The Other Side

Christ’s healing of the demon possessed of Gerasenes, opposite Galilee, is recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Mt 8:28-34; Mk 5:1-15; Lk 8:27-35).   Jesus goes to Gentile country, on the other side of Israel, to bring His saving presence and peace to an area and people far outside the Law, the temple and sacrifices of the covenant people.  He encounters the demon possessed, people who are literally driven and controlled by evil, raving mad, outcasts of society, naked, living among the tombs, where pigs were herded by their keepers. 
Jesus comes to the other side to do ministry.  Here is an example of God’s grace, coming to people who are lost in their transgressions, who are not seeking His presence or His ministry.  He ventures forth on the other side of a humanity steeped in sin and suffering, clueless about God’s love and care for them.  We are very much like these poor unfortunate creatures, wandering mindlessly about our affairs, heedless to Christ’s saving presence.  Jesus must come to us, not we to Him, as He shows us in these recorded scriptures.   

He comes to them, as He comes to us, with His means of grace, His almighty gospel word and mighty acts to save.  As we see in our lessons above, they encounter the power of the Son of God in their midst.  He expels the demons afflicting the individual into a herd of swine, who run down the hillside, into the lake, and drown.  It’s a frightening scene, much like the horror movie from years past entitled “The Exorcist.” 

The almighty God visits a pagan land on the other side, to perform His saving grace.  Remarkably, after restoring the formerly possessed to their senses, clothed and sane, the frightened populace encounter the peace and calm of Christ’s power over all evil.  He cleanses, rescues, and restores God’s precious humanity to its senses, to see and experience His almighty power to save.  Although the populace of the Gerasenes, overwhelmed and frightened at the power Jesus exhibits in exorcising demons and restoring the humanity to the individual, requesting He leave their vicinity, the restored person in Luke’s Gospel wishes to go with his Lord and Savior.  But Jesus commands him to stay.  “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” (Lk 8:39). 

Imagine the impact this individual had on the community in which he lived, no longer outcast, but healed and whole, sane and sober, filled with the message of salvation Jesus had bestowed upon him.  It was similar to when Jesus spoke to a woman of Samaria, gathering water from Jacob’s well (John 4:6), confronting her “demons” of multiple marriages and wrong-headed notions of God’s kingdom (John 4:22).  He assures this sinner that the water she craves is the living water only He can provide.  His words to her convict and convert her.  She exclaims, “’I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When He comes, He will explain everything to us.’  Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25-26).  She then goes to her village and spreads the good news of Christ’s presence and saving grace.

Here too, Jesus goes to the other side, the place where Jews would not go, to speak to a Samaritan woman, another social norm broken, in order to rescue and restore.  Another outcast is brought home and given a message of salvation in Christ to share with her family and neighbors.  Jesus is for all people, whom He loves dearly, all us “demon-possessed” sinners who need His coming by His grace to seek and save us from sin’s death grip upon us.  He comes from heaven to the other side.  He comes over to our side, to be with us, and share the goodness of His love with us.  His gifts of Word and Sacraments save!