Spreading the Gospel, Conquering Evil

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea, to the country of Gerasenes. And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him; and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them." So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had the legion; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood. And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. But he refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marveled.

-St. Mark 5:1-20

As we read in this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has just cast the demons out of the poor man who was the victim of demonic possession by “Legion, for we are many." This happened in the Decapolis, which literally means “The Ten Cities.” 

 Near the Jordan, and on its east side, there were ten cities that had a rather special character. They were essentially Greek cities, because of the conquests of Alexander the Great, which firmly established Greek culture in that area. This explains how there came to be large herds of swine there – something that would not be found in Jewish areas.

The cities were beautiful. They had their Greek gods and their Greek temples and their Greek amphitheaters. The people were devoted to the Greek way of life. And this is of interest to us. Why? Because with Jesus ministering in the Decapolis, it was a hint of things to come. Although there were Jews in the area, it was fundamentally a Greek area, and this is the first time we see Jesus moving His teaching from a purely Jewish setting out to Gentile territory.

With that in mind, we can see some reason, now, for Jesus not letting the man who had been possessed stay with Him. Jesus sent him back to stay in this area as a witness to the power of the one true God. This man, delivered from demonic possession, was probably a “seed” planted, which would grow into a harvest of people who would ultimately give themselves to Christ after His resurrection. 

This, then, was the first contact that Christianity had with Greek civilization, and it is a small, but dramatic picture of the future of the spread of the Church throughout the world by conquering evil and spreading the Gospel.

_______________________

Pictured: "Healing of the Possesed Man at Gerasa" 

From a Book of Hours, Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1430