crossing sea, healing man, leaving him there, and going back. A lot of effort for one man, even if he is occupied by a Legion.

  • The Other side

    • Gerasa - land of the Gerasenes

      • 33 miles southeast of Galilee 

        • A large Roman City founded by Alexander the Great

      • Gadara - possible. This is where Matthew places this story and this town is only 6 miles Southeast of Galilee

        • A city “given” to Herod by Augustus

      • Both are Gentile cities with nominal Jewish populations

    • The other place - a new place (like the Israelites entering the wilderness, or the promised land, the Jesus movement is starting a new thing - with Gentiles!)

    • Perhaps a commentary on Tiberias, a major Hellenistic city, on the sea of Galilee, established as Herod Antipas’ capital- and it was built on a graveyard

    • Either way - major unclean elements: spirit, graveyard, pigs

  • Greeted by “a man.” Man gets no name

    • “Possessed by an evil spirit” 

    • For a long time: naked, living among tombs, chained

    • “No one could restrain him” and “no one has the strength to subdue him”

    • Inflicting harm upon himself (no indication he hurt others)

    • Apart from society

  • Unclean spirit recognizes Jesus

    • Jesus calls the demon out before the demon speaks (v.8)

    • Demon tries to assert authority by naming Jesus.

    • Jesus responds by demanding demon’s name.

    • “Legion” is a clear allusion to Roman authority.

      • A Legion is an occupying force, about 6,000 soldiers.

      • “The demoniac is called by the Latin name "Legion," referring to a company of up to 6,000 Roman soldiers. This strongly suggests that Mark linked the exorcism of the evil powers occupying the demoniac with acts of Roman oppression. The demons' preference for pigs is because of the animal's negative association in Judaism. The association of a Roman legion with a herd of pigs was a priceless piece of irony (Jeffrey John, The Meaning in the Miracles, 86).

      • Pigs don’t travel in “herds”, but that word agele in 5:11 is used to describe groups of military recruits

      • 5:13 - says Jesus dismissed them (not “gave permission”) a militaristic term, and the pigs “charged” (same word used for an army charging into battle) off the cliff (Myer, Binding the Strong Man)

    • Legion begs mercy. Jesus casts him into pigs - not valued animals for the time - and they run off the cliff and die.

      • Ironic - they think they can flee from Jesus power by going into the sea, but Jesus has just demonstrated his authority over the sea

      • Perhaps a call back to the raging waters consuming Pharaoh’s army (Exodus 15:4)

      • Liberation - when the dominant, oppressive order is cast into the sea

    • Parallels between this story and the Exorcism in Mark 1 - see Ched Myer’s Binding the Strong Man, p.193

      • Just as Jesus was liberating the Jews from the oppression of the scribal religious authority, now that liberation is being brought to the gentile to be liberated from Rome

  • A questions of identity

    • The pronoun in this story are difficult - “when he saw Jesus”, “he ran and bowed before him; and he shouted”, “For he said to him”, “He begged” - are we talking about the unclean spirit or the one possessed?

    • “It is not a linguistic problem, it is the problem of identity with anyone who has a demon. Who am I? Who am I apart from or in cohesion with this demon? Can ‘I’ be separated from ‘it’? I find stories of persons with demons to be powerfully insightful into the real dilemmas facing anyone with controlling habits, diseases, or conditions. We become identified with the disease and the behaviors, whether via pity or anger. What worse condition is there than to ask, “Who am I” and not to be able to answer?” (D Mark Davis, Left Behind and Loving It)

    • It is not only a question of how we see ourselves, but how we see others. The demoniac has been defined by his malady, not that he is “healed” the community doesn’t know what to do

  • People’s response is not positive, unsure at best. v. 15:

    • CEB: “Filled with awe”

    • NRSV: “And they were afraid.”

    • Ask Jesus to leave - people do not like their lives and communities disrupted

  • Man’s response

    • He wants to be bound to Jesus.

      • Following Jesus is not exchanging one oppressor for another

      • Jesus invites the man be free - bound to no one

      • Jesus refuses to be this man’s master, he will not restrain or control (v. 3 and 4) this man

    • Decapolis (the ten cities around the Galilee region)

      • Gerasa (Jerash) in Jordan

      • Scythopolis (Beit She'an) in Israel, the only city west of the Jordan River

      • Hippos (also Hippus or Sussita; Al-Husn in Arabic) on the Golan Heights

      • Gadara (Umm Qais) in Jordan

      • Pella (west of Irbid) in Jordan

      • Philadelphia, modern day Amman, the capital of Jordan

      • Capitolias, also Dion, probably Beit Ras or possibly Al Husn, less likely Aydoun, all in Jordan

      • Canatha (Qanawat) in Syria

      • Raphana, usually identified with Abila in Jordan

      • Damascus, the capital of modern Syria

    • Jesus tells man to tell people “what God had done for him.”

    • Man tells people “what Jesus had done for him.”

    • Obedience or disobedience?

Thoughts and Questions

  • How are mentally ill treated today? More and more, prisons are our mental health facilities. This man was chained in the tombs because of his possession. How many of those in our prison system are suffering from mental illness? 

  • The man has no identity apart from his affliction. How many of us are defined by our failures?  Two quotes from David Lose:

    •  Don’t we also tend to define ourselves in terms of our deficiencies and setbacks, our disappointments and failures? Not always, of course, but enough to rob us of the abundant life God hopes that we experience and share. Why is it that every time we want to take a risk and in this way be vulnerable, we are reminded of every failure, every disappointment we’ve experienced before? Perhaps because we’ve allowed these things to possess us. We, too, are Legion.

    • There are so many voices trying to possess and discourage us that we might still call them Legion. Yet against all of them stands the still, small, but mighty voice of the one who still crosses oceans and boundaries to tell us of God’s love and call us back to our right minds and grace-filled identities. Thanks to be God

  • How much do we tolerate evil we think we can control? Especially when it distracts us from true systemic change? How often do we use a common enemy to unite divided factions - thereby keeping us from addressing our divisions?

    • “In the case of the Gadarene demoniac, the people knew the locus of the evil, knew where the man lived, and devoted considerable time and expense trying to guard and to control him (v. 29). A community thus learns to live with demonic forces, isolating and partially controlling them. If it is not “spiritualizing” the story too much to say so, this partially successful balance of tolerance and management of the demonic among them also allowed the people to keep attention off their own lives. But now the power of God for good comes to their community and it disturbs a way of life they had come to accept.” - Craddock, Interpretation: Luke.

    • Odd as it may sound, we often prefer the devil we know to the freedom we do not. Congregations too can take a false sense of security from the dysfunctions they have learned to cope with, and they fear what change—even change for health—may bring. Communal identity is in this sense more difficult to change than individual identity. Indeed, if Luke's depiction of Jesus' ministry is any indication, effecting change among a fearful community can be even more difficult than stilling storms or casting out demons. - David Lose, Feasting on the Word – Year C, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16)

Year 2Eric FistlerMarkComment