The first thing we noted is how the demonic possession manifested:
This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
From a modern clinical perspective, the man is violent, agitated, and displays extreme social isolation. He shows persistent vocal outbursts and recurrent self-injurious behavior. We'd describe all these symptoms as psychotic, disorganized, and schizophrenic. That is a contrast to modern Hollywood depictions of demonic possession, which are generally portrayed as a calculating malevolence.
Simply put, Scripture portrays demons as agents of chaos, psychically speaking, rather than as evil, morally construed. There is nothing evil or malevolent about the Gerasene demoniac, perhaps the quintessential demon-possessed person in Scripture. The man is simply out of his mind.
That perception is reinforced by how the man is described after the exorcism. The townspeople run to the place and observe this:
When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind.
The change isn't from evil to good. The transition isn't moral. The change is from insanity to sanity, from being out of his mind to being in his right mind. The agent of chaos has been exorcised, and the man's mind has stabilized and settled.
Noting all this, our discussion out at the unit centered on how salvation concerns being in one's right mind, and how this sanity is primary to moral considerations. For example, morality depends upon seeing clearly, knowing right from wrong. A clarity of mind is necessary for this discernment. More, even when we fail to do the right thing, sane people can see this failure. It's the source of shame and guilt.
And there is an appeal here, this primacy of sanity over morality. Evangelistically speaking, Christianity can be perceived as moralistic "do-gooderism." Boring! Not much appeal here. But sanity? Being set free from the chaotic forces ruining your mind and your life?
Well, that has some appeal out in a prison. Sanity sounds like relief.
