We are told that this man was demon-possessed. He was under occupation. Enemy forces had moved in and taken possession of him body and soul. Now, of course, as in any occupation their control was not 100%. There were pockets of resistance even at this stage. That is why the man seems to act in contradictory ways – wanting to come to Jesus yet not wanting to. If I say this is a portrait of evil gone out of control I use the term loosely. In truth there is no such thing as out of control absolutely. When a bus or a lorry runs down a street ‘out of control’ it is not so out of control that there is not a certain predictability about its movements. What we mean is that there is no-one behind the wheel or no-one competent behind the wheel. When a gunman goes berserk, out of control, again we are not speaking in absolute terms. The man knows to a certain extent what he is doing even though we cannot predict what he will do next. So when we see control and order breaking down in a person’s life or in a society we should remember that there are alien forces only too happy to seize the moment and take what control they can.
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