Gospel in Art - Jesus traveled to the other side of the lake

Christ healing the Gerasene Demoniac, by the Master of the Magdeburg Antependium, 968AD © Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 1st February 2021 - Mark 5:1-20

Jesus and his disciples reached the country of the Gerasenes on the other side of the lake, and no sooner had Jesus left the boat than a man with an unclean spirit came out from the tombs towards him. The man lived in the tombs and no one could secure him any more, even with a chain; because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him. All night and all day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet and shouted at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? Swear by God you will not torture me!' - for Jesus had been saying to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit.' 'What is your name?' Jesus asked. 'My name is legion,' he answered 'for there are many of us.' And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the district.

Now there was there on the mountainside a great herd of pigs feeding, and the unclean spirits begged him, 'Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.' So he gave them leave. With that, the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned. The swineherds ran off and told their story in the town and in the country round about; and the people came to see what had really happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his full senses - the very man who had had the legion in him before - and they were afraid. And those who had witnessed it reported what had happened to the demoniac and what had become of the pigs. Then they began to implore Jesus to leave the neighbourhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to stay with him. Jesus would not let him but said to him, 'Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.' So the man went off and proceeded to spread throughout the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.

Reflection on the Carved Ivory Panel

Today's ivory panel is one of a set of sixteen surviving ivory panels illustrating episodes of Christ's life, dating to 968AD. The set of ivories is called the Magdeburg Ivories, as they were commissioned by Emperor Otto I to mark the dedication of Magdeburg Cathedral in that year. Each panel is very small, only measuring 13 by 12 cm (5 by 4.75in.). The openwork background shows the intricacy of the carving. We see Christ, with Saint Peter behind him holding the keys, casting out of a man an unclean spirit that is ready to fly into the pigs below. The head of the unclean spirit has been removed. Perhaps during the object's 1,000 year history the head might have been considered to be too grotesque at a particular time and thus was removed?

Our Gospel reading may make us think that this is just a nice, vivid story from long ago and far away. Unclean spirits that go into swine and then jump off a cliff, what has that got to do with my life? The first sentence of our reading may hold the key. Jesus traveled to 'the other side of the lake'. In our readings this past week, Jesus was in Galilee, one side of the sea, the Jewish side. But the opposite side was non-Jewish territory. So with Jesus traveling to the 'other side', Jesus enters into the world of all things 'unclean' according to Jewish law: unclean tombs, unclean spirits, unclean pigs. Jesus goes out of His way to meet us… all of us. He reaches out to us on our side. To Jesus, no-one is so unclean, so far from God, so far from the other side of the lake, that he or she is beyond His loving, saving or healing reach. Jesus takes the initiative to restore us by traveling to 'our side'… but then it is up to us to respond to Him…

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/688
Christian Art - www.christian.art/index.php