So, I am continually and still having a problem with this whole ‘clear your thoughts for worship’ thing. If you can’t focus on your Lord in Church, how are you going to do it the rest of the week? Maybe he’s not really your Lord. Maybe the worship service is not engaging enough. Church should be preparation for fighting the good fight the rest of the week. Can you imagine a bunch of troops gathered for battle and the leader gets up and say “i know there are a lot of extraneous things in your head but now you have to focus on this war”? Hello, why else are we here? If you are focused on something else during the pep rally, you are apt to be asleep during the battle. Maybe if our church was covered with complex meaningful icons. Maybe if our music was riveting battle hymns instead of sweet love songs. Maybe if our serviced addressed the rest of life instead of an exercise in hermeneutics.
The Swine Driven into the Sea. James Jacques Joseph Tissot. 19th century
Well I’m marching on, and so was our Lord, King Jesus. Mark has historically been known as the gospel portraying Jesus the King, the lion. The King layed out in the Old Testament was always meant to be a servant king. Christ earned the position at the Father’s right hand by serving, by laying down his life. But there is also a conquering aspect. Israel had never quite finished the job, then they were carried off to exile and never fully restored, now they were under the Roman Empire. But then the king burst on the scene. He relived Israel’s history then he entered the land and began conquering the evil spirits, Mark 1:21-28. The religious leaders were no match for him. Disease and need were no match for him. The weather was no match for him.
I was searching for the Old Testament typology in the passage of the legion of demons cast into the swine, but nothing really fit. There are illusion to the binding of the strong man. Which reminds us of the parable Jesus told a few chapters earlier about binding Satan. There is something to the passing over the water of the sea. But nothing really made sense until I thought about it in a Roman context. Crossing the sea often refers to far away Gentile nations. The Decapolis, where this took place and where this demoniac later worked was the Roman frontier. It was the edge of the conquered Roman Empire. As such, the Romans had built significant cultural and military centers in these cities. The Roman policy was generally assimilation, that is allowing the cultures they conquered to blend into the empire, while retaining what aspects they could. So though the Jews were controlled by Rome they were allowed to go on being Jews in many ways. There was always Roman military presence, but they were given Jewish leaders, though they were often puppets, they were kept on a fairly lose leash. Jewish and Roman law existed simultaneously, where possible. Yet the Romans put in place much of their infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and aqueducts. But the Decapolis was different. These areas were more strictly Roman. Roman generals were left in place and given much land to settle and maintain. They were to be outposts of Rome. Those born in these cities were full Roman citizens. They were like embassies are today, a home away from home.
And so Jesus invaded much like the Romans. He conquered the demons and left his general to spread the gospel and maintain his culture in these cities. It’s interesting that the man wants to be with Jesus, the demons begged Jesus to stay, this man cleansed of demons begged Jesus to leave. But Jesus tells the man he must stay and gives him his task to spread his story to the Decapolis. Jesus generally tells people to remain silent about the work he has done for them, but he leaves this man as his embassy to the Decapolis.
Churches Founded Before the Persecution of Diocletian in 304 AD.
And we can be sure that the gospel took hold in this region very early on. This man was a successful ambassador for Jesus. Churches in Pella and Damascus are some of the oldest after those in Jerusalem and Galilee. By the third century many of the cities of the Decapolis had significant churches. In fact many Christians would flee to this region when the Jewish revolt began in 63 AD about 30 years after this event. The Jews are a rarity on this planet, while many, most nations of this earth are conquered and mixed with their conquerers the Jews never mixed. They always remain their own people. And so the Maccabees were the heroes of Jesus day. Their successful revolt in 167-160 BC was the motivation for the Hanukkah celebration, which Jesus celebrated John 10:22,23. This was a good thing in the history of Israel, the temple was rededicated and Jewish worship continued until the time of Jesus. But Jesus was clear when he preached in Israel “those who live by the sword would die by the sword”. And so every Jew who rebelled against Rome was killed. Ending with the last stand in Masada in 73 AD. Interesting that the conflict began over issues of paying taxes to Rome. Sheds further light on the render to Caesar passage. Rather than being maxims for every time and place, Jesus was warning his Church. And those who listened to his words were spared. “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place ( let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” The mountains were the mountains across the Sea, to the Decapolis they fled and were spared. The demoniac had done his job and the church would continue to grow. The Christian presence in this area actually continued to this day, until recent unrest, on Obama’s watch, caused them to flee.
Meanwhile the Jews continued and continue to this day to want a messiah without repentance. They want the benefits of salvation from earthly oppressors only, without turning their hearts to their God. They cling to part of the promise without doing their part. Of course we can do the same. We want the Lord to return without doing the hard work of repentance. We want to be spared hardships without living godly holy lives. We want to be made kings in heaven without sacrifice. We want glory without the cross. Will we be forced to flee to the mountains of China across the sea? I would prefer repentance.
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