Luke 8:26-29 26And they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27When he had stepped out on land, a man met him from the city who had demons and for a long time had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28And when he saw Jesus, crying out he fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torture me.” 29For he commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had been seizing him and they were keeping him under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.
Part of the reason why Jesus took his disciples across the lake, braving a back windstorm, is answered in this passage. Not only did Jesus want to teach his disciples about faith and trusting in him but also to seek out a man who was in desperate need of rescue from evil. The group sailed all the way across the lake to the area of the Gerasenes, who lived on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. As soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat, he was confronted with a new challenge.
Luke describes the man in a long run on sentence that grabs the readers’ attention with the strangeness of this man’s situation. The man was from the nearby city (which is not named) but did not live there but in a graveyard. The death all around him matched the spiritual death inside of him. That may have been where he felt at home because of the demons inside of him. Demons thrive on brining death and destruction to people. The man also was naked, which meant he was exposed to the elements and had no self-care or self-awareness. He was as far away from civilized life as a person could get. He was at the bottom of the socially acceptable behavior, totally ostracized by the community. Every neighborhood has someone like this.
The man’s response to meeting Jesus is significant for several reasons. One is that the man reveals the identity of Jesus that has been mentioned and illustrated throughout Luke’s Gospel to this point. The man knew the name of Jesus and that he was the Savior of the world. The man also knew Jesus to be the Son of the Most High God. This statement does not mean there are other gods, but this man was probably a pagan and polytheist. The phrase Most High God is used many times in the Old Testament to distinguish Yahweh from all the human-made gods and goddesses. Most High essentially means “only” when used of the one true God.
Second, as the story progresses, we learn that it was not the man who was speaking but the demons in him enslaving him to act as he was. The demons knew the identity of Jesus and knew they were helpless before him. They had no choice but to submit to the Son of God and beg for mercy. They knew the power of Jesus to torment or punish them. But it was not yet the final judgment when Satan and all his minions will be cast into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:10). Satan is allowed to roam the earth at this time as a form of testing of humanity and to determine people’s allegiance. At some point, this man had made a decision to follow the way of evil and became possessed and controlled by demons.
Luke gives some background information in his retelling of the story and offers an explanation of the man’s situation. Basically, the demon made the man go crazy and be a threat to the community. The people had to protect themselves and the man, and so put him in chains and shackles. In today’s situations, such a person might be put in a straight jacket or strapped to a bed. The man had super human powers by being able to break out of the chains somehow. The desert was a place of isolation and difficult living conditions. This man was desperate and had lost all touch of normal life. He was well on his way to a torturous death. Jesus had braved a storm to go help this desperate person.
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