The Gadarene Demoniac

The Gadarene Demoniac

Luke 8:26-39

The man Jesus meets in the tomb would make a good subject for a horror movie. Here was a troubled and violent man. One can only imagine what fear the local populations must have had. they could not even bind him with chains. One can think of the terror which a person possessed by a single demon could wreak. But this man was possessed with an entire legion of devils. When the word “legion” was heard in the Roman world, this in itself was cause for terror. A Roman legion with the supporting troops was well-disciplined and consisted to about ten thousand soldiers including the support troops. In good times, they maintained a sense of order through fear. The people knew what would happen if they rebelled against Rome. The horrific account of what happened to Spartacus during the slave revolt reinforced the fear which the people had. Spartacus was a champion gladiator, and many of his followers fought in the arena. They were good fighters one on one. But they were no match for the superior discipline and co-ordination of the legion. The Jews would themselves taste the terror of the legions during the Jewish war of 66-70 AD. Many years later in Britain, Queen Boadicea raised up a revolt against Rome who was guilty of grossly insulting the people. The queen had some initial success, until the roman legion came. Even though Boadicea’s troops vastly outnumbered the legion, they were slaughtered by the legionnaires.

So this man from Gadara was quite a piece of work. Even though everything about the man himself was chaos, the fact that a legion of devils could inhabit him required quite a bit of discipline on their part. Much of the strength of the legion was seen in their submission to authority. They knew how to obey orders. Even though there was a legion of them, they knew how to take orders. As frightening as this man was to the villagers, one can only think of the terror the man himself felt. The torment was so great, that h cut himself with stones and cried out in his anguish. If two cohorts of the 10th Roman legion could keep Palestine in terror, just think of an entire legion of devils in a single man.

Let us now look at this episode in its fuller context, so that we might discern what the Holy Spirit wants us to learn. The first thing we need to do is to see what happens immediately before, which is the calming of the sea by Jesus. In fact, we need to go on to Luke 8:21:

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Luke 8:21 NKJV

But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

The Gospel of Mark gives us some additional detail. The reason Jesus’ mother and brothers had come was to take Jesus away because they thought he was insane. Jesus replied to this summons by saying that His true kinfolk were those who heard what He said and put it into practice. One could at first think that this was addressed to the Jews who believed Him. And this is right, as far as it goes. The true Israel consists of those who hear the Word of God and perform it. But is this all. I think that Luke here gives even a broader context.

Following this verse, it says that Jesus got into a boat to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberius or Genessaret was not a very large body of water, being 10-12 miles long and less than 5 miles wide. But culturally speaking, it might as well fave been the Atlantic ocean. The other side of the lake was where the Gentile live. They were looked down upon the Jews. These people raised pigs! Pigs represented what was unclean, according to Jewish law. The Jews remembered when the Greek Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the altar in Jerusalem which sparked the Maccabean revolt. the Gentiles were held in fear as well. Jews would avoid such unclean places. The Jews as hill people were afraid of being out on the water which tells us just how disobedient Jonah was when he got into a boat to go to Spain, in order to not preach to the Gentiles at Nineveh. We all know of the storm which came in which Jonah was thrown overboard to still the storm and then swallowed by the great fish who vomited Jonah up on the shore three days later for him to continue to Nineveh. The concept of “sea” represented “chaos” tot he Jew, and the word “sea” was also used to refer to the Gentile people.