Category: Mark   5

Jesus gave them leave. They came out, and entered into the pigs; and the drove – about two thousand in number – rushed down the steep slope into the sea and were drowned in the sea.

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permission to be ourself
opens a hand to release
Pandoran fact and fantasy

invasive species run wild
upsetting usual accommodations
eroding standardized relationships

seeing the result of our toxicity
injected in a test animal
elicits a sense of great pity

yes we’ve wanted to drown
a first-step refusing secret
at a horrendous cost we awake

there is no taking back harm done
for all that has been weep
for all to come choose again

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The slightest of nods is sufficient for Legion to bolt before a second thought can be brought to bear and they find themselves even further afield.

This is not a slow exit like a Guinea Worm but a mad dash as Legion swarmed out. Such an exit would likely leave the still unnamed man (meaning you or me or all) both relieved and seizuring.

And so the irony as described by Perkins:

Although the demons try to avoid being driven out of the country, they wind up in the sea (the waters of chaos), where they belong. To a Jewish audience the loss of such an enormous number of swine might have been a humorous reversal in the story. Or, if the impurity of the setting was evoked by the swine, the drowned legion of demons suggests that Jesus has cleansed the area.

Such a potential cleansing is not limited to the biblical literalism identifying swine, by virtue of their hooves, as unclean. The uncleanliness of Empire must also be considered. While priests may rejoice at the keeping of the letter of the law, Jesus’ prophetic tradition is never satisfied with such an easy response. That which Legion represents, the economic/military machine that is Rome, must also be included—even as it would include the economic/military machine that is present day United States of America (as well as other powers such as Russia, China, and India—including anti-client-states such as ISIS).

The process of making whole again is never only individual, but touches every part of a context. We seem to seldom get out of dis-ease other than through paroxysm.

and the spirits begged Jesus, “Send us into the pigs so that we can take possession of them.”

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every demon seeks eternality
any life extension is worth pursuing
there is no quit or death chi here
only unregulated persistence

open-eyed assessment reveals moments
each unfated conversionable
strung together as a tale
wagging its teller

a next planned move is unavoidable
filled with ironic consequences
undifferentiated on the surface
from any wild-haired scheme

not even a retreat into serendipity
avoids terrible no-good days
in the end there is no escape
not even well-practiced detachment

best plans are agleed
worst qualities rise
a cure but delays decay
we are but who we are

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In verse 10 there is a pleading for compassion for that which would allow the continued presence of Legion in the area. This would mean that the Nothing or Emptiness of Life would continue to be present and grow there. The Empire can continue.

As it becomes evident the appeal for a special dispensation is not going to be honored and Legion is going to have to move beyond their current host, there comes the existential question, “What now?”

When pigs on a hillside are spotted, it only takes a moment to see a potential staging area from which to search for a new host—let’s go there.

An appealing plea shifts into high gear and we move to the next level of unabashed begging. To avoid banishment, Legion will settle for worse conditions rather than no conditions. In the same way we put up with disastrous weather as being better than no weather at all.

In the present and in every time, we do well to see what options are available to us. Too often we settle for a demotion as the better option to being fired without asking structural questions of what brought about a loss of jobs and income for laborers. Here a choice needs to be made between receiving less-and-less and separating into multiple minorities fighting one another or joining, across differences, in common cause. Have today’s intentionally disadvantaged simply settled for a shrinking sty? If so, it is likely that an exorcism of or revolution against the current Legion/Empire will, sooner or later, arise.

There was a large drove of pigs close by, feeding on the hillside;

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cultural omens vary
as much as their measurement
of private and communal success

that which is clean or unclean
or honorable or shameful
is not universable

it is location location location
interpreted through one lens or another
that sets self-inflicted boundaries

for instance anatomically similar pigs
raise hackles by their mere mention
stimulate bacon-induced drool

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There are political overtones to whatever is being said. Even silence carries import when a witness is in order.

Such a simple word as “herd” means more than a group of animals. Its context regarding Roman military presence has already been mentioned, but it is entirely too easy to let it slide to the back of our consideration of the location of this scene.

In its context, there is no reason for “herd” not to be heard as “band”. Myers puts it this way:

This unlikely story offers a symbolic portrait of how Roman imperialism was destroying the hearts and minds of a colonized people. If the synagogue demoniac spoke “under the influence” of the scribal establishment, then the Gerasene demoniac represents Rome’s military occupation of the land and its people. That this episode is a kind of political cartoon critical of Roman imperialism is confirmed by the recurring military terminology that follows. Legion begs to be sent into a “band” of pigs (5:11), a Greek term usually referring to a group of military recruits. Sarcasm is evident here, since the swine cult was popular among Roman soldiers.

With these military connections we can see a sympathetic magic of like-calling-to-like. It seems natural that Legionnaires under duress would look around and see a friendly escape route through their adopted mascot. We are also put on edge for there is a significant economic cost to remove the military underpinning of Empire.

Hopefully we are now able to hear an unspoken “palin” (again), remember an earlier encounter with a demoniac, and add in a Jewish poetic form of parallelism. This draws out additional overtones to the critique of Jesus and his preference for prophets before priests as a means to transform today’s separations into a more holistic reality offered by tomorrow.

and he begged Jesus again and again not to send them away out of that country.

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people are persistent
  no matter your plumbline
  bank account
  grade level
  personality profile
  family position
  religious affirmation
  political party

we are attached to our station
woe to any who would rename us
a forced beneficent remake never considers
ensuing suffering and experience of death
a status in hand is valuable
valuable enough to die for
settling for today’s difficulties
is rule number one

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Remembering the socio-political situation of Roman occupation and guarding of trade routes that benefits the rich to the detriment of the poor, Legion is speaking of the Roman army begging to not be sent from this place. Another Legion are those profiting from the occupation by selling pigs to the Boars (Roman army mascot).

The word here translated as “region” (χώρα, chora) carries overtones of “emptiness” which is as good a description of a graveyard as there is—a storehouse of emptied lives. This emptiness is still of value to many who are yet alive for a bit more as they pour memories into the land along with still bodies. Legion’s emptiness is better than they find elsewhere among a land and people who have only fetters and chains in their relational toolbox.

Imagine “emptiness” being a preferred place.

Well, did you do the imaginative work?

Now add Luke’s version which begs not to leave the region but begs not to return to the ἄβυσσος (abyssos, abyss), the deep, chaos, sheol, the place of the dead. This is probably a closer accounting of the sources of both Mark and Luke.

Both have their story to tell, and the use of “emptiness” rather than the traditional “abyss” helps to move us from traditional religious talk to everyday conversations. This shift opens us away from thinking we understand what we are being told to a more reflective opportunity to think about emptiness in our own life and all around us.

This verse doesn’t get much attention from commentators but is critical to moving the story along. As a transition verse this is one we might identify with as my short life moves our longer story along.

And he asked him,  “What is your name?” “My name,” he said, “is Legion, for there are many of us;”

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my name is Legion
I have gathered myself
into a coherent unit
out of all the possible me’s

my heroes and bullies
parents relatives peers
have done their best
to shape me in their image

bosses and comrades in labor
teachers and TV commercials
added their values in
to be thanked and resisted

I am called and controlled
first by one name and then another
each a façade for a number
claiming my allegiance

who am I you ask
a waif of smoke
awaiting my descent of dove
borne and born from above

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The exorcising command to leave is backed off from. There is time to delve deeper into what is going on.

An important first question is about identity. Until we can agree about who we are, an on-going relationship will play out of roles rather than personhood. It is always helpful to ask what another’s “Preferred Personal Pronouns” are.

The exiled man has already identified Jesus as related with a G*D of creation (and re-creation—healing). Now Jesus asks, rather than labels, the identity of a person of no place. This takes us out of the magic and power of name-knowing and sets both on a level plane.

So we hear a self-identity of “Legion”.

This is not an easy identity: “I am Legion”, begins in the singular and ends in the plural.

On a simple level we know that there are many internal wars and warriors. The reference to Rome suggests a battalion of 2,048 who need feeding. This is not a scene where people can be arranged by 100’s so we prepare for a different kind of feeding/healing process.

As we proceed we will find that this story moves from singular (meeting) to plural (naming) and back to singular (healing) again. This accords well with our own individual and communal being. Who we know ourselves to be is different from who others know us to be. Our growth plate is the intersection between these as both ourself and our various communities ebb and flow. To be able to talk person-to-person and person-to-community is a precious gift.

For Jesus had said, “Come out from the man, you foul spirit.”

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even before repentance
is on the horizon
we prepare to act
as though it were true

when another stands in need
having seen it a long way off
we have already acted
a prevenient partner

when it is me in need
having lived with it forever
it is still a surprise
when relief comes BANG

we are whiplashed
while running to say begone
we are enveloped with welcome
our circle circled

stories of life
live in this dynamic
fade without it
are reprised without end

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A command is not always a command as we are continuing a conversation after an order has been given. This willingness to listen further than a first decision reminds us of the importance of partnership and valuing horizontal relationships.

What a different story it would be if Jesus were to have every answer to every situation already written down on a cheat sheet to be pulled out, checked, and enforced.

With a little extra time the story can get played out a bit further and we will see where our values have been tempted and caught along the way. Bargaining with G*D, institutions, and one another reveals much about how we are engaged in the world.

A number of translations do not follow a sequence of Jesus first, chain-breaking man second, and back to Jesus. There is more of a sense of simultaneity or Jesus opening his mouth to speak. See the Easy-to-Read, Good News, New Life, New Testament for Everyone, and The Voice versions listed at BibleGateway.com. James A. Kleist, in his translation found in The Memoirs of St. Peter: The Gospel According to St. Mark, Translated into English Sense-Lines, records it this way: “for He was about to say to him”.

For whatever reasons, the “standard” versions are oriented toward a linear presentation while the lesser-attested versions carry a more dynamic interaction of both Jesus and the yet unnamed man speaking and interacting at the same time. Your preference?

shrieking out in a loud voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake do not torment me!”

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like love’s beginning
we deflect to denial
our fear of rejection
so overwhelming
so potentially deflating
so I’ll just die

we test and probe
you’re ugly
nobody likes you
why are you here
what are you trying to pull
I’ll never …

will this be the last word
can this amount of resistance
be overcome by a remaining flicker
time to turn our backs
fantasize what might have been

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The versification here is suspect as verse 6 is focused on the specialness of Jesus and this verse shows the worst of regular humans. The specialness of humans cannot helpfully be separated from the any, otherwise, divine aspect. Such a duality eventually leads to a “divine right of kings” relationship within a community of people.

= = = = = = =

This person is all too well acquainted with torture. They know it even before they see it. Torture is the water they swim in. Shackles for the feet and chains for the arms are just the easiest to recognize of torture’s forms.

Early and late the occupation of a land and people requires physical, mental, relational, and spiritual torture. Each application brings further dehumanization.

Each affront brings forth a next stronger reaction. This is true whether it is earth responding to fracking with increased earthquakes or humans with volcanic eruptions when they have their identity robbed by systems intended to privilege some over all.

With this in mind, the next question is what torture does this Jesus have in mind?

We might hear this serially-bound person mutter, “I have identity as a demoniac. Who will I be if I don’t have that and am still in my own country that has turned me into acting demonically?” This question is our land-locked question, just as it was a question asked by the disciples at sea when a storm was stilled (4:41). “Who is this? What does this have to do with me?”

First a kneeling and flattering address to set up the next gambit—exorcise the exorcist. Knowing that there are chains strong enough to predestine me alongside Sisyphus, it becomes important to get an agreement, a swearing, similar to a legislated “Protected Concerted Activity” for an employee where the employer can fire at will. While socially labeled mad, there is good worldly wisdom in their dealings.

Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed to the ground before him,

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there seems to be ever so much prologue
before we finally get to the action
time is bided and authority gained
stages are set and opportunities provided
today seems like one more day of prep
we go through motions upon motions

out of all our prior urgencies
it does appear today is the day
this the hour minute moment
we were seen and saw in return afar
in less time than time can be divided into
an expected unexpected arrives

in no time at all we are in a presence
revealing ourself beyond intention
facing another revealed self
a mutual admiration society in worship
one seeing their salvation in the other
one seeing their belovedness in the other

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Fear is always looking around for the next danger. Avoid if you can, placate where you can, puff-up when needed, fight when cornered. There is no order in which these responses to a threat come forth. The above sequence of escalation only suggests a variety of protective actions.

In some ways this grave-dweller recognizes a stronger power and doesn’t start with confrontation and accusation as the demoniac in the synagogue (1:21-28). Here is an example of bargaining to get the best deal possible—to stay in the region.

Having dealt with strength against strength, and besting all adversaries, a developed sense of place easily becomes personal and protected. And so a person whose strength is in the severity of their wounds comes running to guard their space, to argue their case.

We begin with the physical running toward, coming to a screeching halt, a dropping to a knee. While προσκυνέω (proskyneō) can indicate an extended genuflection of worship, here it is more likely restricted to issues of strength/rank and to be a sign of humble obeisance in the presence of a person of power you cannot control except, perhaps, by flattery. It may even go further than a kneeling and extend into a flat-out prostration.

We have both cosmic and colonial powers in this scene. A new vision of horizontal partnership only begun and a basic measuring rod of colonial rule (economic/militaristic/religious)—turning people into commodities and an ever-growing expendable class.

Night and day alike, he was continually shrieking in the tombs and among the hills, and cutting himself with stones.

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self-abuse is self-limiting
self-limitation is not a therapy
awareness too periodic
evasions too plentiful

whether pre- or post-Freudian
dealing with demons or ego
is mostly a failing proposition
insight and exorcism insufficiently systemic

warfare advancing one trench at a time
in a time of arbitrary drones
protects personal proclivities
from multi-disciplinary interventions

wilderness abandoned
reveals not wilderness
but our own wilderness
multi-layered abandonment

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When, day-in and day-out (24/7), we find ourselves powerless in the face of captivity by an overwhelming external or internalized oppression we admit it and start on a new way of living.

Before this recog­ni­tion we are likely to cut ourself off from ourself and others—literally as well as figuratively.

A tomb is an apt image for such personal and social dislocation.

To the reigning structures, this behavior is evidence of an individual bad apple rather than a signifier of something seriously wrong with the mechanisms of social ranking not effectively challenged by the majority who go along with the latest façade of power. A result is a bitter cycle of fewer resources going to fewer people leading to more need that is even less capable of being affected by tinkering with welfare formulas. In fact this behavior validates those in power.

We have reached here a self-defeat of powerlessness and a confirmation that there is nothing that can be done to help some people. Missing here is a picture of healthy partnerships among people of varying gifts and needs. The complexity here justifies a cutting through the confusions and living by the externalizing desires of status and power.

As we deal with this representative of all the lost who have accepted anti-shadow projections received from those with power over others, it will be important to listen to a response that doesn’t determine, ahead of time, a preferred methodology of healing. This important moment needs more reflection than a reliance on faith.

for, though he had many times been left secured with fetters and chains, he had snapped the chains and broken the fetters to pieces, and no one could master him.

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external control brings revolutionary fervor
freedom is a foretaste of heaven
until freedom tries to control freedom
in which case it is hell for all

no one is strong enough to avoid revolt
against their strongest strength
no one is wise enough to avoid questions
of their most cogent and beautiful aphorism

from coaxing day and clay forward
to forcibly exiling a step out of line
to invincibly guarding life’s sustainability
journeys need joining not ending

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Binding another, hand and foot, means they are an official “nobody”. We do that with official slavery by violence. We also do it in more subtle ways such as wages. People are enslaved by way of whips and fountain pens.

In addition to our usual expectation of someone needing a straitjacket because they are “mad”, be sure to factor in sheer anger at being dismissed. “Control”, here, may be read as “Silence”. Given the ways in which Jesus has asked for those healed to be silent about their new life situation, Jesus, here, is about to unsilence someone. With references to both military and industrial/economic (mega-swinery) oppressions, we might wonder if we need an up-dated loosing of complaints about structural slavery in our time and place.

It is labels like “mad”, “crazy”, “liberal”, “unrealistic”, and the like that are used to control/silence whistle-blowers and others recognizing pain and waste. Those, like Socrates and Jesus, who use questions and parables are always open to charges of corrupting the young and vulnerable when we are obviously in the best of all possible systems—for those in charge.

At some point “toughness” runs out of toughness. The falsity of violence and its avoidance becomes evident enough that sufficient mini-resistances are accumulated and Empires, Institutions, Corporations crack and eventually crumble. This is a potential transition from the way power works to the way mercy gambols within and between lives. A faint unchained melody reaches the edges of consciousness through a variety of Ways and clarifies through actual experiences beyond creedal expressions—good news worth a changed life.