On the shore of Lake Gennesaret, below Mount Hermon, in the city of Hippos, or possibly a town slightly to the north in the Decapolis, Jesus stepped off the ship. He had just calmed the wind and sea. There, he was met by a man possessed of devils. A similar account in the Gospel of Matthew speaks of two possessed men.
The possessed man in the Gospel of Luke, 8:27-38, wore no clothes. He ran wild where the dead were interred. Men had often tried to restrain him, but he had always broken free of his bonds. In today's Western culture, that man might go unnoticed, or even find acceptance. Make no mistake, however, we are reading an account of actual demonic possession. It is described for us in black and white, so, let us examine that description.
The expression “unclean spirit” can be interpreted as 'unclean mind' speaking more of moral abandon than violence or evil intent. Unclean is also a word used in connection with Jewish ceremonial acceptance. For an example, touching a dead body made one ceremonially unclean. The fact that it is said “ for oftentimes it had caught him” denotes a state that was not consistent. Sometimes on and sometimes off might be an apt description of his condition. That the town folk attempted to restrain him, lends itself to several interpretations.
It could be that when the man found himself in his altered state, that he would hurt himself and that might be one reason he was constrained. He could have occasionally hurt others. While that area is normally considered to have been more Greek and Roman than Jewish, it still might have been possible that his state of wild moral abandon was seen as offensive. It might have been that the town folk simply wanted to shut him away from their women and children. It might also have been that his altered state somehow affected their livelihoods. They were hard working gentile swine herders after all.
One of the most important descriptions of his possessed state, however, was the fact that he could speak and reason. When He met Jesus on the shore, Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to remove itself. The man was in one of his possessed states. Yet, even being possessed as he was, he fell to his knees, reasoning and pleading with Jesus in a knowledgeable fashion.
Here is a startling fact: the history of mankind is the history of possession. Man has either been found in his right mind or in his wrong mind. When I say 'mind' you should understand by now that I mean 'spirit'. The spirit, or mind, is non-corporeal, yet, it does its best in connection to a physical vehicle. In the Biblical creation story, we find the physical vehicle (Adam) being enhanced with a spirit (mind) after which he was identified as a 'living soul'.
It may be said that the spirit 'needs' even 'craves' a connection with a physical host. Here, I would remind the reader, in defense of my statement, that Jesus explained that connection in this way in Matthew 12:43, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.” Every spirit needs a home. So sometimes, when the bad spirits find a place that is 'swept', they move all their buddies in with them. Then, to the 'imminent rueage' of a quiet community, these devils begin to party like there is no tomorrow.
So Jesus takes a moment to talk to this guy. He addresses the spirit inside, who names himself Legion because there were many of them. Rather smacks of schizophrenia. Jesus and Legion come to an understanding, in other words, they strike a bargain. They have to come out of the man, but Jesus won't drive them out entirely. Instead, he will allow the spirits (minds) to possess nearby pigs. Every spirit craves a vehicle.
But – was this cunning on the part of the Son of God? Did he know the vehicles would reject the sudden introduction of alien minds? Did he know the brains and bodies would react violently? Or – did Jesus, at that point deliberately drive the pigs into the lake? Here's the thing: the pigs didn't run in circles, and they didn't run in odd directions. As one, the all ran in one direction: down the slope and into the lake. Whether the pigs panicked or the Lord drove them to their deaths, the result was the same. Legion lost his home and was forced to walk through dry places seeking rest and finding none.
Now, the villagers lost their living in this exchange. If they had lost their livelihoods to a normal circumstance, they would have come out in anger rather than fear, but fear the Lord they did, because they knew the man who had been possessed. They had tried and failed to constrain him, yet, here he sat at the feet of a powerful Rabbi whose exploits preceded him. All they could do was ask him to leave and cause no more grief. This man could have lived anywhere, and Jesus could have found a possessed man to save anywhere else. Jesus, for that matter, could have sent the unclean Legion into the birds flying above, but he didn't. He destroyed a herd of nasty pigs. Is there a message in that?
In verse 31, Legion asked that they not be commanded to “go out into the deep.” Yet, when they entered the pigs, the herd ran into the lake and were drowned. We might think of the lake as 'the deep', but on another hand altogether, the deep spoken of in verse 31 might be the definition of the 'dry places' devils seek to avoid. I can imagine the deep as a great void (Luke 16:26) that is neither here nor there. It might be a dark and featureless hell where any spirit (mind) would find great difficulty navigating. We might think of that 'deep' as a bottomless pit or even a lake of burning fiery torment.
How does a spirit navigate such a deep? Indeed, all navigation there may be no more than an attempt to escape. How does one walk without feet or grasp without fingers? How does anyone navigate without a vehicle? We have a saying which may well come from that hellish void, and it goes like this: 'I feel for you; I just can't reach you.'
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