Mark 5:1-20.  Yesterday we saw Jesus and his followers in boats crossing the Sea of Galilee (actually a large lake).  The lake is subject to very violent and sudden storms.  The travelers were caught in such a storm that was so bad that the twelve disciples, some of whom were fishermen who had work on that same lake, thought they would die.  Jesus commanded the wind and waves to be calm and they were, and Jesus’ followers were amazed. In today’s reading many more people are going to be amaze by another miracle that has a couple more shocking parts to it.

Jesus and his followers have crossed the Sea of Galilee from the west to the east.  The Sea of Galilee is fed from the north by the Jordan River and in turn feeds the Jordan River to the south.  In Genesis 12 and 15 God promise land to a guy named Abram (Abraham) and his descendants.  Those chapters tell us the land went all the way from the Nile River to the south and west to the Euphrates River in the north and east.  In Genesis 17 God describes the land as the land of the Canaanites (the people who lived in it during Abraham’s life and after).  In Genesis 26:3 the promise to Abraham was passed down to Abraham’s son Isaac by God.  In Genesis 35:6-12 God passed the land on to “Israel (Jacob the son of Isaac) and his descendants.”  Later in the history of Israel’s descendants (the twelve tribes of Israel) they did possess some of the land.  After escaping from Egypt these twelve tribes moved North and eventually entered the promised land.  In Numbers 13 we see part of the story of the move.  In verse 29 of that chapter we see the Canaanite living  “by the sea and by the Jordan River”.  This may be a way of saying that they lived between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.  The Israelites did not take possession of the land at the time of the story in Numbers 13 but did 40 years later.  In Deuteronomy 34 we see the story of the death of Moses (the leader of the Israelites for fourty years since leaving Egypt).  We are also told that he passed on the leadership to Joshua.  In Deuteronomy 34:1-4 God shows Moses the land that he promised to “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.”  The landmarks that God gave stretched from Dan in the north (inland from Tyre) to Beersheba in the south (almost to the southern tip of the Dead Sea) and from the Mediterranean Sea to land east of the Jordan River (This area is similar to the earlier descriptions, larger that some and smaller than others).  Later when Joshua took the tribes to enter and conquer the land they stood on the eastern shore of the Jordan River and Joshua talked about entering and conquering the promised land.  In his description though he included the land as far east as the Euphrates River.  We also know from Numbers 32 that two of the tribes had conquered land just east of the Jordan River.  Through out the history of Israel as a nation and as a people group under control of other nations their land varied in size from the hill country and some of the plains west of the Jordan River to much of the land actually promised to Abraham.  By the time of Jesus the Israelite land included the Roman provinces of Judah and Galilee (both west of the Jordan River) with the province of Samaria between them and a narrow province on the eastern side of the Jordan River called Perea.  The area east of the Sea of Galilee was a non-Jewish or Gentile Roman province Controlled by Phillip the brother of Herod, governor of Galilee.  Just south of this area was another province called Decapolis (The word means “Ten Cities”).  So in today’s story Jesus is entering Gentile or non-Jewish territory.  Jews hated Gentiles and this would have been an unusual move for a Jewish teacher.

Going to Gentile territory wasn’t the only weird thing Jesus does on this story.  A man, presumably a Gentile, comes to Jesus and the man is demon possessed, or in the words of Mark, “He had an unclean spirit.”  In the Law of Moses a person had to be “clean” in order to come and worship God.  Although God loves people and wants them to have a relationship with him God is also pure and holy (that word means “dedicated to a special purpose”).  The point is that that God’s pure character demands that wrong, evil, r sin (disobedience and rebellion against God) be dealt with.  From the very beginning God made it clear that the consequence of sin was death both physical (separation of our bodies from our souls or spirits) and spiritual (eternal separation from God) (Genesis 2:16-17, see also Romans 3:23).  In order to help people remember this truth God used the Israelites as an example.  Part of the purpose of their laws was to tech the world about God’s purity so God used the idea of clean and unclean to do this.  Some things that could make you unclean were touching a dead body, having certain diseases, certain actions (especially sins), eating or touching certain foods, having a baby.  To be clean usually required stopping the actions, being healed of the disease, or something else.  Also an offering was required showing that you understood the idea of God being pure and you being un-pure.  In the mind of the Jewish people of his day Jesus was unclean by being in Gentile territory, for being near a gentile, being near a demon-possessed man, and (from the Law) for being in a cemetery.  So Jesus was purposely allowing himself to become “unclean” in their minds.  Remember that being unclean didn’t necessary mean that you were “sinning”, the whole idea was a ritual or ceremony to help you remember who God is and what he is like.

The man Jesus met was famous in the area because the demons that lived within him were cause him to make quite a scene.  He would hurting himself and when the people tried to chain him up he would break the chains.  When the demons in the man saw Jesus they tried to manipulate the situation by insisting that Jesus not torture them, they even maid their request in the “name of God”.  God cannot be manipulated though and so Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man.  Again the demons tired to manipulate Jesus by asking him not to send them out of the area, instead they asked to be allowed to enter into a heard of pigs near by.  Pigs were one of the animals that were unclean under the law and had no business in the promised land.  Although the area where Jesus was, was under Roman control and inhabited by non-Jews it was still part of the promised land.  Jesus permitted the demons to enter the heard of pigs which immediately ran off a cliff into the sea, drowning.  There were 1000 pigs in the herd.  In the mean time the man became calm and sat down to listen to Jesus.

The herdsmen ran to the city and reported what had happened and many people came out and saw evidence of the great miracle Jesus had done.  The man was now free from the control of the demons.  Unfortunately they chose to focus on the death of the pigs and asked Jesus to leave the area.  As Jesus got back in the boat to leave the man who had been possessed asked to come with him.  Instead Jesus told him to go home to Decapolis and tell his people how God had had mercy on him.  He followed Jesus’ instructions and many people were impressed.

There are at least a couple of good lessons in this story.  First Jesus was interesting in helping more than just the Jewish people.  By going to the Gentile area Jesus showed that God wanted to have mercy on all people. We also see that Jesus wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, so to speak.  Just like working to eat on the Sabbath (what Jewish people called Saturday, a day that they were supposed to spend focusing on God and not doing any hard work”) in Mark 2:23-28 and healing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:1-6, Jesus wasn’t afraid to be un-clean if it meant honoring God’s love of people (See Mark 3:4-5).  That doesn’t mean we can disobey God (sin) ever, but Jesus was honoring God and the law of Moses by fulfilling it’s purpose; helping people understand God’s character and nature.  Remember Jesus told his followers that his purpose was to teach and the miracles were there to prove his power and authority.  In this story we certainly see God’s love for gentiles and we also see that the people in Decapolis “marveled” (that word can also mean “admired”).  The idea is that they recognized the great things God had done for the man (Mark 5:19).

The last lesson I want to mention is that the people were more worried about pigs than the man.  Man is what God made this whole universe for, we are not to be slaves to the creation, it is for us to use.  Now that doesn’t mean that we can abuse it, but we can use it for our benefit.  Unfortunately since Adam disobeyed God there is a cost for us using it.  In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, they knew they had disobeyed.  Part of their hiding was making clothes for themselves.  They made clothes out of leaves but God made them a different set of clothes, he wasted to remember that they had offended him and needed to hide in a way, but he also wanted them to see the real consequence of their sin; death.   So God slaughtered an animal right there and then and made clothes out of the animals skin.  That must have been very shocking to a couple of people who had spent their days dancing around a garden eating mangoes and bananas.  The death of the pigs was meant to be a lesson for all involved and it was, Jesus was powerful.  But keep in mind that it was ultimately the demons who killed the pigs and the pigs were eventually going to be killed for food anyway.  God cared about the pigs he cares about all life (see Matthew 10:29).  The life of that one demon possessed man was more important to God than 1000 pigs though.  We need to keep that in mind when we consider things like abortion.  Sure it might be inconvenient and troubling for a girl to stay pregnant and have that baby, but that baby is a human being that God loves and we need to honor that.  Or when people want us to worship nature and the environment.  We need to remember that all of creation is here for us to care for, yes, but to use for our needs too.

God help me not be so religious that I neglect to really honor you with my life.  Help me not be afraid to get dirty if it means doing the things that really make you happy.  Let me understand what things are really disobedience and rebellion (sin) and not do them.  Help me look at things the way you look at them and know what is really important.  Help me use the world you have placed me in a way that respects what you really love, us, and does not abuse what you have created.  Help me never forget that the ugliness and destruction that are in the world are consequences of and reminders of the evil that we brought into the universe.  I know one day you will fix it all, help me trust that you are doing that in the best way.