Mark 5:1-20
“Ghosts in the Graveyard”
Here is a rather eerie story.
In Chapter 4:35 we are told that it was in the late evening that Jesus and His disciples set sail across the lake to the “region of the Gerasenes.”
And, on the way they had gotten caught in a storm.
Now, they had finally reached land.
It was probably getting pretty late by this time, and the night was pitch black.
They got out in an area, a part of the side of the lake where there were lots of caves in the limestone rock, and many of these caves were used as tombs in which dead bodies were buried.
So, in the best of times it was an eerie place; in the dead of night it must have been downright frightening!!!
And out of the tombs, to meet Jesus and the disciples comes the welcome wagon, shall we say.
But instead of bringing with him a pie and a warm smile, this welcome wagon brought danger.
We are told that this man who lived among the tombs was so strong that no one could subdue him, and that he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
And when he saw Jesus from a distance, he started running toward Him.
At this point, most people would have jumped right back in their boat and headed home.
Not Jesus.
Instead, Jesus waits for him to come.
And when he gets to Jesus he falls down on his knees in front of Him, shouting at the top of his lungs, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
And that is a pretty good question, in a sense.
I mean, what are Jesus and His disciples doing here, in this cemetery late at night?
Why did they come here?
Geographically, Jesus has ventured into Gentile territory.
And Gentiles were any people who were not of the Jewish faith.
And for a Jew to have anything to do with a Gentile would threaten to make the Jew unclean.
But Jesus is breaking down barriers that separate Jews from Gentiles, clean from unclean.
And while we are talking about “uncleanness,” graveyards were also considered to be contaminated.
For a Jew, touching the a dead body, or contact with graves made you unclean.
And so, the man who rushes out to meet Jesus is about as unclean as you can get!!!
He spends his days and nights howling like a wild animal.
He has been driven away from all human contact, and the demons seem to have stripped this man of every shred of humanity he may once have had.
The people have tried to chain him “hand and foot” in the tombs, but he has torn “the chains apart and [broken] the irons on his feet.”
No matter how much we may hate to admit it, some of the mentally ill homeless persons in our cities, especially those who exhibit violent behavior, can bring about the same fear and repulsion in people today as the demon possessed man did some 2,000 years ago
Yet volunteers at homeless shelters or at homes for the mentally ill often struggle to try and overcome their fear of the persons they are trying to help.
And if they are able to overcome their fear and repulsion, they are often surprised to discover human beings beneath the rags, the smell, and the wild language.
I am in no way trying to say that people living with schizophrenia or some other debilitating mental disorder are somehow “demon possessed.”
I am just saying that persons with these kinds of conditions are sometimes treated with the same kind of fear and disdain as this guy in the tombs.
But look how Jesus treats the man.
Jesus neither runs from him, nor does he try and shoo him away.
And instead of seeing a monster or an inhuman cast-away…
…Jesus sees a man…
…a man possessed, but still a human being created by God, cowering under the weight of the demons which have possessed and overtaken him.
The man is so overtaken that the demons do the talking for the man.
When Jesus asks for his name, the demons chime, “My name is Legion for we are many.”
And then, they beg Jesus “again and again not to send them out of the area.”
But recognizing that they aren’t going to be able to ward off Jesus…
…they aren’t going to be able to stop Jesus from saving this poor guy’s soul…
…Legion tries to strike a bargain with Jesus.
We are told that, “a large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.”
This point alone, continues to drive home the point that we are in Gentile territory, because, for the Jew pigs were unclean!
And true to their character, the demons destroy the pigs by causing them to stampede into the lake and drown.
So although the demons tried to avoid being driven out of the country, they wound up in the waters of chaos where they belong!
At this, the people who were taking care of the pigs ran into the town and countryside telling people about what had happened.
And of course, everyone has to race out to see it for themselves.
This is really big news.
Most of them probably don’t believe it has really happened.
How could it?
The man had been left for dead in the tombs.
And no one can raise the dead…or can they?
By the time the sun has risen on a new day, the people from the city see that the man who had once been completely out of his mind is now dressed, sitting with Jesus and His disciples and is “in his right mind”…
…perhaps enjoying a bit of breakfast and a spot of tea!
What are the folks to make of all this?
Their first instinct is fear!!!
And this is quite understandable.
What kind of power does this Jesus-guy have?
And why is this Jewish Rabbi, and His Jewish friends hanging around this extremely unclean man from the tombs?
There are supposed to be walls of separation.
This is all brand new stuff!
So the people “began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.”
And even though Jesus heeds their request, the Good News of God begins to spread among the Gentiles.
And the mission field is being prepared for a later journey into the same area where Jesus teaches, heals and ends up feeding 4,000 Gentiles with seven loaves of bread in Mark Chapter 7!!!
Showing us once and for all that oppressive, fear-mongering, inhuman, degrading and prejudice ideas and attacks against other human beings are not of God!
And at the end of Mark’s Gospel Jesus Himself will end up naked, isolated, outside the town among the tombs, shouting incomprehensible things as He is torn apart on the Cross.
And that, is how demons are dealt with.
That is how the healing of humankind takes place.
Jesus has come to share our plight, to let the enemy do the worst to Him, to take the full force of evil on Himself in order to let us go free!!!
We are told that “as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.”
It’s understandable.
Jesus has just saved the man, why would he not want to follow Him?
And why would he want to go back to that same town where everyone knew the tragic story of his recent life?
But what an opportunity for evangelism!!!
Having experienced the Good News of Jesus Christ, he must now show and tell others about it for himself!!!
Healing has a mission, does it not?
It involves transformation, not mere restoration to the status quo.
This guy would never be the same again.
There would be no returning to life as usual.
He would be going back as a completely new person all together!!!
“So the man went away,” telling everyone “how much Jesus had done for him.
And all the people were amazed.”
In our passage we see that Jesus’ salvation had to do with this man’s relationship with others.
Yes, it had to do with God and with self.
But that wasn’t all of it.
Christianity isn’t just “me and my God,” it is also “my neighbor too”!
Just as the formerly demon possessed man went home and served his neighbors as an evangelist, God directs us to go back into our neighborhoods, our places of work, our schools and serve people as well.
That is a call on your life and mine.
May we live out that call this coming week and into the next and the next and the next.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
