READ: Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39
PRAY: Read Psalm 34:1-10.
DO: Watch the nightly news. Look for examples of suffering: In what ways are people suffering in our community, nation, or world? Did the news program offer any information about how suffering people are being helped?
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What do the words “demon” and “demonic” mean for you? What about “unclean Spirit”? (You might want to look these up, but they can be hard words to truly define)
Have you ever encountered a demon or the demonic? If so, what was it like? Where was God in this experience? How did you respond?
What does the word “healing” mean? Does God still perform miraculous healings today?
If God still performs miracles, why does suffering continue to exist?
What has God done for you?
Have you ever shared what God has done for you with others? How did they respond?
How can you share with others through your words and deeds what God has done for you?
The Gerasene Demoniac
Big Idea: Jesus has the power to stop great suffering in God’s name.
Historical Background (Adapted from The People’s New Testament Commentary, Boring & Craddock)
“Satan” has become in English a proper name for what was originally in the Old Testament a generic word for “adversary.” During the intertestamental period (the time between the writings of the Old and New Testaments), under the influence of dualistic religions, the figure of Satan emerged in Jewish tradition as the personification of evil and the opponent to God. Early Christianity adopted this as its way of expressing its conviction that evil, while not an eternal counterpart of God, was more than the accumulation of individual human sins. The Gospels, Paul, Revelation, and the whole New Testament use language about Satan and the devil as a way of expressing their understanding of evil as a transcendent power.
As Satan was thought of as the cause of human sin and misery, in some contemporary Jewish documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls the binding and destruction of Satan became a standard part of the hoped for eschatological drama – “the end times” (cf. Mark 5:3-4; 3:27ff.).
Paul and his followers portray evil as a transcendent power pervading the universe, sometimes simply referred to as “sin.” John’s Gospel account understands evil in a similar way (cf. John 12:31) and therefore recounts no exorcisms in which demons are cast out of individuals. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and Acts (and in the Bible, only they) often picture the evil power at work in this world as the possession of individuals by “evil spirits” or “unclean spirits”. Within the worldview of their times, they used evil spirits as a way of expressing the reality of evil powers to which human life is subject in any age. These exorcisms represent not only a historical reality, they also point to the meaning of the Christ event as a whole, understood as the act of God in which the demonic power of the world is overcome.
Application
The point of this story is not so much the healing itself, but how the healing reveals the true identity of Jesus. How is Jesus’ identity revealed and experienced by:
• The demons/unclean spirits
• The townspeople
• The healed/saved demoniac
Compare the three accounts in Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, and Luke 8:26-39. What parts of each story are the same? What parts are different? Is Jesus’ identity revealed differently in any account?
Read Acts 19:11-20. What is similar in this account to the story of the Gerasene demoniac? What is different? To whose power do demons respond?
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