DownloadSept. 28, 2009 issue
One set free
Lesson for October 11, 2009 — Mark 5:1-13, 18-20
By Carmen AndresPage:
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As we’ve explored the story of God’s work to redeem the world and how that’s connected to his covenant community, we’ve come upon Jesus and his invitations to the kind of living-together God has been working toward.
Andres
The night before, Jesus and his disciples had set out across the Sea of Galilee after Jesus had spent the day teaching about the kingdom of God — and, as scholars note, we’re getting an eyeful of just how powerful and pervasive God’s kingdom and rule really is. We’ve already watched Jesus calm a great windstorm on the lake with a few simple words, displaying power over nature itself (Mark 4:35-41). Now, as he steps off the boat, a demon-possessed man confronts him.
This man is tormented. He howls and screams night and day, hitting himself with rocks. He is in agony. He is “a microcosm of the whole of creation, inarticulately groaning for redemption (Rom. 8:22),” says David Garland in the NIV Application Commentary.
Defeating a legion
The man is possessed not by a single demon but a legion, the term for a Roman military unit of 6,000 men. But, even confronted with such overwhelming evil, Jesus doesn’t struggle a bit. He speaks calmly and briefly. Then he simply frees the man from the demons, to whom he gives permission to enter a nearby herd of pigs, which promptly go mad, plunge off a cliff and drown in the water below.
The swine herders run off to tell the story. When others come to see what’s happened, they see the wild man they’d been unable to chain or subdue now “clothed and in his right mind,” sitting calmly with Jesus. He is a new man.
That scares them. Their reports of the now-sane wild man and dead pigs stir even more fear. Their encounter with Jesus and God’s kingdom rattles their world, and they don’t like that. They beg Jesus to leave.
Jesus complies, and the now-demon-free man begs to go with him. Jesus, however, refuses. Instead, he says, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you” (verse 19).
Fully human again
Jesus’ presence and healing ripples into all aspects of the human condition. As Garland puts it, the man’s “encounter with Jesus makes him fully human again, with a family, a home, and mission in life.” Jesus not only frees him and restores his relationships with others but also sends him out.
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