Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The coming of faith

²³ Before this faithfulness arrived, we were kept under guard by the law, in close confinement until the coming faithfulness should be revealed. ²⁴ Thus the law was like a babysitter for us, looking after us until the coming of the Messiah, so that we might be given covenant membership on the basis of faithfulness.

²⁵ But now that faithfulness has come, we are no longer under the rule of the babysitter. ²⁶ For you are all children of God, through faith, in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁷ You see, every one of you who has been baptized into the Messiah has put on the Messiah. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no “male and female”; you are all one in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁹ And, if you belong to the Messiah, you are Abraham’s family. You stand to inherit the promise.

The healing of the demoniac

²⁶ They sailed to the land of the Gerasenes, which is on the other side from Galilee. ²⁷ As he got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he didn’t live in a house but among the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus he screamed and fell down in front of him.

“You and me, Jesus—you and me!” he yelled at the top of his voice. “What is it with you and me, you son of the Most High God? Don’t torture me—please, please don’t torment me!” ²⁹ Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times over it had seized him, and he was kept under guard with chains and manacles; but he used to break the shackles, and the demon would drive him into the desert.

³⁰ “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.

“Regiment!” replied the man—for many demons had entered him. ³¹ And they begged him not to order them to be sent into the pit.

³² A sizable herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the demons begged him to allow them to go into them. He gave them permission. ³³ The demons went out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴ The herdsmen saw what had happened. They took to their heels and spread the news in town and country, ³⁵ and people came out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting there at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind. They were afraid. ³⁶ People who had seen how the demoniac had been healed explained it to them. ³⁷ The whole crowd, from the surrounding country of the Gerasenes, asked him to go away from them, because great terror had seized them. So he got into the boat and returned.

³⁸ The man who had been demon-possessed begged Jesus to let him stay with him. But he sent him away. ³⁹ “Go back to your home,” he said, “and tell them what God has done for you.” And he went off round every town, declaring what Jesus had done for him.