Interesting tidbit #1
The demoniac ran up to Jesus and fell at his feet and this is where the conversation between the demons and Jesus occurs. Jesus apparently doesn't skip a beat about what needs to happen because Mark says in v. 8-9 "For he {Jesus} was saying to him {Legion}" the verb saying is in the present tense, thus indicating Jesus in the midst of casting the demons out.
Interesting tidbit #2
The demons negotiate with Jesus. This just freaks me right the heck out. Former heavenly beings in the presence of the Son of God, while fully recognizing who he is do not repent but desire to be delivered into another vessel to continue their destruction of the area. On that note, Gerasenes (the town outside of which this event occured) might not be the best place to invest in real estate.....or livestock as the story goes. Anywho, of all created things equipped to recognize and submit to the glory of Jesus Christ one would think that those who prior to their rebellion lived in the daily presence of the Trinity might relent from evil....but no. This "Legion" had once existed in God's infinite presence and now occupies their time by inhabiting some poor Gentile, forcing him to live in a graveyard and torture himself. They're frightened by Jesus, but not so much that they stop being jerks. When it was becoming clear that they couldn't resist the authority of Jesus they pull the sour grapes move of possessing a herd of pigs which they promptly drive crazy....making the herd (some 2000) run into the sea and drown.
Say what????
I've been thinking about this a lot today because I'm "teaching" on it tonight....one of the things I've realized is that the oddness of this passage stems a lot from my "post-modern/post-enlightenment" perspective of the world. I admit that the bartering of the demons frankly confounds me, and I'm not too sure what they hoped to achieve. But even more odd than that is the mere existence of these creatures. I go through my life happily ignorant of what is happening around me unless I can see, and quantify what I experience. But Kant was wrong about our situation. The lack of visible evidence of something does not automatically relegate that thing into the realms of abstraction and thought. Western thought tends to move in straight lines, with a linear beginning and end (which is nice to think about). But I wonder if the world is more complex than we think it. I wonder if eternity is pressing in all around us as people. I wonder what is really behind the choices I make. Who is really whispering in my ear.
The age old cartoon image of angels and devils on each shoulder seems childish at first, but upon reading this passage I sit here in my office with the hair on the back of my neck standing up. I find myself wondering what a guy would have to do to become tenement housing for a multitude of demons. My gut instinct is that one would have to be quite the piece of work to attract that kind of attention, but as I think about it more and more the adage "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" keeps coming to the forefront of my mind.
Interesting tidbit #3
The demons confess Christ's lordship....with stunning insight and accuracy. Yet they are not saved....at least they aren't if being cast out by Jesus is any indicator. We read in epistles like Romans and Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith. But as we go about our days our faith sometimes looks more and more like a work we perform rather than an inheritance we've received. The most frightening thing about this passage perhaps is the sheer understanding that there is some veiled entity that only desires to torture and destroy us, and the world around us. I don't know what to do with people not liking me, much less am I comfortable with some invisible force bent on my destruction. Even though the handiwork of such a creature is evident all the time in the worst things we read in the news or see as we travel to work and to our homes. But I would rather see those things as the consequence of people's actions....because I can do something about that. I would rather think of those things as social ills, and consequences of polity....or even sin in the church. Because I vote, and preach. But, if Mark 5 is true, salvation through faith only comes by Jesus' personal intervention in something.....so, I have to sit.....and pray with great vulnerability. Knowing that Christ is far more powerful than this evil that masks itself in our headlines and relationships....this observed, but itself unseen, will bent on destroying all of us.
Maybe I should have taught this last week before Halloween...
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