“Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?”
-Numbers 23:19

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

Jesus came to this town. He intentionally came there. He knew about this town, and that this man was living there. There was a reason for his arrival. He got in a boat and sailed across the lake to this town, knowing what he would encounter there, knowing the work his Father wanted to do there. This is who Jesus was. He went intentionally to the places where there was shame, pain, evil, destruction, powerlessness.

A demon possessed this man. He was powerless. He was not in his right mind. He was controlled by a force that only sought to destroy him. He had no power to get rid of it, or act for his own healing. This had gone on for a long time. Many years, probably. This is how he lived. At the mercy of evil and confusing forces beyond his control. This was his life. For how many of us does this describe our lives?

No clothes. That is, no dignity, and with his shame exposed. No cover to keep him from the elements or to designate his as part of the human family. A constant reminder of the humiliation and degradation that evil causes. In his enslavement, he was repulsive to the people around him. We are reminded of the tender act of mercy God showed to Adam and Eve, taking life for the first time in order to clothe these first fallen people.

He had not lived in a house. He had no home. This demon had separated him from a home. What does this mean? How significant is this? What is it like to not have a home? A bed to lay down on. A space to rest in. A familiar, comfortable place. A place to meet the people you love. A place for you to own. He did not have this. That is what the demon did. The demon took him away from home. Away from the center of life, from the place where he could have found rest and recognition.

He had lived in the tombs. O how we do the same, when we slink into our sin, surrendering our strength, our will to the temptations that so thickly surround us! It is death—not just homelessness, but living (if you could call it that) among death, decay, putrid, unclean soul-less flesh. How hopeless, how dark this must have been for him. Day after day, retreating in torment to the tombs, isolated from all good things, all the promises of God. This is me, when I am tempted to impress others, tempted to have confidence in my doing the right thing, tempted to be critical, to lust, to isolate myself, to define myself by or escape in material things, to be cynical, bitter or complacent about injustice, to rely on and seek affection and attention from the people around me as a substitute for God….
How could he see a way out for himself? Who would save him from this bondage?