“As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town.” Luke 8:27
So, this story starts with a crazy naked guy. Well, sort of. It actually starts a few verses back, when Jesus is crossing a sea and fighting through a violent storm to get to him. Sometimes the context of a story adds a layer that we miss if we don’t read what comes before and after a passage. In Mark’s account of the same story, we see that Jesus left a crowd of people and stepped into a boat to reach the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It’s important to the story that we understand that the region of Gerasenes was not an Israelite community. This area was home to foreign tribes that would have been shunned by law-abiding Jews. After Jesus is done healing our friend, the naked guy who isn’t naked anymore, He gets back into the boat and crosses back over. What does this tell us? Jesus left a crowd, crossed a sea (most like sailings all night), braved a storm and stepped into an foreign territory to set one man free. This is the way Jesus loves us.
Although we never learn this man’s name, we learn so much about his heartbreaking situation in a single verse. In Luke 8:27 we learn that he’s crazy and naked, alone and homeless. We are told he lives outside the town, isolated from his family and pushed out of the community. And not only that, he lives in the caves where the dead are buried. Ancient tombs weren’t like ours, people weren’t buried in coffins. Often, they were wrapped in cloth and laid on something like a shelf dug into the wall of a cave, sometimes sealed, but not always. When you read that he was “living in the tombs,” it doesn’t mean that he was living in a grave yard, with bodies six feet underground with carved headstones and statues to keep him company. He was living amongst bodies in different states of decay—right in the middle of death itself.
And while his physical condition is horrific, his spiritual reality is far worse. When Jesus asks his name, a multitude of demons answer for him. They say their name is Legion—a name that means a large military unit. Legion could mean hundreds or thousands of soldiers. We don’t know how many demons were living in him, but we see that there were enough of them to send a large herd of pigs stampeding into the sea. Some scholars believe that the reason he had such a large number of demons is because he had become the literal spiritual dumping grounds of the community. Anytime someone had an evil spirit they needed to get rid of, they sent it to live in him. The Bible doesn’t tell us why the man is demon possessed, but we do see other stories in the gospels where Jesus casts demons out of children. So his demonic possession could have had its start in his childhood. We are told that he had been like this for a long time. Maybe he was an outcast from the community because of the way he looked or something he or his family had done. We don’t know, but we do know that his life mattered so much to Jesus, that He was willing to go to great lengths to free him from the horrible slavery that had him living as a dead man, under the control of an entire army of demons.
In the same way we saw Jesus clothe Adam and Eve in the garden, Jesus clothes our friend. He covers over both his physical body with clothes and He covers the shame of being an outcast with His love. There is a sad moment at the close of the story where we see the man begging to go with Jesus, and Jesus refusing to take him. Instead, Jesus sends him back to his community to tell them about all that Jesus had done. Jesus knew that there were more broken and hurting people in his community, and He loved them too. And maybe staying was going to be part of a continued process of healing in this man’s life. It is often said that this is the first missionary mentioned in the Bible. Sometimes, being a missionary means crossing oceans, or, like Jesus, crossing a sea into a new community. But sometimes, and maybe even more often than not, the most powerful mission we’re called to is the one right at home. Someday, God may call you to cross continents for His name, for now, are you willing to cross the cafeteria or a hallway? Are you willing to cross cultural or racial boundaries for the one who desperately needs to be set free?
Scripture Reference:
“Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time 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 desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and 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. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” [Luke 8:26-39 ESV]
Discussion Questions:
1. Have you encountered the Great Love that would brave a stormy sea through the night to come find you and set you free? Take a moment to write about how you’ve experience this love in your life.
2. If Jesus were to send you to tell the people in your community about all that He’s done for you, would you have a story to tell? Where is the place of influence where God is asking you to remain and testify of His goodness?
3. It’s exciting to think about going on a mission trip to a foreign country but if Jesus asked you to stay and be a missionary to your own family, school and home town, would you be willing?