“Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them…” (NRSV, Luke 8:37)

The healing of the devil-possessed man in the country of the Gerasenes stands out for its strangeness from all other of Our Lord’s miracles.

Jesus and his disciples had just crossed over from the Jewish side of the Lake of Galilee to the heathen district on the eastern shore. A pair of eyes had been watching the approach of the boat, so that when its keel grounded in the sand their wild owner was waiting there. For years this weird figure had lived in the tombs and vaults that dotted the hillside, and on still days and nights his shrieks would be carried on the breeze to the neighbouring town, uncontrolled and uncontrollable.