Gadara

The first mention we have of a city called Gadara, on the shores of Lake Galilee, is at the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry. The Gospel records of the miracle our Lord wrought in delivering the man Legion from his dreadful affliction identify different place names. In Mark it is ‘the country of the Gadarenes’ (Gerasenes RV) and in Matthew it is ‘Gergesenes’. It would appear that Gadara was the chief city of the immediate area, whereas Gerasa may have referred to a wider area. ‘Although topographical maps show hills all along the southeast shore of the Sea of Galilee, geographers who have visited the area say that the only place to locate the drowning swine incident is a strip of steep coastline near Gergesa, the present-day Kersa (cf. Gerasa, Gergesa)’.¹Interestingly, the Jewish Encyclopaedia says, ‘From the readings of the best texts and from the unsuitability of the locality around Gadara, it appears that the proper reading should be “Gerasenes” and the place located at Karsa, on the left bank of the Wadi Samak, near the sea of Galilee’.² Whatever the name, it was one of the ten cities in a region known as the Decapolis, on the eastern side of the Jordan River and on the south-east side of the Sea of Galilee. The majority of the inhabitants of the Decapolis were non-Jews who had evidently invested very heavily in herds of pigs. There are suggestions that the swine would have been sold as animal sacrifices as well as food, apparently Roman soldiers used pigs as propitiatory sacrifices to their gods.

Mark brings our Lord’s visit to the Decapolis together with three others in a sequence in his Gospel. The first emphasizes our Lord’s power over the deep with the miracle of His stilling of the storm with a word, the second His power over demons in His exorcism of Legion, the third His power over disease in that the woman was cured merely by touching the hem of His garment, and the fourth His power over death in His healing of Jairus’ daughter, Mark 4. 35 to 5. 43. In each of these miracles, our Lord brings relief where no other man could have done so.

In the second of these miracles, He lands on the shores of the Decapolis having just faced consistent and persistent rejection of His ministry and His claims to be sent from God. Jewish authorities asked for a sign, as though the miracles themselves were not sign enough. Our Lord’s response was to remind them of two acts of remarkable Gentile faith - that of the men of Nineveh in Jonah’s day and the Queen of Sheba. Shortly after this, He embarked in a ship from Capernaum with His disciples and crossed the lake to the other side, to the land of the Gergesenes, either landing on its foreshore or at a harbour. It is surely significant to note that this is the first recorded visit of our Lord to purely Gentile territory. It is a milestone in the spread of His message. Rejection by Jews would lead to the gospel being taken to Gentiles.

His visit was not prolonged, however, neither did it involve any travel through the region. Our Lord landed on the shore, encountered Legion with all his problems, delivered him and then re-entered the ship and sailed away at the request of the owners of the pigs, leaving Legion behind. It would appear, therefore, that His visit was simply to liberate Legion and send him back to his own people as an evangelist. Neither our Lord nor His Jewish disciples would be peripatetic preachers in Decapolis at this time, but rather one of their own, a Gentile himself. Legion was to be a key man in the work of the gospel at that time.

Legion is a man who shows every sign of being in despair, beyond human help, and ceremonially unclean. He is probably a Gentile, is possessed by unclean spirits, lives among the tombs and is therefore in close contact with death, and has issues of blood, for he cuts and wounds himself. Each of these things would have made him unclean in the eyes of Jewish law and made him unfit for human contact. Yet our Lord comes to change all that. He shows the grace of God to the needy.

The third important aspect to this incident is what is revealed to us about demons. It would appear that demonic oppression or possession was greatly increased during the years of our Lord’s public ministry. Is this an indication that Satan and his demons were doing their utmost to resist the work of the Son of God? Our Lord does say, ‘The prince of this world cometh’, John 14. 30, and we are reminded that, after His temptation in the wilderness, the devil ‘left him for a space’. No doubt he was frequently attacking our Lord, even once through one of His own disciples, Peter, Matt. 16. 23. Legion is deeply troubled by these unclean spirits. At times, one imagines it is Legion answering the Lord; at other times it seems as if the demons control him and answer for him. ‘My name is Legion, for we are many’. Although the Jews had, at least as far as their leaders were concerned, rejected our Lord’s claims, the demons knew exactly who He was. ‘What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?’ cries one of them, Luke 8. 28. Mark’s Gospel tells us they came rushing down to ‘worship him’, unable to keep away from His divine presence, perhaps even drawn to it. They recognize His divine nature and acknowledge His divine power, pleading with Him to be dismissed into the herd of pigs rather than being condemned to ‘the deep’. We might think that the deep referred to the sea itself, but it is the same word that is translated in the book of Revelation as the bottomless pit, the ‘abyss’. There is a place, ‘everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’, Matt. 25. 41. Some demons have already been sent there - ‘God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment’, 2 Pet. 2. 4 - but some appear to be free to tempt and do the work of the devil in this world. The demons that possessed Legion evidently knew that their fate was to be sent to the abyss, but they also knew their time had not yet come - as did our Lord. The devil and his minions know what is ahead of them!

It is instructive to note the four times the word ‘beseech’ is used in this miracle. The first plea seems to be by one of the demons that the Lord ‘would not send them away out of the country’, Mark 5. 10. Perhaps they fear that they and the man whom they possess will be expelled from that neighbourhood if this Jesus is to remain there to preach. When they realize they are to be cast out of the man, they beseech the Lord to cast them into the herd of swine, v. 12. They evidently need some material body to possess, and even pigs will do! ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none’, Matt. 12. 43. On hearing that their herds of swine have drowned in the sea, the swineherds beseech the Lord to depart from their coasts, v. 17. He is not welcome. But then Legion himself pleads to be allowed to go with the Lord and His disciples, v. 18. His request is refused. All, demons included, recognize the authority of the Son of God. All beseech the Lord, submitting to him.

Although we could point out Legion’s condition - tormented, possessed, isolated, naked, aggressive - and his cure - found relieved of the oppression of so many demons, sitting, and clothed at the feet of his Lord - we find in his new-found faith the hallmarks of a true believer. In the first place, he is ‘sitting at the feet of Jesus’, Luke 8. 35. This is a Jewish expression which indicates that he was taking the place of a disciple. Saul of Tarsus was taught at the feet of Gamaliel. This is where all true disciples should be found - at the feet of their Master, just as was Mary of Bethany, who desired the better part. Secondly, we note that Legion had a deep desire to be included in the company of our Lord’s disciples. He asked to go with them. ‘When he [Jesus] was come into the ship, he … prayed [besought RV] him that he might be with him’, Mark 5. 18. It is not a good sign when believers no longer look forward to or enjoy the company of the Lord and His people but would rather be found elsewhere. Thirdly, the man had a personal testimony. His faith was not secondhand, nor was it merely intellectual. ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee’, commands our Lord, v. 19. And, lastly, Legion was obedient, as should be all true disciples. He left the little party to embark ship and went back, seemingly without complaint, to his people. But he did more than obey. Our Lord told him to ‘go home … and tell’, but he went ‘and began to publish in [the whole of] Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel’, v. 20. Men and women may deny the truth of scripture, they may argue over doctrine, but they cannot deny the testimony of a changed life.

Some commentators suggest that when the Lord healed the great multitudes who came to Him with their lame, blind, dumb and maimed and then fed four thousand men and women who had come to hear him, it was in the Decapolis region, the very place where eighteen months before Legion had begun his witness to the Lord.³ How remarkable is that! Rather than asking him to leave because He touched their pockets, this time they thronged around Him because He touched their people. They ‘were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well’, Mark 7. 37. Legion had done his work, Mark 7. 31; Matt. 15. 32-39. So should we.