We cross Lake Kinneret and delve into the story of Jesus encountering a man possessed by demons. The conversation gets a little scary, political, and eventually, heartfelt. You'll find yourself entranced as we discuss the metaphoric representation of the man's possession and Jesus' role in calming the storm and freeing the man.

There's a neat example in Mark 5 of what I call an enacted parable. An interaction that Jesus is using to speak to something larger. However, part of the symbolism in this parable only becomes clear when looking several decades into the future. So we have two options: 1. Jesus is enacting the parable prophetically or 2. The writer is looking back creatively.

When scholars look at tightly packed similar stories like we find in the opening of Mark, they will often refer to them as symbolic actions. And that's a tricky phrase, because often people will hear that and latch on to the word symbolic and then assume that what scholars are trying to do is undermine the historicity of these miracles, like they didn't really happen. They're just symbols or metaphors. Personally, I don't think that's really all that scary. To be honest, sometimes the line between what's a parable and what's not from Jesus is nuanced.