It strikes me that the wild man of Gerasenes was completely free. Living among the tombs, the man possessed by many demons was free of any and all societal constraints and responsibilities. He was, in a libertarian sense, truly liberated. Now, you may object that a man possessed by a demon is without self-determination and thus very much a captive, and in one sense this is entirely accurate. Still, I want to consider that the man of Gerasenes fits many of our definitions of coveted freedom. And as far as self-determination goes, consider Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks in Castaway: people without a society to constrain them only use their self-determination to attempt a return to society. Freedom from all contstraints is in actuality a lonely place. This, I believe, is why it should come as no surprise that Jesus doesn't let the man go free either.
Sitting here in the basement, I must admit that I have not considered any scholarship on this passage or its textual intricacies. Still, I wish to draw our attention to verse 17 and consider what it says. My ESV translation reads "And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region." While the townspeople had lost an inordinate amount of precious pigs, this seems a harsh and somewhat irreverent approach to take toward Jesus the healer. At the least, it seems unrealistic that the town would be brave enough to banish the man who had just annihilated their economy. And thus my attention is drawn to a footnote in my Bible which notes that where the ESV translates "Jesus" in verse 17 the Greek has only "he." The footnote suggest that we at least consider the possibility tht "they began to beg the recently-healed man to depart from their region." Why do this? Likely for the reason we commonly ascribe to Jesus, this man will now forever be linked with the fateful day of the pig massacre and no one wants to begin a new life under the curse of economic homicide. Regardless of the reason, the text does record that the man promptly begs to leave the place with Jesus. For one reason or another, this man did not feel at home at Gerasenes.
Interestingly, Jesus refuses. With an angry crowd behind him and the man in part to blame, Jesus sends the healed man back into the fray. Jesus has granted escape from the demons, but he will not grant complete escape. It is all too easy to skim over the next few verses as Jesus commissions the brand new believer to be an evangelist. The man has nothing, probably not even the friends that Jesus seems to allude to, and yet Jesus puts him to work in an area hostile to him.
It is here that we learn something about Jesus and here that we learn about freedom. Paul captures it best when he writes in Romans 6 that "you who were once slaves of sin...having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." Jesus' freedom has a cost, just as God's election in Genesis is a sure mark of future suffering (Abraham, Jacob, and esp. Joseph). Jesus' Way is not easy; it requires the enslavement of all we have. The Way does, however, nourish and enrich us with means that nothing else has to offer. We are not freed from our troubles in order to enjoy our freedom itself; we are freed that we might serve God in powerful ways and, in doing so, discover the fullness of our humanity.
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Interesting take. We talked about this verse several times in Israel. The first point that I found fascinating was the importance of the geographical context. Going across the sea of Galilea from the west to the south side was analogous to leaving orthodox judaism for pagan culture. When Jesus sets off in a boat his disciples probably think he is crazy... why would Jesus leave the culture and religion he is already so beautifully situated in. Of course things get worse, the disciples land with Jesus on the "other" side and the first thing they see is a naked demon-possessed man who lives in tombs... you basically can't be more unclean and unkosher than that... its as if all the stereotypes of the pagan roman decapolis cities combine into one horrific image as all the disciples look at Jesus thinking "I told you coming over here was a terrible ideas". Your suggestion that maybe the crowd wants the crazy man to leave is entertaining. In Israel we talked about how Jesus' first trip over across the sea of Galilea is not very productive, he heals one man, destroys the economy, (probably the event has quite a lot of symbolic meaning to any jew) and leaves. The next time he is in the area however things go quite differently. Thousands come out to hear him preach and he feeds thousands with 5 loaves and 2 fishes. A powerful testimony to the effectiveness of the once demon-possessed man's witness in the community.
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