Mark 5:1-13

They came to the other side of the sea, the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me , Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him,  “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs, let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.

A violent naked man possessed by demons confronted Yeshu. But unclean spirits cannot remain in the presence and power of the matchless goodness of God, so in fear they sought another place to work their evil.

 

Footnote: Jewish people did not keep pigs, like their eastern neighbors the Gerasenes, because for Jews to eat pig meat brought very bad demerit.

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased,  and there was a great calm.  He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Yeshu, tired out by his teaching, let the fishermen man the boat. He had not caused the storm, but he did stop it with just a word. He did so just as one might say to a boisterous puppy, “Down! Be quiet!”

Mark 4:30-34

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

All of Yeshu’s hearers knew that mustard was capable of growing as tall as a man, and that sparrows could perch on the branches.

Previously he had said that the kingdom grows secretly. Now he says it grows from a small beginning into something big. Who are those happy birds that choose to make their home in its shelter?