Ep. 35: The demoniac at Gerasa
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MATTHEW 8:28-34, MARK 5:1-20, LUKE 8:26-39
(Book 3: Chapter 25)
That day of wonders was not yet ended. We suppose the Saviour and his disciples to have landed on the other side of the lake late in the evening. All the circumstances lead us to regard the healing of the demonised at Gerasa as a night scene, immediately on Christ’s arrival from Capernaum and after the calming of the storm at sea.
About a quarter of an hour to the south of Gerasa is a steep bluff, which descends abruptly on a narrow ledge of the shore. A terrified herd running down this cliff could not have recovered its foothold and must inevitably have been hurled into the lake beneath. Again, the whole country around is burrowed with limestone caverns and rock chambers for the dead, such as those which were the dwelling of the demonised. Altogether, the scene forms a fitting background to the narrative. From these tombs, the demonised ‘one’, who is specially singled out by Mark and Luke, as well as his less prominent companion, came forth to meet Jesus.
According to common Jewish superstition, the evil spirits dwelt especially in lonely desolate places and also among tombs. According to Mark. He was ‘night and day in the tombs and in the mountains,’ the very order of the words indicating the idea (as in Jewish belief), that it was chiefly at night that evil spirits haunted burial places.
Jesus, who had been labelled by the Pharisees as being the messenger of Satan, is here face to face with the extreme manifestation of demonic power and influence. The question, which had been raised by his enemies is about to be brought to the issue of a practical demonstration. There are critical epochs in the history of the Kingdom of God, when the power of evil, standing out in sharpest contrast, challenges that overwhelming manifestation of the Divine, as such, to bear down and crush that which opposes it. Periods of that kind are characterised by miraculous demonstrations of power, unique even in Bible history. Such a period was, in the Old Testament, that of Elijah and Elisha, with its altogether exceptional series of miracles; and, under the New Testament, that which followed the first formulated charge of the Pharisees against the Christ.
It was the self-confession of the demons when obliged to come into his presence and do homage, which made the man fall down and, in the well-known Jewish formula recorded by the Gospel writers, say: ‘What have I to do with You?’ Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, asking him to identify himself. ‘My name is Legion: for we are many.’
Viewing this miracle, again the thought presented itself, is he not the Son of the Most High God? Contrary to what was commonly the case, when the evil spirits came out of the demonised, there was no outpouring of physical distress. Was it then so, that the more complete and lasting the demoniac possession, the less there were of purely physical symptoms accompanying it?
But now the people come from town and country. We may contrast the scene with that of the shepherds when on Bethlehem’s plains, the great revelation had come to them, and they had seen the Divine baby laid in the manger and had worshipped. As with these herdsmen. There could be no doubt in their minds that one possessing supreme and unlimited power was in their midst. Also, for the healed demoniac, awe and fear! The ‘depart from me, for I am a sinful man’ is the natural expression of a mind conscious of sin when brought into contact with the Divine. Then, his life’s mission lay ahead of him, to go back, now healed, to the whole of the large district of the ten confederate cities, the Decapolis and speak of the great thing Jesus had done for him. In this, there would be both safety and happiness. ‘And all men did marvel.’ Then Jesus himself travelled to that region, having had the way prepared for him.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)