My grandmother would always harp on me about how important it was to not get into trouble at school or in our community. She always reminded me that my Grandfather had worked hard to build up a good name and passed that down to my Dad. It was up to me and my brother to keep up that good name by having a good reputation in the community.
One of the main things that we see in the Bible is the idea of His people reflecting His glory to those around them.
God’s people, the Israelites, would be ambassador’s to the world to show who God is.
IN a past lesson we explored how the geography of Israel was critical in this role. God put the nation of Israel in the most strategic place you put them. Israel was at the crossroads of civilization.
God wanted Israel to be a Kingdom of Priests.
If you remember Israel failed miserably at this task of being a Priest to God.
To understand this call to be priests you must understand the roll of a priest in the ancient world.
PRIESTS
1) A priest was to be set apart – to live holy and separate to God.
2) A priest mediates for other people to God. A priest is one that goes to God on behalf of others.
3) One of the most important rolls is that the priest is to reflect God to the world.
We also need to let it sink in that God called each and every one of the Israelites to this roll. That was his original plan that man would be His priest.
When HE put Adam in the Garden that was one of his rolls that he was to carry out. Adam was to have dominion like a King in a Kingdom.
Adam was also to till and keep the Garden and the Hebrew words used is SHAMAR which is a priestly term used for the Levitical Priesthood.
Adam was supposed to be a King and Priest
Mark 4: 35-4135 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. 38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion ; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing ?" 39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, "Why are you afraid ? Do you still have no faith ?" 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
Mark 5: 1-20
1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain ; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" 8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit !" 9 And He was asking him, "What is your name ?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion ; for we are many." 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine ; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion "; and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. 17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region. 18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. 19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you." 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed
In Mark 4:35 we see that Jesus tells His disciples lets go on to the other side. Jesus is going to leave his base of operation around the area of Capernaum and go to a strange place.
Jesus is going to take His disciples to a place that they would not want to go to. This would be about as scandalous as going to the region of the Samaritans. This would be as scandalous as going to the area of Caesarea Philippi.
Consider the Geography of Jesus Ministry and where he would take his disciples.
Remember that I told you before that Israel was called to be a royal priesthood. They did not take this job very serious and they were sent into Exile in Babylon.
They had returned home and Judaism in the time of Jesus – this Judaism during the time of the 2nd Temple had made sure that they kept themselves pure.
They were really strict about what was clean and unclean. They had set up all kinds of rules to keep their purity.
In their quest to not make the same mistake twice they had become legalistic and could care less about the lost sheep of the land of Israel.
They had declared that the Samaritans were unclean, they had declared the pagans were unclean, they had declared that the Hellenistic Jews were unclean.
They had turned their back on these people that were lost and had basically taken the light of God and put it under a bushel.
They were not a light set on a hill.
In the ministry of Jesus we see Him go to these various regions of the outcasts and do some of his most important miracles and teachings there.
Jesus would tell parables about these people like the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. It would enrage the Jews of his time and puzzle His own disciples.
Jesus had come to show Israel and the world exactly what God looks like and how we are to reflect God.
This also goes back to the time of Genesis when we are told that we are made in the image of God. That means that in worship we reflect God back to God but we are also angled mirrors that reflect God to the Creation.
Man had lost his way and did not know how to reflect God to the world. Jesus who is the VERY IMAGE and BEING OF GOD took on flesh and in His ministry He is showing us exactly what it is like to be a priest of God-To reflect the glory of God to the world.
Now we are getting another lesson in what this looks like by going TO THE OTHER SIDE
The Other Side is the Decapolis, this is what we have talked about before as being the place where the Hellenistic, Greek, pagan Jews and Gentiles lived.
This is also called A FAR COUNTRY in Judaism.
Jesus is going to a place that did not share the values of the Jews, a place that is very pagan, and a Place that His disciples would not have wanted to go to.
As we read the story in Mark 4 and 5 we see a storm come while they are crossing the Sea of Galilee.
The Sea was associated with the Abyss in Judaism and storms were associated with evil, with Chaos, and in particular Satan.
It is amazing that the Disciples reacted like they did to Jesus calming the storm.
They state, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
Why would they react this way, Jesus could feed 5000, and raise people form the dead but the disciples did not react the same to those miracles.
Why NOT?Remember that Moses brought Manna from Heaven for the Israelites and Elijah had raised the widow’s son but Jesus had done something that the Psalms said that only Jehovah could do.
The calming of the Sea was a big deal in Judaism. There were two very important passages that the disciples would be very familiar with. Both of these passages referred to the sea and the calming of the seas.
Psalm 89: 8-98 O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty LORD ? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. 9 You rule the swelling of the sea ; When its waves rise, You still them.
Psalm 107: 24-2924 They have seen the works of the LORD, And His wonders in the deep. 25 For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, Which lifted up the waves of the sea. 26 They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths ; Their soul melted away in their misery. 27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits' end. 28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, And He brought them out of their distresses. 29 He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed.
Jesus shows His identity as God in the Flesh by working the miracle of calming the sea. He goes about proving His identity beyond a question.
Jesus is Jehovah God.
SYMBOLISM of the PASSAGE –
Jesus goes to the OTHER SIDE – NO Swine would have been found in any Israelite village that was faithful to God.
Swine were unclean and they would have been abhorrent to any good Law observing Jew
In this story we run into a man that it is so Demon possessed that the demon is called LEGION.
A ROMAN Legion has about 6000 soldiers so this may not be a literal number that Mark is giving us in this account as a Legion but we are to understand that many demons are possessing this man. In the day of Jesus there was much superstition and belief in the demonic.
There were types of demons and genders of demons. Many believed that every part of the body could be possessed by demons.
What we need to understand is that we are seeing a conflict between Good and Evil. The Kingdom of God is doing battle with the Kingdom of Darkness.
The man is in the Tombs because that is where a demon possessed man is supposed to be. This is where many that are demon possessed are sentenced to live. The tombs in ancient Palestine would be caves hewn out of a rocky hillside with shelves hewn out for the bodies to be laid on.
Tombs and Desert regions would be the places that demon possessed people would live as outcasts from society.
We see that this man sees Jesus and comes to encounter Him and calls Him by His Divine Title. This name that the Demon possessed man uses is the most orthodox name that this demon could use.
Why would this demon use Jesus real name?
“Son of the Most High God”
One answer is that in the process of Exorcism one could get control of the situation by invoking the name of God. Many scholars have looked at this passage and realized that this Demon Possessed man is trying to get one up on Jesus before Jesus takes over the situation.
He is flattering Jesus but at the same time rushes down to meet him and quickly tries to control the situation by invoking the Divine Name.
We see that Jesus is in the driver’s seat because the man has to state his name. In the rite of exorcism in Judaism when the demonic stated their name it showed that the exorcist had taken control of the situation. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan.
1 John 3:8 tells us- The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
Earlier in Mark’s Gospel Jesus was accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan and he challenges this belief and refers to something that we see in this passage.
Mark 3:22-2722 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished ! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
We see in the story of the Gerasene Demoniac that they had tried to bind this man with chains but he was so powerful that he broke them.
This man was uncontrollable but now he has come in contact with someone more powerful than he could ever imagine. Now the Creator of the universe has come to his region.
Jesus is the strong man, Jesus will bind Satan and plunder his property.
In the passage before, Jesus was talking about having to bind Satan and plunder His property. This man was the property of Satan but Jesus is taking him back.
Jesus sends the demons into the Swine- 2000 pigs are killed.
In Matthew’s account we see the demon possessed man implore Jesus not to send Him into the Abyss before the appointed time.
The Abyss is the place of the damned souls awaiting Judgment, this demon understood that he was sentenced to eternal damnation and he did not want to go early.
Jesus sends him into the swine and this could be seen as a symbolic act for two reasons.
Near this area of the Gerasenes was a Roman Legion stationed that had on their flag a symbol of a wild pig or swine.
Also the pigs were unclean animals and should not be in the land of Israel in the first place. The destruction of the pigs could show God’s displeasure with having unclean animals in the Land but also make the point that these demons were cast out never to return.
The reaction of the man and the reaction of the people of the city are interesting.
This man wants to be ‘with Jesus’ which is a word used to refer to Jesus inner circle. He wants to be a follower of Jesus. He wants Jesus to take him in as His own.
Jesus commands him to go to his own people.
The city has had their total economy turned upside down and they want Jesus to leave immediately.
There are some points we can take from this story:
1) God is powerful and everywhere the Gospel goes, Satan is being challenged.
We see that He is Jehovah God when he calms the storm.
When people are brought to Christ, we are binding the strong man with the Gospel and we are plundering his property. That was the work of Jesus and that is our work to plunder the property of Satan and take it back for Christ.
2) The Disciples never get out of the boat. If you look at the account of the story Jesus is the only one that gets out of the boat.
They are probably terrified to go to the Decapolis in the first place but now they see this demoniac man and they certainly will not get out the boat when they see him.
It is the apostle Peter that gets out and walks to Jesus in the stormy waters but now they will not even get out of the boat because of where they are.
The reaction of the Disciples is telling in this story.
3) The man makes a big difference. He goes from Demon possessed to an evangelist to the Decapolis. He will go to this pagan region and preach about Jesus.
The next time Jesus returns to the Decapolis he will feed 4000 people.
This man makes such a difference and it is evident in how many people are interested in Jesus ministry from this pagan region when he returns.
4) The people reject Jesus because it costs them something. They care more about economics than about this person that is being healed and brought to wholeness.
They don’t care about this man or the Kingdom of God. They are more worried about the 2000 pigs. It tells you about the value system of people
The Jews on the other side of the lake don’t even care enough about them to come and evangelize them and they care more about the pigs than the man that had the demon cast out of him.
Application for us:In this story we are confronted by different responses to Jesus.
We are called to be priests of God, to reflect God to the world. Now we see the very Image of God, God Himself in action to show us how we are to be,
We cannot become what we were meant to be unless we look to Jesus. Jesus is the model of what real living is all about.
It is Jesus that goes to the place that no one else will go to. Jesus confronts Evil head on and defeats it.
Who are we in this story?
-Are we the person that has been made Whole by Jesus and are now on fire to tell everyone about Him?
-Are we the apostles that are so scared to get out the boat to get to work, or are we just indifferent to the lost of this world that we don’t want to get involved, too busy.
-are we the townspeople that think Jesus is okay just long as He doesn’t upset things. Christianity is cool until it costs me something, demands something of me, don’t upset my comfortable life because of Jesus.
The Master has come to show us what it means to be His priest, his called out, we have to go to the places where other people run from.
We have to enter the fray, we have to get out of the boat, we have to proclaim to those who will listen,
We are called to plunder the possessions of the strong man. The Kingdom is inbreaking and things will never be the same.
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