Of all the various miracles stories in the canonical Gospels, the one we hear today, the curing of the Gergesene Demoniac, this one that comes closest to the type found in the apocryphal Gospels (i.e., those not in the New Testament). It is one of the stories that appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, albeit each Gospel presents a slightly different version. In both Mark and Luke there is only one demoniac. Matthew’s story has two men. Mark’s story contains many more details. In both Luke and Mark, Jesus asks the name of the demons and is given the name Legion, which infers that there were many demons present. It suggests an understanding the people at the time of Jesus had, namely that knowledge of someone’s name grants power over that person.
The accounts of both Mark and Luke end by having the cured man become the first person that Jesus sends to the Gentiles as a disciple. This tells us that this version of the story was developed after Jesus’ death and when the Early Church began to embrace the Gentiles and include them in the Jesus WAY.
How can we understand this story, especially when it is paired with Paul’s words to the Ephesians where he states: We are truly his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to lead the life of good deeds which God prepared for us in advance.
This is the message I gleaned from the two readings we hear today. God came into our world in the Person of Jesus to reveal to us that our life has meaning and purpose. Our life is the way that it is because God has prepared things for us to accomplish not only for our own salvation but also for the good of others. It is craziness if we believe our lives have been given to us without any meaning or purpose.
One of the purposes that God has infused into our lives is the mission to witness to His goodness and to build His Kingdom here and now. The challenges that come to us are meant to not only help us place our hope and trust in God but to gain a deeper understanding of life so that we can proclaim Jesus as the Son of God. When we make this proclamation, we also simultaneously proclaim that we are children of God since Jesus is the true revelation of what we human beings are in God’s creation. It is only when we allow negative attitudes (i.e., demons) to cloud our minds that we fail to realize the meaning and purpose of life. As I think about it, many of the ideas and attitudes of our modern world are like demons that distract us from the true meaning and purpose of our lives.