Thursday, April 16, 2009

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible-Mark 5

Mark 5:5-9
5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

Who is worshipping?

I suppose I had always read this that the Gadarene was worshipping Jesus. He was, in fact, worshipping Jesus. It was his body. However, when Jesus speaks to him, the Gadarene is nowhere to be found. He is lost somewhere among a legion of demons. He is so lost that he is not even able to speak to Jesus. The demons who are in control of his body and his speech speak to Jesus.

Here's the part I never noticed. It is weird. The Gadarene was not worshipping Jesus. The demons were. This was a worship of obeisance but not of love. They were afraid of Jesus and so they gave Him homage. But these were not His willing subjects. They did not love the Lord.

Not sure what theological ramifications this has but it must have some. I'll have to think more about that. But suffice to say, demons can worship the Lord.

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