Luke chapter 8

vs 23

The squall was so great, in fact, that Jesus stayed asleep. I'm not doubting the might of the storm. Jesus probably needed the sleep anyway.

vs 24

I wonder if they were under orders "Do not wake the Messiah!". They were obviously freaked out, though. Drowning sucks. And many people point out that several of the apostles were fisherman, so it had to be a really big and nasty storm. Of course, this might just also mean that they knew how dangerous any storm could be to their cruddy little fishing boats.

So he gets up and calms everything down. Be cool, and it was cool. This mighty act was recorded in all of one sentence.

vs 25

Where is their faith indeed? Their comments show that they don't even really understand who he is, and they didn't expect this kind of ability to be posessed by him.

vs 26

I have no idea of the name of the place, but apparently it's across the lake from Galilee.

vs 27

The fate of the mentally ill or demon possessed was not exactly flowers and candy. Not that it's fabulous nowm, either, but at least we don't force people to live in tombs and we certainly don't let them run around naked. Not exactly the welcoming committee I'd send out for the Messiah.

vs 28

Now, as I said earlier, I don't know how much you can trust the words of demons, and how much they are trying to cause him trouble. I mean, did Jesus really torture demons? Did he commit extraordinary rendition - removing them from their home inside a person and putting them into a pig where he can then kill them?

Of course, we don't like talking about demons as if they were people. Torture does seem pretty wrong, though. I'd rather assume the demon is lying about that than assume that God can commit holy torture.

vs 29

We now get a little flashback into the guy's life. I am assuming that Jesus and the disciples didn't chain him down, anyway. And I would call the tombs a pretty solitary place.

vs 30

So when it says Jesus asked "him", you assume he's talking to the demon? Or had the guy renamed himself legion because of the crappy life he had foisted on him? Anyway, a legion is a lot. Even if not taken literally, we can assume he means there's lots of demons.

vs 31

Now I've always imagined that Satan and demons live in the abyss, and that they come out of there to cause trouble. This verse would make me assume that the abyss is not where they live, or if it is, they don't like it there.

vs 32

So the demons go into pigs. Obviously not first choice, because after all, what sort of evil mischief can you cause in a pig?

vs 33

So the demons, I assume, then go to the abyss anyway? Or do they now float around looking for someone else to bother? Don't rightly know. The point being that the guy who had them doesn't have them now, and so he must be happy.