Mark 5

 

Mark 5 circles back to the main theme of the gospel, what do we do with suffering and facing storms?  Jesus comes to Gerasenes and meets a man with demons.  Note, this beloved of God lives in the tombs or graveyard or among the dead.  He lives on the fringe and fray, which is where we still push/place put God’s beloved people today.  And if that wasn’t enough, the people of the village, so afraid, chain him.  He moans and groans, he fills the sky with his cries, and he physically hurts himself because of his emotional/spiritual/societal pain.  This is a powerful parable that is still being played out today.  We still push people to the edge of society.  We still shackle God’s beloved with chains of debt or high rent or taxes or disapproval.  We still tell people to pull themselves up with their bootstraps, not recognizing their feet are bare naked, like the beloved in the story today. 

 

Jesus sees this beloved.  Jesus asks for his name.  Jesus sits with him.

 

Scholars call this the Gospel’s preferential option for the poor.  This does not, does not, does not mean God has picked a side.  This means that when, wherever there is hurting, a need for healing, and for love to make someone whole, God reaches out to the beloved in that graveyard of life first. 

 

Where do you find yourself shackled today?  Where are you pushing yourself?  Often today that is with schedules that are too full, and we demand ourselves to keep on going!  How is Jesus calling you by name and sitting with you right now seeing you in your full humanness?  This story is our story.

 

I do love the ending where the demons are driven into pigs who go and drown in the water.  Quick note (from an Iowan) ~ pigs can swim and for the love of all that is holy, why waste that much bacon!  But the point is metaphorical ~ God longs for liberation for all God’s people.  I love how the townspeople are more concerned with the economic impact of lost livestock than celebrating the liberation of one who was hurting.  We still do this today.  We don’t see people, we see immigrants who “steal our jobs”.  We don’t see people, we see those who vote that way.  We don’t see people who are hurting, we see someone who isn’t doing what we think that person should do (never mind they didn’t ask you to write their story)!  This story is one of the longest in Mark, so pay attention, slow down and turn this story in many directions so that the light of God can shine through it into your life this day.