It was an unusually hot day. By afternoon it would be worse. It had not been a good week. Whenever Peter had days like this he feared that it was an omen of something worse. Once again Jesus was in a fishing village rambling on about farming. Peter had talked to Jesus about using stories that people would relate to better. Peter, and for that matter, everyone else, especially Judas, had a hard time understanding what Jesus was trying to say. Judas, in private of coarse, wondering out loud to Peter, suggested that Jesus might be crazy. Sometimes Peter wondered.
They had been preaching all morning - or rather, Jesus had been. Peter thought that it was too hot and was
rather surprised to see the crowds that would come hear this man. For an uneducated carpenter from a backwoods
village in Galilee, he sure could draw the crowds. This afternoon was no exception. Even though he said he wanted to spend more time with the Twelve, as Jesus had called them,
Jesus would never send the crowds away without preaching to them first.
Then a most peculiar event happened.
The Twelve had finally convinced Jesus to preach to whoever could fit in
Peter's house there in Capernium. When
Peter walked into the kitchen to tell his wife the news, she replied "Oh
great! Mother is down, sick and you
want to fill the house with strangers!"
"Your mother is sick?"
Peter asked.
Just then, Jesus walked into the kitchen with Peter's mother-in-law on
his arm, smiling. Peter shrugged and
walked out to let in the crowd.
After packing in everyone they could, the heat became stifling. The
breeze was warm and minimal at best.
Maybe it wasn't such a good
idea.
When Jesus had finished telling one of his favorite stories about
farming, the crowd began to stir in the back.
Soon a message was delivered saying that Jesus' family was outside ready
to take him home. Peter's jaw dropped
to the ground. The only reason why a
family would come to take the eldest male home was because they thought that he
was crazy and was publicly embarrassing the family. Some folk had already
stated they thought he was crazy. Some Scribes from Jerusalem had said that he
was possessed. Could Judas be right?
Peter's heart began to stick in his throat and his stomach began to sink. The entire crowd heard the announcement.
Everyone knew that Jesus' own family thought that he had lost his marbles.
In times past, it seemed to Peter that Jesus had an answer for
everything, including his mother-in-law.
Glancing around at his wife and her mother, the neighbor who used to be
a cripple, and the others of the village who were deathly sick only moments
ago, Peter thought, "No. No this
man is not crazy."
Jesus didn't even bat an eye.
Without missing a beat, he simply looked at the messenger and said,
"Who is my family?" Then, looking at the Twelve and the crowd, he
said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother."
It was a hot afternoon in the Decapolis region. The sun was beating down on him.
Slowly he became conscience. The
first thing he heard was a fly buzzing his ear. Then a sudden, searing sensation of pain from his arms and then
his head. He looked down. Once again he had been bleeding. The wounds where untreated, open and
festering, some caked with dirt. He was
still naked. Once again he had failed
in his attempt. He was still alive.
How long had it been, he didn't know; weeks? months? years? He slowly
raised his sore arm and felt of his hair.
It was dirty and matted. He then
became aware of the awful smell. His
smell. When was the last time he had
bathed? When was the last time he was
sane enough to get close to the water to bath?
Tears came to his eyes as the memories flooded his mind. Time was when his mother couldn't get him
out of the water and now he had some unknown, awful fear of the water. Mother... Sisters ... family ... a life that
could have been, should have been, but isn't.
He let out a blood-curdling scream of pent-up up frustration, fears, and
lost dreams. Once again he would try to take his own life. He scrambled around for a rock with a sharp
edge. His mind panicked. Could he end his life this time before he
looses control? He found a rock that
would work. He felt his mind slipping
away. Desperately he gashed at his arm
but his hand wouldn't obey. Frantic and
desperate he gashed a second time. This
time drawing some blood but not deep enough.
He could see himself standing now.
Someone else had taken over. He
no longer felt the pain of his wounds.
His hands were gashing his body and legs. His mouth was laughing, laughing at him. Once again he drifted away into
unconsciousness as everything went black.
His last vision was the same as a hundred times before; his own body
running, screaming down the hill towards the tombs.
Peter thought that Jesus was looking more and more tired as the months
went on. Peter noted that as Jesus'
popularity grew with the common folks he seemed to get less and less
sleep. Not only was he teaching more
people more often, but he would get up early in the morning or stay up late,
sometimes all night. Early one morning
Peter followed him out of the house only to find Jesus in the stable, on his
knees praying. On that occasion, the
now all-too-familiar-question ran through Peter's mind: "Who is this guy?"
After Peter's mother-in-law chased the last of the crowds out the house,
Jesus announced that they should all take a little boat trip across the
sea. Everyone was just excited about
the idea, except, of coarse, for those individuals that head it. This was the wrong season to cross the Sea
of Galilee, not that there was a good season.
The lake was prone to sudden gale storms that had a tendency to produce
widows. Peter started to protest, but
John just said, "Come on, Peter, lets get your boat ready," and
walked out.
Peter just shook his head and walked out after him. Did Jesus just smile at him?
A few hours later all was going well.
Jesus was getting some much-needed sleep in the back of the boat. Then the wind changed direction and the
temperature dropped. Peter stood bolt
upright in the boat and kicked awake James and Andrew. They knew at once what was wrong. It seemed Peter's omen from the afternoon
heat was about to come true.
The Twelve where putting all their backs into the ores, but what is one
little fishing boat to a great Galilean storm.
The waves tossed the boat like Peter used to toss stones on the water's
surface when he was a child. However,
the storm gave even less consideration to the boatload of people than Peter did
to the stones. Judas Iscariot was on
the verge of panic. Something had to be
done. Desperate, John went to wake
Jesus. How could he be sleeping through
a storm like this, anyway?
Jesus walked out with a blanket wrapped around himself and leaned against
the mast for support. Through groggy,
sleep filled eyes, he surveyed a boatload of terrified, near panicked, grown
men. Jesus, not really bothering to
wake up, looked rather like a parent who has been woken by a small crying baby
in the middle of the night. He looked
out across the deadly sea and simply said what any parent of a small child
would say, "Shh. Peace, be still,"
and the sea was dead calm.
Passing by John and Peter on his way back to bed, he mumbled something
about "Oh, Ye of little faith."
Peter and John dropped their jaws on the deck. Judas dropped his ore in the water.
The Twelve where elated when the morning breeze finally gave their backs
a rest from oaring. Andrew took his
turn at the rudder and everyone else finally got some sleep. In a few hours they were at the beach in the
land of the Garasenes. If someone else
would have kissed the ground first, Peter would have been second.
"Oh No!"
Tamrin looked up to see what his fellow swine herder was cursing
about. He was looking over to the east,
into the rising sun. Tamrin couldn't
see a thing from the far side of the heard, but he had an idea what the trouble
was.
Sure enough, now he could hear the screaming above the noise of the
herd. The pigs were even getting
restless. Tamrin knew that there was
nothing anyone could do but wait and pick up the pieces afterwards.
It was Legion.
Three years ago the village gave up trying to catch him. He used to be a herder with Tamrin until the
spirits got him. Tamrin, nor anyone
else, had ever seen or heard of a case of possession so intense. He really must have done something bad to
the ancestors to get them so angry with him.
The village elders even considered moving the village away from Legion
but very few wanted to leave the graves of their ancestors and bring down their
wrath on them. What a choice, put up
with a mad Legion or insight the wrath of a legion of mad ancestors.
Actually, it had been nearly three months sense Legion had attacked the
pigs. In the first years, the villagers
had tried to chain him. Legion was
amazing. He simply broke whatever chain
they were able to put on him, not that they had many chances. The last time it took the seven largest men
in the village and two from a nearby town to get the shackles on him.
Two men where badly beaten, one broke his leg and one of the visitors had
an eye taken out. The shackles seemed
to work. It was a long struggle to put
them on and apparently Legion was tired by the end. Eventually he just drifted off to sleep chained in the village
square. Morning found only what was
left of the shackles and a dead guard.
Since the town had been leaving him alone, Legion had been leaving them
alone, sort of. Tamrin wondered what
had brought on this latest attack. He
said, "What's he chasin' us for now?
We haven't done anything to him ... lately."
A skinny little Jewish boy of 16 took his staff and stood in Legion's
path. Usually, the Jewish kid stayed in
the village and took care of the pigs at night, but one of the regulars was
sick so this kid was filling in, but Tamrin noted that Jews didn't make very
good pig farmers. He hadn't been here
long enough to meet Legion yet and since the boy’s money ran out, he had been
drifting from town to town. Tamrin
thought about yelling at the Jew but no one could be heard above Legion's
screaming. Besides, thought Tamrin, the
Jew deserved a good thrashing for leaving his father the way he did.
The Jewish boy raised his staff and swung hard as Legion came running
by. Legion didn't even seem to see
him. The staff snapped in two across
Legion's chest without even slowing him down.
The Jew went tumbling to the ground and the pigs started to
scatter.
Legion just ran straight through the heard. Tamrin thought that something was different this time. Legion wasn't after the flock, they just
happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. Legion ran past Tamrin a few yards away and continued up over the
hill and along the ridge towards the sea where the other village herd should be
by now. That was unusual, too, thought
Tamrin. He couldn't ever remember
seeing Legion down near the water.
"Well Jew-boy?" called Tamrin, "start rounding ‘em
up."
As The Twelve were getting out of the boat they started talking to each
other for the first time since the storm.
Everyone knew things would never be the same again. Two thoughts kept running through Peter's
mind: when Jesus said that His family were those who did God's will and the
statement Jesus made out on the sea, "Peace, be still."
Everyone seemed busy getting the weeks worth of supplies out of the boat
and setting up camp. Jesus was the last
out of the boat. Just as his foot hit
the dry soil, Peter heard someone screaming off in the distance. He took a few steps to the east where the
sound came from and, turning his face to the morning sun, he raised a hand to
cover his eyes. He couldn't see much
looking into the sun like that. He
thought that he heard someone running toward them but he couldn't see a thing.
Suddenly a figure blew past him.
A terrible odor assailed Peter's nostrils. He turned just in time to see what appeared to be a mad man
diving for Jesus' feet. Everyone made a
move towards the beast of a man but the man didn't move, he just laid there,
prostate in front of Jesus. Jesus
raised a hand to stop any further attempts for anyone to get between this mad
man and their beloved teacher. After all,
Peter thought, if this Jesus can kill a Galilean storm he can handle this mad
man.
Immediately Jesus ordered the unclean spirit to leave the man and then
Peter heard a sound like no other he had ever heard. The sound came from the possessed man and made everyone cover
their ears, everyone except Jesus, that is.
He just grimaced at the sound.
It is impossible to describe the sound that Peter heard. It was so loud it sounded as though it came
from ten men. It was more of a scream
than words, yet there were words that could be understood.
He said, "I know who you are, Jesus!" He spat out the name. "You are the Son of the Most
High! Why are you here? Have you come to torture us
prematurely? We beg you, please do not!"
"What is your name," Jesus demanded.
"Legion" he
screamed, "For we are many!"
Peter didn't think it possible, but this “Legion” began to shout
louder. He begged and pleaded with
Jesus not to send “them” out of the country and certainly not to send them into
he abyss, wherever that was.
Just then the second heard of village pigs crested the hill and started
down the ridge. Normally the herders
wouldn't bring the pigs near the sea but they wanted to see where Legion had
run to and what all the screaming was about.
"Send us into the pigs! Please dear God, let us go there!"
"What was this idiot of a possessed man asking?" wondered
Peter. "He wants to go into
pigs?"
Jesus just shook his head and said, "Go."
Legion collapsed on the ground and Jesus signaled for Thomas to help him
roll him over.
"Jesus! Look!" Matthew
was watching the heard of pigs, hundreds of them maybe a couple thousand. They were all squealing and running head
long down the hill from the north straight into the sea. Some had tripped on the steep hillside and
were rolling down, tripping others. It
was a pig avalanche! Every last pig had
run into the sea leaving the poor herders with nothing but a story to tell the
owners of the pigs. The herders broke
and started their own head long run back to the village. The village elders would no doubt be angry
at loosing so much of the village's resources and the herders couldn't afford
to take the blame for this one, not all two thousand pigs.
All that could be heard was the last few bubbles of air from the drowning
pigs. And then there was silence. Everyone just stood looking at the sea. It was dead quiet.
The man moaned and Peter jumped.
"He's still alive!"
Thomas shouted as he scrambled back.
"No kidding," said Jesus.
"Help me sit him up."
Peter, still standing at a distance, wasn't going to get close to that
stinking Gentile. It was bad enough to
be in this Gentile land without having to actually touch one of them,
especially one in such .... such ... such a terrible and unclean condition.
"Peter?" called Jesus,
"See to it that this man is cleaned up and has some clothes, please."
"Figures,” thought Peter. "Right away, Jesus."
Peter did as he was asked. The
man was in awful shape. They cleaned
him up with the Galilean sea water and even washed his hair. No one exchanged a word during the whole
process. The man was far too weak to
protest, not that he wanted to. But who
were these men who were helping him?
They all seemed kind enough, but weren't they Jews? What were they doing here in the
Decapolis?
Something seemed different to him.
His mind was back and it was clearer than it had been since before he
started to loose control. He glanced
around the small crowd of men until his eyes fell on Jesus. Him.
That's the one who is responsible for getting his life back. Jew or not, he would serve him the rest of
his life. After all, his life really
did belong to this Savior of his anyway.
They put some of Philip's clothes on him. They were about the same size.
Peter made a mental note to try and remember to tell Philip this
time. By the time Peter, James and
Thaddeus were done with him, Jesus had a fire going and was cooking some
fish. (Where did he get the fish?)
The next few hours where the most amazing of the mad man's life. As a boy, he had some interest in the God of
the Jews and even did some minor investigations into their religion, as much as
a twelve-year-old Gentile can do, that is.
This Jesus was fascinating. He
answered all of his questions. Not
always directly, sometimes the man was satisfied with Jesus' response of
"Trust me on this one." Even
some of this Jewish rabbi's disciples were amazed at this man's ability to ask
the right questions and understand the answers and analogies. One time when Peter asked Jesus to rephrase
an answer, the man stepped in to explain it.
Peter, forgetting his earlier prejudices, pursued the matter with the
man for a short time. From the utmost
depths of desperation and despair, to the highest mountain of freedom and joy,
this man had seen both in a day.
Then this mountaintop was abruptly brought down. The villagers had come storming over the
hill and started down the same steep slope as the pigs had earlier. Some of them even slipped and fell and
brought others down with them as the pigs had.
The scene of this human avalanche made Simon chuckle out loud. Matthew ribbed him one and Simon gave him a
dirty look.
As the villagers, approached the small band of Jews rose to greet
them. One of the pig herders pointed to
Jesus and announced that he was the one who controlled Legion. The crowd kept a respectable distance from
the Jewish gang. One of the village
Elders asked politely where Legion was.
Stepping out from among the Jews, he stood beside Jesus and said, "I
am the one you called Legion." He
couldn't believe that Gorlyn had become a village elder. How long had he been away?
Gorlyn started to protest but froze in mid word as his eyes bugged out
and is jaw hit the ground. The crowd
also finally recognized Legion and took a few steps back. Some in the back started to run back up the
hill.
The village elder finally found his repose and swallowed hard. Not daring to meet Jesus' eyes, he
said, "Please, Sir, do not harm
us. We beg you in the name of Artimus,
leave our land."
Peter thought that if Jesus had any intentions of preaching to these
village Gentiles, the opportunity had just passed.
Jesus took a step toward the village elder and spread his arms. He started to say something but the crowd
started to panic and moved back. Jesus
stopped. Turned around and looked at
the one they called Legion.
"They were afraid of me because of my strength and they are
terrified of you because of your power."
He said.
Jesus asked him, "Are you also terrified?"
The man looked genuinely surprised and said, "No! No, of course
not."
"Then we will go." Said
Jesus looking at Peter.
There was a small murmur in the crowd as Jesus turned and started to pack
up camp. Peter was glad to be returning
to Jewish soil and was happy to commence packing. The one they called Legion never hesitated but joined right
in. Peter thought that if Jesus lets
this Gentile join the Twelve, it will double their trouble with the Sadducees.
By the time the boat was packed, the crowd was out of sight over the
hill. Jesus turned to the man and bade
him farewell.
He suddenly looked desperate again.
"I can't stay here!"
He nearly shouted. "My life
is yours, I'm coming with you!"
"You have understood much,” Jesus said, "and you will understand even more. Your people do not know who God is nor who
I am, but you know." He just
nodded. Jesus turned to go.
"What can I tell them?"
He was flabbergasted.
"Tell them what you were before and what you are now. Tell them how much the Lord has done for
you, and what mercy he has shown you this day.
Simply tell them what you know."
Then Jesus kissed him on each cheek and turned to go.
The man stood there on the shore watching the boat until he could see it no more. He supposed that the Twelve were thinking that he was standing their longing to go with and perhaps he was. He figured he could always leave this village whenever he wanted and go find Jesus. His thoughts were actually on his boyhood memories; of the times when his mother would have to come and literally chase him out of the water. How long had it been, he still didn't know? He stood there with his feet in the water feeling the mud between his toes. This Jesus had taken his life from the demons and gave it back to him. He would be eternally grateful, besides, he did have a story to tell. He wondered if old Sheesha was still alive. She had been a servant of a Jewish family for a number of years, maybe she would be interested in hearing more about this God of compassion and power.
His stomach growled. It must be
about suppertime by now. He started up
the hill and for the first time in over five years, he whistled as he walked.