The Gospel for Saturday, March 13, 2004
Mark 5:1-20
They reached the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the lake, and when he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit at once came out from the tombs towards him. The man lived in the tombs and no one could secure him any more, even with a chain, because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him. All night and all day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God’s name do not torture me!’ For Jesus had been saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, unclean spirit.’ Then he asked, ‘What is your name?’ He answered, ‘My name is Legion, for there are many of us.’ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the district. Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding, and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.’ So he gave them leave. With that, the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned. The men looking after them ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about; and the people came to see what had really happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there—the man who had had the legion in him—properly dressed and in his full senses, and they were afraid. And those who had witnessed it reported what had happened to the demoniac and what had become of the pigs. Then they began to implore Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to stay with him. Jesus would not let him but said to him, ‘Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.’ So the man went off and proceeded to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Jesus detected a sick man from a distance and commenced the sick man's healing before he could clearly be seen. It is likely that the man was not a Jew, as the area eastward across the lake was inhabited largely by a gentile population.
Mark recounts that the demons were already in fear of being ejected from the man as Jesus approached, and that they not only knew who Jesus was, but feared what He could do to them, begging God to stop tormenting them. The demons go into the pigs, who promptly herd themselves off a cliff and into the lake.
The swineherds were likely infuriated by this point, and begging Jesus to leave their neighborhood was as much a matter of economic survival as it was fear of what else he might do [to them].
Jesus refuses the healed man as a close follower, and entreats him to publish what "the Lord" has done for him -- clearly revealing to the man exactly who Jesus was (or was at least representing). The man did so, and as Mark is so fond of saying, "everyone was amazed."
A Reflection
Ethel waters, born in 1896 to a 12-year-old African-American girl who had been raped by a white man, left a legacy of outstanding jazz music and at least one particularly significant quote: "... God don't make no junk." It is a saying of great truth: one we should recite right after we say "peace on this place" as we enter. And especially as we step outside into the world, we should remember to voice those two sayings.
We should remember that He makes no junk because we are so often confronted with people with demons, and with our own personal demons. I have never seen anyone at the limits that Mark so vividly describes. But we have all seen people ill with demons. There are fancy psychiatric names for them. There are treatments for them that are not nearly so effective as the one used by our Lord. But no one seems to be able to replicate His methods.
Wild eyed, head swaying, filthy, leaning up against the church building, sitting semi-upright in a puddle of his own urine. The stare, the brown sack with empty bottle lying nearby. Teeth rotted. "Got five bucks for a pack of smokes?" he asks. Demons?
Many of us -- make that most of us -- have problems that a pyschiatrist would perceive as falling within his medical domain. Who among us has not felt down in the dumps? That's depression. And the flip side, mania: who among us hasn't said or done something "stupid" in an act of excited enthusiasm. So we're all a bit manic-depressive.
But it's when we, who have absolute control over our selves -- remember? -- have that control wrested away, that's when the demons are there. Will power is no power. Ask any alcoholic.
Ask anyone who's had a real panic attack. There's no "willing that away." Only intervention helps, and its helpfulness seems to vary. Drugs can certainly affect the way chemicals are imbalanced in our brains, and help, but do not cure. The only documented cures are written in the Bible.
I pray for those who are not junk when I see them. I cannot cast out demons, yet. Maybe never. Jesus said that there are some demons that "require prayer." I can try to be a helper. at least, for those.
Father, you cut short the breath of princes and strike terror in earthly kings. The intricacy of your universe yields its secrets slowly to the still-developing intellects with which you blessed us. Speed us, gracious Lord, to that day when demons will tremble before you at our approach.
8:36:31 AM 
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