They arrived at the country of the
Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, a man who had been
troubled by evil spirits for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and
didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs.
When the man saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him, saying with a loud voice, “What do I have to do with
you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” For Jesus
was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. The unclean spirit
had often seized the man who, when kept under guard and bound with chains and
fetters, would break the bands apart and be driven by the evil spirit into the
desert.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” for many evil
spirits had entered into him. They begged him that he would not command them to
go into the abyss, but be allowed to enter into a herd of many pigs feeding on
the mountain. He allowed them, and the evil spirits came out of the man and
entered into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and
were drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and
told it in the city and in the country.
People went out to see what had
happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the evil spirits had
gone sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; they were amazed.
Those who saw it told how the man possessed by evil spirits had been healed.
All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart
from them, for they were very much afraid. Jesus entered into the boat; the man
who had been healed begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
“Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” The
man went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what had happened.
Here was a naked wild man, once a danger to himself and
others, now healed of the evil within him, and sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in his right mind. Does this story connect with the epidemic of
violence we see in our world? Is there hope that those caught up in today’s
crazed culture of violence could ever be delivered?
Prayer: Let your grace and peace, Lord, flow down on our
crazed world.
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