Interpretation of the Gospel about the healing of the Gadarene demoniac
After the death of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, a cassette with conversations on selected fragments of the Gospel of Mark was discovered among his belongings. We present to your attention one of these conversations, dedicated to the healing of the Gadarene demoniac. The text is published with the kind permission of the Nicaea publishing house, which published the book by Bishop Anthony “Awakening to a New Life. Conversations on the Gospel of Mark" with these previously unpublished conversations of his.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
As we enter the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, I want to read you the first seventeen verses, and then we will look at their meaning.
And they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He came out of the boat, He was immediately met by a man who had come out of the tombs and was possessed by an unclean spirit. He had a home in the tombs, and no one could even bind him with chains; because many times he was bound with fetters and chains, but he broke the chains and broke the fetters; and no one was able to tame him. Always night and day in the mountains and coffins he screamed and beat against the stones. Seeing Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” I conjure You by God: do not torment me. For Jesus said to him, “Come out, O unclean spirit, from this man.” And he asked him: what is your name? And he answered and said, My name is Legion, for we are many. And they asked Him a lot so that He would not send them out of that country. There was a large herd of pigs grazing there near the mountain. And all the demons asked Him, saying: Send us among the swine, that we may enter into them. Jesus immediately allowed them. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and there were about two thousand of them; and drowned in the sea. Those who were tending the pigs ran and told the story in the city and in the villages. And the residents came out to see what had happened. They come to Jesus and see that the demoniac, in whom the legion was, is sitting and dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who saw it told them about how this happened to the possessed man, and about the pigs. And they began to ask Him to depart from their borders (Mark 5: 1-17).
This story is multifaceted and can be approached from many angles. I want to dwell on the different sides and first of all draw your attention to one circumstance related to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior Jesus Christ is God who became man. He is the Word of God, who created the universe, He rules the whole world with His wisdom. And suddenly here, as in a number of other cases, He seems to forget about everything, because before Him is one specific need, one specific sufferer: this is enough for Him to pay all His divine and human attention to him. That's a wonderful feature in Christ, that's a wonderful feature in God. We often think that there are things that are great and worthwhile, and there are things that are small and worth little attention. Not so with God. There is no such suffering, there is no such pain, there is no such need, there is no such joy that God could not partake of entirely, with His whole Being and sometimes introduce a new element into a hopeless situation, open, as it were, a door that will make this situation not hopeless.
Healing of the Gadarene demoniac
Here too, Christ, the God of the universe, as if forgetting everything in the world, turns all His attention to this person, because this person is suffering, because he needs help, because he is in grief. We should think about this because this is not how we treat people who are in need. When need affects hundreds, thousands of people, we suddenly wake up and begin to act, but when there is only one sufferer in front of us, and around us are everyday worries, our own needs, everything that makes up our personal and public life, we pass by. Well, yes, he suffers, but this is a small, private matter, how can this be compared with world history, with the events of the universe? And we forget that every person is infinitely precious, that there is no second such person and will never exist, that he is the only one in the entire universe and in all ages. And we need to pay attention to it at any moment, completely, even when circumstances, life call us to something else, to what seems to us broader, deeper.
I was once a doctor and experienced this very strongly when, as a military surgeon, I saw how the war was opening up and developing terribly, and at the same time my only concern should be the person who was lying in front of me on the operating table. There is nothing else in the world, even if the hospital or sanitary station where we are is shelled, I don’t care. Only one person exists: this person, there is no other.
Awakening to a new life. Conversations on the Gospel of Mark. M.: Nikeya, 2013.
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And it seems to me that here Christ gives us an example, because if we treated all the people around us this way, with such attention, with such clarity, then life would be completely different. We would not sacrifice everything for the sake of some cause, we would not sacrifice the cause, because with the right approach to the matter, opportunities would open up for us that otherwise would not have existed.
I remember now one priest. He came to me and said that his wife asked to talk to me. Their life has become joyless, since his priestly activity has expanded, he is busy only with other people, and he barely sees his wife and children. And as a result, the wife is unhappy, and the children are fatherless. I then told him: “You know what to do - reduce your pastoral activity by half.” - “How can I, because this is my duty to God and people?!” - “No, your first flock is your wife and children.” “But I will answer for all those whom I leave unattended during this time. I can go to hell for this!” I then told him: “You know, if you do this out of obedience, then I will go to hell, not you.” He beamed and said: “Oh, then everything is fine!” (I didn’t quite feel that way, but I was glad that he responded that way.) “So what should I do?” - “Give half the time that you devoted to your flock to your wife and children, take care of them completely, and see what happens.”
Several months passed, and my wife came to me and said: “You know, I just don’t understand what happened to us: my husband left half of his pastoral work, he gives all this time to us. And pastoral work has been completely transformed. Instead of him running from house to house, countless numbers of parishioners come to us and say: “We came to your house because we want to see what God can do with a family if the family is completely devoted to Him. Your family life is a shining light in our parish. We don’t need Father V. to visit us constantly; it’s enough for us to come and see what God is doing in your environment and, being convinced of this, calmly go home and live the same way.”
Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this an example, isn't this a parable in action and in reality?
***
Healing of the Gadarene demoniac. Fresco of the Orthodox monastery on Mount Tabor. Photo: A. Pospelov / Pravoslavie.Ru
After I have spoken about Christ himself, I now want to dwell on the demoniac. A possessed person is a person who is possessed, who has no power over himself, who is, as it were, a laughing stock and a toy of other forces. These other forces - I am deeply convinced of this, as both the Holy Scriptures and the life and teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church teach us - may indeed be demonic, but they do not always act to the extent and with such brightness with which they are described here. This may be “devilishness” in our Russian sense of the word. A person can be obsessed with a passion for drinking, be a drunkard, suffer from binge drinking, a person can be a voluptuous person. This could be a person who is unable to restrain himself from anger, it could be a person who is uncontrollably drawn to theft, it could be a person who is burning with hatred, envy, jealousy, you never know. Look, as if into a mirror, into your own soul, and you will see how many passions there are in it, perhaps small, perhaps not as tragic as obvious demonic possession, how many such passions are in each of us that do not give us the freedom to be completely worthy of themselves. Remember Nekrasov’s words: “Even though the anger in me is great and wild, when it comes to action, my hand freezes.”[1] Replace the word “anger” with the word “inspiration”, “desire” and you will see: how many times has it happened that - oh yes, how I would like to!.. oh yes, I am so willing!.. And when it comes down to it - neither from place. Therefore, we must take a sober view not only of the dramatic demons that we find in the Holy Scriptures and in our lives, among the people around us (although less often than is sometimes imagined), and think about those small demons that make us just as small and alien the truth of God and the truth of man, like this demoniac.
But the remarkable thing about this man is that he not only rages. As soon as the possessed person finds himself in the face of Christ, even when he still sees Him from afar, he sees peace in Christ, sees harmony in Him, he sees in Him the wholeness of the true Man, and at the same time in this wholeness he sees the God hidden in Him. And he falls at the feet of Christ and worships Him, because even for demons God is the One who owns everything, who is the Master of the universe, the visible and invisible world.
But these demons remain demons. The possessed one falls at the feet of Christ, but the uncleanness, the unclean forces, the unclean desires in him cry out to Christ: “Why have you come? Leave us, go away! And the Savior asks: “What is your name?” - “Our name is Legion,” that is, a whole horde sits in this man, like in a nest. What is inside us? How many little devils, how many little demons control us: envy, and jealousy, and voluptuousness, and cowardice, and lies, and greed, and love of money, and hatred, and malice, and refusal to forgive someone else’s offense, etc., etc. We, too, can be said to have a legion within us.
Healing of the Gadarene demoniacs. XIV century Fresco fragment
And Christ commands them to leave, but for these demons to leave means to return to the abyss. They want to somehow stay in the visible world, so as not to go into the pitch darkness prepared for the devil and his servants, and they ask Christ: “Let us into this herd of pigs.” The question is often asked: why, why did they like these pigs? The fact is that among Jews, as well as among Muslims, the pig is a symbol of uncleanness, and of all the animals that were around, the demons saw the creature that would proclaim to everyone who they were. They left - where? Into the realm of ritual impurity.
Even further, it is figuratively shown what happens when this uncleanness gains power: the entire herd runs and throws itself into the sea and perishes. From this it is clearly seen what happens if evil, even imps, even petty abominations, are given complete freedom: it will lead us to destruction, to destruction, to death.
***
So what is next? Then something very scary happens. The shepherds run to rouse all the people in the villages, in the city, tell what happened, and people rush to see what happened there, to look at the possessed man - and they see that he is now in his right mind, dressed. Where are the pigs? Sunk. And then a terrible thing happens: that this person is healed - they don’t care, but that their pigs died, this is - yes, horror. They don't want to see another case like this. They turn to Christ and say: “Get out of our borders. Saving one person at such a cost, at such a blow to our pockets - no, we do not agree to this.” We read such a story with horror, we think: how is this possible? But in fact, are we ready in each individual case to sacrifice our well-being, our goodness so that one person recovers, enters into life, wakes up? Not always. And therefore, let’s not really reproach these Gadarene residents, but let’s think about ourselves. How will I answer? If suddenly all my property, everything that I hoped for in order to get rich and live prosperously, was taken away from me just so that one person could become normal, healthy, start a new life - what would I say to that? Let's think about this, because we are not better than these people in everything.
So what is next? Christ leaves, and the former demoniac wants to follow Him: “I will go with You.” He does not want to be separated from the Person who gave him new life. And Christ says to him: “No, go to your people, tell them what happened.” “Ours” are the same inhabitants, the Gadarenes; they, perhaps, also lost their pigs. How will they accept it?.. Besides, we all know that testifying in front of strangers is not so difficult, because they do not know us, but testifying about something great that happened to us personally in front of our loved ones is much more difficult. The answer is very often: “Well, tell me!” With you? Did such a miracle happen? This doesn’t happen to people like you!” And this is what Christ sends this demon-possessed man and each of us to do, who by the power of Christ, by the power of faith in Christ, renounces all his demon-possession, begins a new life healthy, healed, that is, made whole, this is what the Lord calls us to: “Go to their own, let them see what miracle God can perform even on one of their own family.”
Zach. 21. Healing of the bleeding woman and resurrection of Jairus’s daughter. (End)
Read on Monday of the 15th week after Pentecost
One woman who suffered from bleeding for twelve years
This woman, according to legend, was called Veronica and was a pagan. Subsequently, she suffered for Christ and became a saint. martyr (her memory is July 12).
she suffered a lot from many doctors, exhausted everything she had, and did not receive any benefit, but came to an even worse state;
All the skill of the doctors to whom the patient turned and on whom she spent all her property turned out to be powerless to cure her; on the contrary, her illness worsened.
Having heard about Jesus, she came up from behind among the people and touched His garment;
for she said: if I touch His clothes, I will be healed.
And immediately her source of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her illness.
Having heard about Jesus
etc. The woman was ashamed to directly ask the Lord for healing, especially since the disease of bleeding, according to the Law of Moses (Lev. 15:25), was considered unclean, and therefore she decided only to touch the hem of His garment.
Meanwhile, she had such faith in Christ that she said: if I even touch His clothes, I will be healed
.
The Evangelist Matthew says that she touched the hem of
Christ
garment
.
The edge of the garment
is tassels on the edges of the garment, which the Jews, according to the law of Moses (Num. 15:38), were supposed to have for a constant reminder of the law of God. This is how we Christians, by faith-touching the miraculous icons and relics of God’s saints, or by approaching the sacraments of the church, are healed. “For us who are sensual,” says the saint. Theophilus the Recluse, a sensual touch is necessary to receive insensible spiritual power. This is how the Lord arranged it in His St. churches (Tr. leaf.). Therefore, those Christians who reject everything sensual in the church and want to stick to only the spiritual are mistaken. Our honoring of a shrine is not its deification, but an expression of a living sense of faith, hope for mercy and love for God.
At the same time, Jesus, feeling within Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned among the people and said: Who touched Me?
The disciples said to Him: You see that the people are crowding You, and you say: Who touched Me?
But He looked around to see the one who did it.
The woman, in fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came up, fell before Him and told Him the whole truth.
Jesus understand within yourself the power that came from Him
(I felt within Himself that strength had come out of Him).
This is how the Evangelist clearly depicts the action of miraculous power in I. Christ; he imagines as if the power of faith of a suffering woman, by itself, without the knowledge and against the will of the Lord, steals from Him part of the healing power (Mic.). Who touched
(touched)
My vestments
(My garments)? The Lord, of course, knew who touched His clothes, but he asked, even looked around (v. 32) in order to reveal the woman’s faith before everyone, so that others would compete with her. St. Chrysostom also points out other reasons for this: 1) so that a woman, pricked by her conscience, as a thief of a gift, does not spend her life in torment; 2) to show that she thought in vain to hide; 3) so that the Lord could reveal His omniscience to everyone who was here, and finally, 4) to reinforce Jairus’s faith and hope.
He said to her: daughter! your faith has saved you; go into the world and be well from your illness.
The woman, at the very touch of Christ’s robe, already felt recovery, but the Lord says to her: be healthy.
(be whole) to show that her illness will not return to her.
While He was still saying this, they came from the ruler of the synagogue and said: Your daughter is dead; Why else are you bothering the Teacher?
But Jesus, having heard these words, immediately said to the leader of the synagogue: Do not be afraid, only believe.
From the archisynagogue
(from the leader of the synagogue), i.e. from his house, etc.
Do not be afraid, only
(only)
believe
that she will live, although she died.
What else are you bothering
(moving)
the Teacher
? That is, that it is now too late to help the patient when she has died. But those who spoke did not believe that the Lord could resurrect the dead, and He had never yet performed a miracle of resurrection. The miracle of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter was the first.
And He did not allow anyone to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.
Peter, James and John
. These were the closest and most trusted disciples of Christ, whom He more than once vouchsafed to be witnesses of especially great events, for example. His transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), etc.
He comes to the house of the leader of the synagogue and sees confusion and crying and crying out loudly.
And he came in and said to them: Why are you upset and crying? the girl is not dead, but is sleeping.
And they laughed at Him. But he,
Having sent everyone out, he takes with Him the father and mother of the girl and those who were with Him and enters where the girl lay.
All expelled
(sent everyone away) - as unworthy to be present at the great miracle, except for the parents of the deceased and the Apostles.
And taking the girl by the hand, he says to her: talifa kumi, which means: girl, I tell you, stand up.
And the girl immediately stood up and began to walk, for she was about twelve years old. Those who have seen
came to great amazement.
And terrified with great horror
(those who saw it were in great amazement). The resurrection of Jairus's daughter was the first miracle of the resurrection of the dead by Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is not surprising if the witnesses to the resurrection were greatly horrified by the extraordinary nature of this miracle.
And He strictly ordered them that no one should know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
I. Christ forbade the disclosure of His miracles for various reasons (read explanation, Article 44, Chapter 1). Evangelist Matthew narrates that despite the Lord’s prohibition to talk about the miracle of the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, the news of it was announced throughout Galilee and Palestine. And the grateful parents, and especially the people, could not remain silent about such a great matter. The resurrection of Jairus' daughter was the first time the Lord demonstrated His Divine omnipotence over death. Give her something to eat
. Jesus Christ commanded that the resurrected daughter of Jairus be given food to fully confirm that she had indeed been resurrected and to strengthen her strength.
Source:
Moscow, Published by V.V. Dumnov bookstore under. 1900
