Mark 5:1-20

Exorcising the Evil of the Imperial World

Mark had introduced Jesus’ mission to his fellow Galileans with a scene of exorcism on a Sabbath in the synagogue in Capernaum – in classical scribal territory. Mark had identified the encounter in terms of a contrast of authorities, that of Jesus, who taught as one having authority, and that of the scribes. The authority in question was precisely that capacity to author life and freedom in others, a capacity flowing from the abundance of life and truth within.

In similar vein Mark prefaced Jesus’ entry into non-Jewish territory with an exorcism – a conflict of authorities, and a truly formidable one at that.

Mark 5:1-20 – Jesus Exorcises the Gerasene Demoniac

Jesus and the disciples disembarked in pagan territory. Mark’s geography was remiss. The country of the Gerasenes was some distance southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Either Mark was ignorant of the fact, or he was deliberately drawing significant items together for the sake of their symbolic impact. In fact, to convey his message Mark needed to include both the country surrounding Gerash and the shore of the lake.

Gerash (or Gerasa) was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a loose grouping of hellenised cities artificially set up some years before and populated by former Roman legionaries, among others. A Roman legion was stationed in the country surrounding Gerash, to preserve the so-called “Roman Peace”.

Mark’s symbols were powerful:

• The man lived among graves, the places of the dead, and abhorrent to Jewish sensibilities.
• He was strong. 
• He was a threat to others.
• He was a source of suffering even to himself.

The response of the man was ambivalent. He was drawn to Jesus and crouched before him as though to acknowledge his debt of honour to him. But then he shouted frighteningly at the top of his voice as if to rebuff Jesus. The unclean spirit within him sought to control Jesus by naming him, using the title Son of the Most High God (the pagan equivalent of the Jewish title used by the demoniac in Capernaum, Holy One of God).

On his part Jesus showed no fear. His own inner truth and strength allowed him immediately to recognise the problem of the shouting man crouching before him. He divined the presence of an unclean spirit and began to take authority over it by demanding it name itself.

The answer was truly appropriate. Legion was a word familiar to all Roman citizens as well as to all subjected to the exploitative might of Rome. The Roman legions were the means by which the Roman imperial machine kept conquered peoples submissive. Yet the power of the Roman enculturation was such that the subjected peoples accepted it, and perhaps even acclaimed the “Pax Romana” that was maintained precisely by their domination. They were complicit in their own suffering.

The power confronting Jesus among his own compatriots was largely the power entrenched in the socio-religious institutions of Israel, epitomised in the authority of the scribal classes. The power confronting Jesus (and his Christian community afterwards) in the pagan world was the pervading ethos of Rome, preserved by a loose entwining of imperial and religious institutions.

The demoniac pleaded that Jesus not send the legion of spirits infesting him out of the country. To emphasise the horror of the Roman power to Jewish sensitivities, Mark had the spirits entreat Jesus to allow them to enter instead into a herd of pigs. Jews instinctively detested pigs, and to eat pig meat was to betray one’s Jewishness. 

There followed then a series of words that had their general meanings, but also carried particular military overtones:

• the word translated herd was used also for a “company” of legionaries
• to give permission meant in military parlance “to dismiss"
• the rush down the steep bank was used also to describe a “charge” by soldiers
• and the number thousand was a significant proportion of the number of soldiers comprising a “legion”.
• Mark left no doubt that he saw the demonic possession of the world in terms of its Roman socio-military oppression.

Stronger than Imperialistic Militarism

Mark’s reference to the demise of the evil spirits “drowned in the lake” carried echoes of the destruction of the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and the triumph of the Israelites liberated from Egypt. The Roman occupying power was simply another embodiment of the same militaristic imperialism that would eventually crumble before the liberating power of God. The Book of Exodus contained the victory song of Moses:

In Mark’s mind Jesus was beginning a process that would culminate in the conversion of the Gentiles and their incorporation into the Christian community, even if the process, at least in the Markan community, meant pain, panic, storm and gradual clarification and depthing of faith.

The local response to the liberation of the demoniac was fear, a response not unfamiliar to the disciples.

Mark had mentioned that the demoniac before his exorcism was accustomed to bruising himself with stones: he was party to his own destruction. He now made it clear that the demoniac’s problem was also the people’s problem. They begged Jesus to leave their district, either because they were willingly complicit in their own oppression and exploitation, preferring the familiar to the unknown, or because they feared the brutal reprisal of the occupying power.

Perhaps surprisingly the former demoniac asked to become a disciple. In Jesus’ own time such a request from a pagan was premature. But Mark made it clear that Jesus did not rudely rebuff the man. He invited him to be an apostle to his own people, though without support and without further deepening of his faith. He invited him to reflect on his experience and to see that his message was to be one of God’s mercy, an exercise of power on Jesus’ part, certainly, but the power of Jesus’ own integrity and inner freedom. The man was true to his resolve, and spread the reputation of Jesus around the Decapolis.

Mark concluded the episode with a comment on the reaction of the non-Jewish crowds. Though he used a different word, he noted their reaction as one of amazement, as he had noted the response of the crowds who had witnessed Jesus’ initial exorcism in the Jewish synagogue. Whilst it spoke of puzzlement and extravagance, it did not necessarily refer to a questioning that led eventually to faith.

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