18. Mark 5:1-13: Jesus Takes on the Empire
The Second Campaign Begins If the disciples thought braving the sea was frightening, just wait till they get across the sea to Gentile land. Scarcely having caught their breath, a new and terrifying sight comes toward them. A cemetery-dwelling, demon-possessed man of uncommon strength approaches. In Isaiah God condemns those “who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh” (Isa. 65:4). It is an unclean space, a place of death. Eugene Boring notes: “The man here is a picture of death, of one already banished from the land of the living, from human community that makes human life possible.” (Eugene M. Boring, Mark. NTL. [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006], 150.) In the first campaign Jesus began with an exorcism in a synagogue (1:21-28). He begins the second campaign with an exorcism as well. Comparison with the earlier exorcism story shows their close parallels (Myers, Say to This Mountain , 58). Conflict ...