The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Jos 23-24; Mark 5; Psalm 145

Freedom is elusive and unless the Son sets you free, deceitful

As the encounter of Jesus with the demoniac in the country of the Gerasenes opens – we can readily see the one who is not free, or so it seems. The focus is on the one who ‘immediately’ meets Jesus. He is in bondage, from two related sources. Legion, who possesses him, and those of the surrounding area who chain him.

Think what a figure of fear he would have been. The endless children who would be told stories about him, to keep them in their place. They would feel secure with him chained up . . . Their ‘freedom’ is defended . . . heavily

And Jesus frees the man by giving the demons permission to enter the swine. Note carefully what happens. The demoniac begs Jesus not to send the demons away, he is in their thrall.

but after he is set free (note, once Legion is departed, there are no chains) the people beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. Ultimately they are revealed as the ones who are not free. They needed the demoniac to assure them of their Rightness – now they have no measure for it. Jesus as the truly Free one has come amongst them and they are revealed to be in shackles. He must go, or else they will not be able to maintain the illusion of freedom.

Freedom is the cry of the Revolutionary who brings tyranny, and the one who would seek we be in thrall to some other god. Only the Son of man can in truth set you free , all other freedoms are a deceit.