Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac
The lectionary reading for Trinity i, Year C, is Luke's version of Jesus meeting and healing the demon-possessed man in the 'region of the Gerasenes' (Luke 8.26–39). The business relationship occurs in all three Synoptic gospels; in Mark (the shortest gospel) the story is in the longest and most detailed version; Matthew 8.28–34 is the shortest, and just includes the main points in summary; here in Luke, the story is only a little bit shorter than in Mark, and Luke includes much of the detail.
Luke'south description of the location in poesy 26 is less precise than Marker's; he suggests that 'the region of the Gerasenes' is opposite Galilee, when it is virtually likely on the north due east shore of the lake rather than the north w. (Mark uses a quite different phrase for 'sailedacross' in Mark 5.i, and this fits with the frequent crossings of the lake, and prominent mention of boats, which supports the thought of the influence of Peter on Mark's narrative.) At that place is uncertainty about the exact location, equally the name is not otherwise known, and Matthew includes other variants of the name; the most probable place is Khursi on the northward-due east shore, which has the ruins of an ancient church building.
Although 'they' sailed across (that is, Jesus and the disciples), it is hitting that Jesus solitary is mentioned alighting from the boat on the shore. The disciples take already been seriously shaken past the storm that overtook them as they sailed (the immediately preceding story in all three gospel accounts) and Mark 4.41 tells u.s. that they were 'terrified'. And so the lack of mention strongly suggest that, coming to a foreign country, and seeing such a strange human being approaching the boat from the tombs, the disciples idea it best to stay in the boat! In fact, Jesus is the only person who features in the dialogue with the human being until the locals are mentioned after the drama has all died down in Luke 8.34.
Luke follows Mark in recounting what happened out of order, as if the chaos in the man'south life is reflected in the chaos of the events every bit narrative unfolds. First, he mentions that the man comes to meet Jesus; then he includes a (shorter than Marking's) caption of who the man is; then he mentions the human's cry to Jesus; then he explains that Jesus has already been commanding the spirit to come out of the man; and finally Luke completes the explanation of who the human being is, which Mark has included earlier.
In doing this, Luke includes two elements which connect with other parts of his narrative. Starting time, Luke notes that the 'unclean spirit' had driven the man into 'solitary places' (NIV), translating the worderemos that elsewhere refers to the desert (from it we become our discussion 'eremitic' and then 'hermit' for someone who pursues a lonely life). Thus Luke connects this spiritual boxing with the battle Jesus has already won in facing temptation in the desert in Luke 4.1–13. The question of power is not far from the surface there, with Jesus returning from the desert 'full of the power of the Holy Spirit' (Luke 4.fourteen) and the power dynamics are quite explicit here.
The second chemical element of significance is the phrase the homo (or demon) uses in addressing Jesus: 'Son of the Most High God!' (Luke eight.28). This matches exactly the wording in Marker 5.7, only it has added significance for Luke. For one affair, his readers who have come up from a pagan, polytheistic background will recognise the claim being made, that Jesus is not exercising the power of one god amongst many but has a distinctive status in relation to the i God who is over all. But as a result, we find this phrase is of item importance in Luke's wider narrative. It is repeated twice past Gabriel in announcing to Mary that she will behave this extraordinary kid (Luke 1.32, 35), and it is a phrase used by the spirit-possessed daughter in Acts 16.17. So this episode offers evidence of the fulfilment of Gabriel's words to Mary—simply also describes a ministry of Jesus that is continued past the apostles in Luke'southward 2d volume.
Jesus' asking of the demon'south proper noun accords with ancient belief that to know someone'south name, their truthful identity, was to have ability over them. The commutation fits with the earlier addressing of Jesus past the demon, revealing his true identity, and forming part of this 'ability contest' between the two. The employ of the proper noun 'legion', evoking the Roman soldiers who occupy the land of Israel, would have been peculiarly relevant to Luke'south pagan readers. Some modern interpreters read the exchange back into the political situation, seeing this as a metaphorical exploration of the political dynamic—merely that is surely to read the metaphor in the incorrect direction. For Jesus and the man, the 'unclean spirit(south)' or 'demon(southward)' are an occupying force who have no rightful place in the man's life, and Jesus' deliverance of him forms part of 'setting [him] complimentary to worship without fear' (Luke 1.74).
Here, as earlier (Luke 8.29), Luke has smoothed out the narrative past explaining what the demons (earlier, Jesus) say, rather than simply quoting them as in the Marcan account. But in Marking, they ask not to exist sent out of the surface area; here, Luke sharpens the request, and so they inquire not to be sent 'to the Abyss', the chaotic 'deep' (Hebtehom) of the Sometime Testament and in pagan idea the realm of the dead which we also find mentioned in the Volume of Revelation (Rev 9.i, eleven.7, xx.ane and elsewhere).
The sending of the demons/unclean spirits into the (unclean) pigs offers usa a wonderful irony, and ane that will have worked for those who know something about Jewish food laws as well every bit for Jewish readers themselves. That the pigs hurl themselves over the cliff makes clear the destructive ability of the demons, destructive power that has already been evident in the life of the man upward until now. It is not surprising that this story is paired with the episode that immediately precedes information technology in all three gospels; together they underscore the ability of Jesus to bring peace to a chaotic globe, in fulfilment of Ps 65.7: 'You calm the seas and their raging waves, and the tumult of the nations.'
Jesus has ultimate authority over evil, whether that evil is manifested in nature or in the life of an individual. By the finish of these stories, the audience is hopefully much better prepared to answer the pressing question, 'Who tin can this man exist?' (Luke 8.25) (Mikeal Parsons, Paideia Commentary on Luke, p 140).
The narrative offers u.s. potent cloth for reflection on the ministry building of Jesus.
First, there is the significant presence of dissociation. The human being has become cut off from his community—and information technology is striking that the terminate of this episode is focused emphatically and rather surprisingly on Jesus restoring him to the identify he has come from, sending him home in every sense of the discussion. In that location is dissociation of the human being from his body, equally he cuts and harms himself, and dissociation from the forces at work in him, as the phonation of the unclean spirit(s) speak to Jesus. These dynamics of dissociation are very evident in our world, with fractured communities and broken relationship, the apparent rise of mental health issue, individualism, and the defining of the self detached from bodily identity at the heart of the debates about sexuality and transgender credo. There is no sense in which I am suggesting that any of these things are the result of 'demon possession' but Luke, like Marking, is telling us the impact of Jesus' ministry on this complex range of problems.
Secondly, opposite to what has been suggested in relation to disability and Jesus' healing ministry, there is lilliputian sense here that Jesus uses the disabled as a 'prop' to demonstrate his power, with the individuals concerned 'marginalised in the narrative'. Jesus uses his power not as a demonstration, only for restoration—restoring the human being to dignity ('clothed', Luke viii.35), sanity ('in his right mind') and community ('to your own people' Luke eight.39). Yet the response is fright; the people are non prepared to have Jesus' reordering of their globe.
This leads the third observation: just as the disciples had been terrified by both the tempest and Jesus' calming of information technology on the way over to the Gerasenes, the local people here respond with fear. When they ask Jesus to leave, he does so without any objection; Jesus' ministry will non exist imposed on those unwilling to receive it. Yet he leaves the man, non only restored merely with a purpose and a mission, to tell of what God (in Jesus) has done for him. He has (in Tom Wright's words) become the start campaigner to the Gentiles, anticipating what volition unfold in the larger narrative of Luke-Acts.
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