A couple of months ago I visited a church service where the minister preached on Luke 8:26-39 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%208:26-38;&version=50 
. This is the passage where Jesus goes to Gadarenes and has an encounter with a demon possessed man. This is the same encounter which Mark descrbes in Mark 5:1-20.
In the sermon, the minister pointed out that most of what the man says to Jesus in this passage is actually a convseration between Jesus and the demons. He went on to say that even though this man was under such control of the demons, that he was able to search deep within himself and find a small part of himself that was not controlled by the demons. And in this small part he was able to go find Jesus and seek out help. To me, this seems like a contradiction. How can a man who can’t even speak to Jesus without the demons taking control of the conversation, find it in himself to go to Jesus seeking help. And there is no indication that the man knew who Jesus was or that he could help him.
Both Mark and Luke say that the demon-possessed man met Jesus when he came out of the boat after crossing the Sea of Galilee. But the Scripture does not say that this man knew that Jesus would be coming across the Sea of Galilee and so was waiting by the dock for him. To say that this demon-possessed man knew Jesus was coming to Gadarenes, puts some divine knowledge either in the man or in the demons. No created being has the nature of God; created beings cannot be omniscient. Looking over the whole of Scripture it is more likely that Jesus, who knew what was in man (John 2:25), went to Gadarenes knowing that this man was there, living among the tombs in the wilderness.
In the Sunday sermon, the preacher suggested that this demon-possessed man fell prostrate in worship before God as he sought out help from Jesus. However, in looking at the Greek word “prospipto” that is translated “fell” has some other connotations that are worth looking at. The Liddell-Scott lexicon shows that in some uses this word was used for “to fall upon, attack”; “to run into”; “to fall upon, embrace”; “to meet with, encounter”; “to come suddenly upon”.
Verse 28, says “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him,….” I doubt this word prospipto (tranlated fell down in the NKJV) means encounter but it could mean run into, attack, or just fell down or slammed down (as another lexicon suggets) but it is not necessarily in worship of Jesus. I am not saying that it is impossible that this man fell down to worship Jesus, but I’m simply pointing out that prospipto can mean falling down for a variety of reasons. Some of which may be more consistent with the image of a demon-possessed man. If the man does not have much control over himself, it is more likely that the demons threw him down than that he fell down seeking help. The man may not have even known who Jesus was at this time. But, as we can see from the conversation, the demons recognized Jesus.
In the gospels, this account in Mark and Luke is the only time that we are told that Jesus went to this country, Gadarenes. And when this passage is complete, it appears that Jesus sails back across the Sea of Galilee as both Mark and Luke tell no more about the ministry of Jesus in Gadarenes but both say that he returned to Galilee and was welcomed there. It appears the crowd was waiting for him to return so Jesus wasn’t in Gadarenes for very long. Could Mark and Luke be using the term “welcomed” in contrast to the way that Jesus was received in Gadarenes? I’m not sure, but the imagery of one man in Gadarenes is contrasted to a group in Galilee.
Saying that this demon-possession overcomes the control of the demons on his own and for a split second and finds Jesus who just happens to be making his one and only appearance in Gadarenes at the same time, put the miracle here on the man who is possessed. However, to see this as a miracle of Jesus is more consistent with scripture. This man didn’t somehow make his own way to the dock at just the right second to find Jesus, rather, Jesus found him in Gadarenes and brought salvation and deliverance from the demons to him. It is Jesus who sails across the Sea of Galilee to bring salvatoin to this man living among the tombs.
