Shalom and welcome back to 'Israel with Aline! ' We are on the Golan Heights on the side of the Sea of Galilee and next to the remains of Gedara, where Jesus healed the demoniac. You know that Jesus did most of his ministry around the Sea of Galilee; he did dozens if not hundreds of miracles here.
But there is something very strange; when you take the map and start looking at where the miracles are, they are all in the same area, on the same side of the Sea of Galilee! And here, where we are, Jesus didn't use to come, he came specifically only once to do only one miracle when Jesus exorcised the possessed Gadarene. So we are going to learn more about the miracle here in Gedara, and understand why there is this difference between the two sides of the Sea of Galilee, what there was on that side that is not here.
So, if you are ready, let's get started! Let's start by understanding what the difference is between the two sides of the Sea; the side there is called Galilee, and the side here is called the Golan Heights. Two thousand years ago, in Jesus' day, who lived in Galilee?
They were mainly Jews, Jewish towns and villages; we know Nazareth, Cana of Galilee, Capernaum, Magdala and many others. And who lived this side of the Golan Heights? They were mainly pagan populations, here on this side was the Decapolis, the ten main pagan cities pagans of the region, where pagan gods such as Molech, Pan, Jupiter, and the Emperor of Rome were worshiped.
And we know from the Bible's own accounts that Jesus used to preach among the Jews; he went from town to town, from synagogue to synagogue talking and preaching to the Jewish Communities. And also they didn't used to come to this side, the Gentile side, the pagan side of the Sea of Galilee because it wasn't a very Jewish-friendly area and it could even be dangerous for them to come here. And so when Jesus comes to the apostles and says that "We are going to cross the Sea to the other side" it is a matter of great courage to decide to come here and also of great faith and confidence of the Apostles to accept to make this crossing with Jesus.
And during the crossing, a great storm happened. And Jesus goes to calm the storm. So the disciples trusted Jesus to cross the Sea of Galilee to the pagan lands and also during the storm, on the Sea.
And arriving here very near the Sea they disembark and there they meet the Gadarene, the possessed one. Let's now look at this passage; "They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town.
For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!
" Jesus asked him, "What is your name? " "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
" Luke 8:26-33 But how can we be sure that this man was a Gentile, that he was part of the Decapolis here, of the ten pagan cities? First because of the conversation they're going to have; Jesus asks him "what is your name? " and he's going to answer, "my name is Legion.
" Legion is not a people's name guys, neither Gentiles nor Jews. But if you were to talk two thousand years ago within the Roman Empire the word Legion it has an association: the Roman Legion, a group of at least three thousand Roman soldiers. This makes us think of a few things: first, that this man chose the word the legion, and not the word multitude or any other synonym.
This could also indicate the number he had within him, at least 3,000 evil spirits within him, but it could also indicate an association with the Roman Empire, with Roman soldiers; perhaps he himself was a Roman soldier who was here. And second, after the demons, after these bad spirits get out of him, they go to a group of pigs has at least two thousand pigs! Guys two thousand pigs is not a group of wild pigs that are here wandering around the region, because there are even to this day wild pigs in Israel.
Two thousand is at least a pig farming and we know that Jews don't eat pigs. And this means that there are pigs raising here, it means that there are non-Jews living here, there were again the gentiles here with their pig farms with their population. So we see that Jesus decides to cross the Sea of Galilee, he decides to leave the Jewish world and come here to meet the Gentiles.
Furthermore, we know that he had Gentile followers from Decapolis, who went especially to Galilee to follow him. And after the Miracle, this Gadarene man wants to follow Jesus and Jesus says that he should stay here to tell and announce what God had done for him, and so many consider this man to be the first one sent to the Gentiles. And he was one of the people responsible for starting the community of Jesus' followers here in the Gentile region of the Decapolis, and just this building that we are walking through are remnants of the First Church built here!
Look what beautiful mosaics there are here, but more importantly, you can see that it is a church because of the central altar and also because in this side room there is a baptistery. What you have here are the remains of water wells, and it makes perfect sense! Folks, you are not feeling the temperature but here it's around 104 degrees today and it's really hot!
And the people who came from far away to see the places where Jesus went and where he performed his miracles, they arrived really tired, and so they had here the place where they could drink water and recover their energy before entering the main part. But I brought my water bottle today so I don't need the water well, but let's get on with our visit. And to think that all this was discovered by chance in 1970 when workers started to build a road here and came across archeological remains and stopped the work to do archeological excavations and found this church and they understood the importance of the place and changed the route of the road to pass near here, but not over it.
And there is one more super interesting thing about this place that I wanted to show you, and that is this circle of sand here. Think that all the stories took place two thousand years ago, long before the invention of the printing press. How could stories be passed from one village to another, from one town to another, from one region to another telling that the Gospel literally reached the four corners of the world?
! There were several ways, but one of them that has been used since ancient times they were printed with this kind of circle, this one is huge, guys, most of them were small but you could write the text on a cylinder, let's see if I can do it, and then you rotate this text, it could be like in this case; on top of the sand, or on top of clay, on top of something that it would be printed. And so you take it and you have a copy of the text after you finish going all the way around you take that cylinder and pass it on to the next person, and the next person, and so you could create dozens, if not hundreds of copies of a cylinder.
And I think this place is a great example of how Jesus did reach out to the Gentiles and took his message to them as well; a work that was later increased and continued by Peter and Paul and the Gospel was literally taken to the four corners of the world! As I remember, days that passed here hundreds of people if not thousands of people! People speaking Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic; people from all over the world where the Gospel has reached and who came here to see where Jesus went and where the biblical passages took place.
And following one of the oldest Christian traditions of all: pilgrimage! We know that Christian pilgrims have been coming here since the Byzantine period, the first Christian period in Israel. If you like this video, there is a super simple way to help the channel that is simply subscribing on the button here below and liking the video, because here on the channel there are videos every Wednesday and Sunday direct from the Holy Land, straight from Israel, a big kiss and see you next time!
