Having crossed over to the other side of what Mark calls the ‘lake’, Jesus enters pagan country. We may ask ourselves the question, ‘What is a good kosher boy like Jesus doing in such a place—a graveyard, peopled with pigs, pagans and a naked, wild man who is possessed?’ All of this is completely off-limits for a law-abiding Jew. In this second miracle, the authority of Jesus and the kingdom he represents is extended both over the ragings of nature and the unnatural deranged demoniac. The common