Luke 8:26-39; The Gadarene Demoniac

"Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him."

Introduction

This unforgettable narrative is both inspiring and problematic. Its inspiration derives from its being a narrative of conflict between supernatural powers--Jesus and the demons--and the victory of the former over the latter. Its difficulty arises from two points: (1) the apparent "bargaining" of Jesus with the demons and the resultant economic damage caused by the healing, when none was strictly necessary; and (2) the rather spare description of the demoniac, where one would have expected a more nuanced picture if Luke, as the tradition says, was a physician. [Some conservative commentators historically have touted the "medical" language of Luke as indicative of the reliability of the narrative--an indication that "Luke the Physician," who accompanied Paul, had diligently searched out his narrative]. Mark's description of the activity of the demoniac, for example, is much richer than Luke's (Mk. 5:1-20). My essay here will try to bring out the tensions, fears and resolutions of these fears as the narrative progresses. I will focus on three things: (a) the man's condition; (b) Jesus and the Demons; and (c) the response to the exorcism.

We shouldn't be unaware, however, of Luke's literary design in the story. Note the contrasts in the story:

a man had demons (27)//the demons went from the man (35)
he had worn no clothes (27)/he was clothed (35)
he didn't live in a house but in tombs (27)/return home (39)
he fell down and shouted (28)/he sat at the feet of Jesus (35)
the demon seized him; out of control (29)/in his right mind (35).

Of such contrasts is an engaging narrative born.

I. The Man's Condition

Luke's narrative stresses that Jesus has now crossed the Sea of Galilee and arrived in Gentile territory. Instead of a welcoming committee commensurate with Jesus' status, he is met by a man possessed by demons. The language of v. 27 in the Greek ought to be noted. As soon as Jesus disembarks, he is met. But Luke only gradually tells us his problem. First of all it is simply a "man," (o aner). A "man" could be any male. He is a "man from the city." So far so good. Maybe, after all, a welcoming committee is here! But then the text says that this man from the city is one "having a demon." The description then continues. "For a long time" this man was unclothed. This certainly set him off from others and made him a social outcast. Indeed, the narrative confirms this: he didn't stay at home, but he lived among the tombs. Jewish readers would have been "put off" by this--it marked out the man as unclean.

The portrait of the demoniac in Mark allows us much more room for psychological speculation (i.e., he cut himself with stones; he cried out), but I will confine my remarks here to Luke's text. Why does he live among the tombs? Why naked? Perhaps among the tombs because this was the only place where he could find some fellowship with those who wouldn't cast him out of their midst. Perhaps he lived there because there was still a glint of humanity in the man, and he knew enough to have a sort of "longing for death," a condition which is shared by many people today who are afraid to mention it.

In any case, we see a man of conflicted mind in v. 28. He sees Jesus, runs to him, falls on his face before him as in worship and then says, "Don't torment me." His spirit(s) recognize immediately that a more powerful spirit is with him. But why does he run towards Jesus rather than away from him? It is the first of several indications in this passage that people are drawn or things are driven (i.e., demons into the sheep) almost irrespective of their will. The presence of the divine and of spiritual power in our midst leads to inexplicable "drawing" or "driving" among us. Thus, we have a scene of what we might call "overcharged power" as the demon-possessed man falls before Jesus.

II. Jesus and the Demons

The story tells us (v. 29) that Jesus had already commanded the demons to come out of the man. But either the demons are reluctant to do so or have not been properly commanded, because there ensues a rare event--a brief conversation between the demons and Jesus. It is a sort of bargaining session which we see in vv. 30-33. The discussion centers on the issue of the demon's name. In antiquity the name signified the power of an entity. Know the name and you may have power over it. The demon(s) knew Jesus name--the "Son of the Most High God" (29) but could do nothing with this knowledge but tremble. But still Jesus was in the dark about the demons. An indication of that is in verse 30, where the singular is used: "Jesus asked him his name." Well, that is reasonable, but it indicates that Jesus is still trying to "size up" the situation. In Mark's Gospel we have a story of a "partial healing" by Jesus where a blind man first sees men but they appear like "trees walking." Jesus then gets back to work and "completes" the miracle (Mk. 8:22-25). We have Jesus here also trying to come to grips with the situation before him.

The demon coughs up its name. It is "Legion." The Roman Legion was the most feared aggregation of men in classical antiquity. Consisting of 5,600 soldiers, the Roman Legion conquered land from England to Persia in the centuries just before and after Jesus' life. The man may have seen the 10th Fretensis, for example, training in the nearbly plains, and had internalized their power to his soul--believing that the powers that controlled him inside were as powerful as this most potent human force. But once Jesus learned the name of his opponent, he could do with it as he would. Now it is the demon's turn to ask a favor. 'Don't cast us into the abyss,' they requested. Apparently that is the place where even demons fear to go. The Greek word is abusson, and we have taken over the terminology of "abyss" in oceanography or limnology. I can never learn the various ocean levels without thinking of this story (here is a brief description of those levels, from epipelagic to my favorite, hadopelagic).

Why did Jesus honor Legion's request that they not be sent into the abyss? Instead, he sends them into the herd of pigs (an unclean animal for Jews) which was feeding nearby. I haven't seen a satisfactory explanation of why Jesus acceded to their request. The explanation that human life is much more important than that of the swine may be true, but it is not applicable here, especially as the swine supplied the means of livelihood for people. Possibly we need to dig deeper into the psychology and power-struggle between divine forces, at least as antique writers understood these struggles. In that regard, neither side obliterates the other; you only win temporary victories, and you respect your opponent because you realize that he may come back to burn you pretty badly if you become too overconfident. Thus, Jesus may have "compromised" with Legion as a way of making sure that the "rhythm" of the battle with the Evil One continued properly.

III. The Response

As with almost all of Jesus' miracles, so this one provoked widespread interest. However, the crowds that subsequently gathered were not interested in the proclamation of the good news. The emotion highlighted by Luke is fear (v. 35). But Luke often doesn't take care to unpack the layered meaning of emotions, and so we don't know if the fear was because they recognized that someone who could re-orient/upset their lives was here; that they were afraid because the economic base of their city had fallen away; or for some other unnamed fear. In any case the man tells how he was delivered by Jesus. Now, the fear that they had in v. 35, which was put in the active voice, is put in the passive voice. Verse 37 has "they were gripped by a great fear." In other words, those who first became afraid were then overcome by fear. That is the psychology of fear. Fear is something that we first control and then takes over our lives. And so it did to the people in the area. So they ask Jesus to leave. But the man begs Jesus for something else--to join him. Jesus, paradoxically, honors the first request and refuses the second. He leaves the area, never to return to Gentile country. But the demoniac stays behind, now clothed and in his right mind. I wish that someone would write a story on the next month of the man's life. But I stop here, and leave you to your thoughts.

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