Just prior to the miracle story in Luke 8, Jesus had taken
the disciples on a nerve-wrenching journey. They had been on the Capernaum-side
of the Sea of Galilee. Although they could have walked around the top of the sea,
he guided them to the more direct route that crossed the sea, a sea that is
still notorious for violent storms. Jesus was sleeping in the boat when a storm
broke out. The disciples were afraid. Jesus got up, calmed the storm and the
disciples were terrified. Who can calm the forces of nature?! Their friend and
teacher?! Yes, and this was a demonstration that he was far more than that. He was
the Master of the Elements. To be near such power must have been terrifying.
But why did they not flee when they got to the shore? Why did they stay with
him? Everyone has different responses to power—as we shall see.
It is important to get some geographical and cultural
history on what happened to them next. In the Gospel of Luke, this is the first
miracle in a Gentile-dominated area. The area is called the Gerasenes in Luke’s
Gospel and by other names in the other Gospels. It has also been called the
Decapolis (the Ten Cities), an area dominated by the military and economic
prowess of the Roman Empire. Everywhere anyone went there were Roman soldiers, Roman
symbols, pagan temples and tax collectors. Jews were allowed to have their own
places of worship, work and lifestyle, as long as they did not cause any
problems for the Roman government. One of the lifestyle choices for Jews came
right out of the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 11. This codex of laws included prohibitions
against eating particular kinds of meat—including pigs. These laws, as many
commentators cite, were not necessarily in place to be just health guidelines.
Thomas E. Phillips in the Illustrated
Bible Life (2018 The Foundry Publishing), described this as a way to seal
their identity as a people of God and to help them “avoid the dangers of
confused identity.” Phillips gives us this picture.
Greeks and Romans
loved pork as much as Jews despised it. The Greeks routinely offered pigs in
sacrifice to their gods (the Greek god of war, Mars, required pig sacrifices).
The Roman legions were largely sustained by pork and red wine (pork fed them
and red wine warded off typhus). The legions ate vast amounts of pork, which
offered tremendous advantages for an army on the move. Pigs could eat nearly
anything (except grass); they could be allowed to forage on their own much of
the time, even feeding on battlefield corpses. Pigs required no special care
like sheering or milking. One sow could produce a litter of 12 piglets twice
per year, piglets that could be slaughtered in a few months. Pigs were so
important to the Roman legions that the 10th legion, the legion that destroyed
Jerusalem in AD 70, placed the boar on its battle flag.
The presence of pigs for these Jewish disciples was not the
only problem they had. In a pagan arena Satan has free play with the souls and
lives of people. If they are not aware of this (Ephesians 6:11-12, 2
Corinthians 2:11) and then also participate in pagan god celebrations, rituals
and sacrifices, an individual can be taken over and become demon possessed.
This is a very real matter today and back in Jesus day. It is nothing to be
trifled with. Luke and the other Gospel writers do not shy away from this.
Those who followed Jesus, whether believers or not, knew this to be a very real
and troubling matter. How a person becomes possessed by demons is the subject
of many books and discussions. One way or the other, it happens. Robert K.
Harris, O.F.M. in The New Jeromes
Biblical Commentary (1990) treats this subject with great acuity, showing
that when it happens the possessed person is drawn away from society and
isolated. It’s really the work of Satan to divide and conquer—and if that is
one individual at a time or a large number, he is mightily pleased. John Milton
in Paradise Lost, a fictional view of
the initial battle between Satan and God, describes the destructive work of the
fallen ones as being driven by one thing—the destruction of God himself. And if
they have to do this by abusing God’s creation, then so be it. Luke brings us to one of the most extreme examples of this.
Read Luke 8:26-31.
Even the demons knew who Jesus was! What a testimony to the disciples who had
just been terrified of his power over the sea! Now they were faced with the
reality that this Jesus, standing next to them, also had power over the demonic
world. The demons not only acknowledged the place of the Abyss (see Revelation
9:1) as the tormenting home of Satan and his legions, but also that Jesus
Christ has power it. In both their terror of the Abyss and their terror over
the One who could cast them there, they tried to strike a deal. They began to
negotiate with the Most High God.
Jesus had none of it. He was very clear on his work in this
situation. Perhaps that is why he had the disciples cross the dangerous sea for
the more direct route to this tormented man. One of God’s precious children
needed to be free. This man, whom the Scriptures say God knew before he was
even born (Psalm 139:15-16), had been ripped from his community, from his
livelihood, from the basic elements of human living—no shelter or clothing or
friends or even identity. And he needed to be free from the spiritual violence
done in and against him.
Read Luke 8:32-37.
The disciples had been terrified of the power of Jesus over
the sea. They stayed with him. The demons had been terrified of the One who had
made the Abyss and the reality of his great power over them. They left him. The
people, whose lifestyle and income had indeed been impinged upon—but who were
more terrified of the someone with this kind of power—begged him to leave. The
Roman military had to be fed! Standing in front of the people of that region
was the Answer to all of their troubles, but they refused to see it. They
wanted nothing to do with that kind of terrifying power. It seems that they
were so focused on the power in the negative that they completely missed the
power in the positive. In the middle of all of this and sitting at the feet of
Jesus was the man
who had be driven away from them. They had shunned him because of his wild
behavior. They had kept their families away from him because he was so violent.
They had isolated him, stopped reaching out to him, stopped caring for him,
stopped praying for him. But Jesus went directly to him and delivered him. And the
man was grateful.
Read Luke 8:38-39.
In one of the most beautiful renderings of freedom, Luke
shows us the power of love. This was not just Jesus’ love of the man—which
indeed was great—but it was love for the whole region of people. The man was to
be returned to community, radically extracted from isolation, to tell others of
what Christ could do for them. The man’s longing to be with Jesus, demonstrated
by him begging to stay with him, was transformed into one of the great
missionary movements in the Decapolis.
How many more found freedom from fear through
Jesus Christ because of his testimony? How many more found true and lasting
community because they accepted Christ as their Savior? How many descendants of those people initially transformed lived and
worked with and testified to soldiers, tax collectors, pagan priests and
worshipers for decades to come? The truest response to the power of Jesus
Christ is to not be afraid anymore—to not be afraid of isolation, economic
downturn, demon possession, or even of him.
M.R. Hyde
Copyright 2019
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