Luke 8:26-39
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As Jesus stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
This story, at first glance, looks like a simple healing. The story of Jesus doing a wonderful kindness for one particularly tormented individual. “Bring what kindness you can to anyone who is tormented.” As they say, “that’ll preach”! Boom! We’re done. However, underneath that simple kindness, Jesus is actually doing a whole lot more. Luke, in his telling of this story, has very carefully chosen to use a few, very particular words, that to his audience would have immediately revealed the “more” beneath the simple healing. The trouble for us is that out of that time and context, Luke’s very particular words tend to go right over our heads without some insider information.
It’s actually just a few word or phrase choices that seem to make all the difference. When WE hear “The land of the Gerasenes” it's just some random Gentile city on the lake. But to Luke’s audience, “The land of the Gerasenes” was a city in the news for the violent invasion and occupation by an unwanted, powerful, military force deployed by an authoritarian ruler. They might, therefore, have heard “Land of the Gerasenes” in their time like we hear “Los Angeles” today. When WE hear the demon’s name is “Legion” in our minds we think, “Oh, that just means he had a LOT of demons.” But what if Luke told you today, that the demon’s name was “Battalion"? With the 7th Marine Battalion deployed against Americans in the headlines, it hits differently doesn’t it? When Luke’s audience heard the particular Greek words we get translated as “hand and foot chains” they would have heard those particular words the same way we hear the word “zipties” today. Both turn out to be very particular types of restraints each used in their own times for the same purposes. When we read Luke’s word “seized” it doesn’t invoke in us anything deeper than just the straightforward meaning of the word. But what happens in your gut when you hear the word “detained” in our current world’s situation? Different, right? And finally when we read in Luke that Jesus chose to send the demon hoard into a herd of pigs, WE tend to attach no additional meaning to that beyond it reminding us this was a non-kosher, Gentile city. But everyone in Luke’s audience would have caught the bright, flashing, neon, completely unsubtle double entendre that the demons were sent into a herd of PIGS and the mascot of the Tenth Roman Legion, the 6000 elite combat troops occupying the city, just happened to be the WILD BOAR.
For Luke’s audience, Luke’s particular word choices in just those few places took a simple, sweet, healing story and transformed it into a Divine proclamation: Might Makes Right and the oppression of our neighbors is NOT the way God calls us humans to order our lives… not for Jews and not for Gentiles! Weapons of war and an overwhelming force using intimidation, bullying, and violence to get and hold onto power, is NOT God’s way. AND… the implication from Luke’s particular telling of this story goes even further than that. It declares that these ways of bullying, intimidation and violence are nothing short of demonic!
But Jesus wasn’t JUST healing this one man and Jesus wasn’t JUST condemning authoritarianism and might makes right. In Luke’s telling of this story, Luke was also trying to help his audience see that Jesus was ALSO trying to teach ALL people how to work through their problems in better ways. The town, you see, had tried to solve their demoniac problem by snatching it off the street, locking it up, and sending it away. Not quite literally burying it alive, but chaining it up in the tombs wasn’t too far off! They had tried to detain, restrain, and warehouse their problem... out of town, out of sight, and out of mind and Jesus told them that when you do that, your problems will ALWAYS break loose, always come back, and always end up causing even more problems than they had before!
Jesus then goes on to SHOW them a better way. He walked right up to the problem… face to face… and addressed it head on. It wasn’t an easier way but it was a kinder, more compassionate, and frankly more effective way of dealing with their community problems. Shunning, deporting, ghettoizing, warehousing in prisons, chaining up, and de-humanizing others is NOT God’s way AND on top of all that it also doesn’t solve your problems! It only makes them worse! Luke’s particular telling of this story again, goes even further. It says that snatching people off the street, chaining them up, and throwing people away, for any reason, is frankly, demonic! The Jesus way… God’s Way… is to meet people right where they are. See them honestly in all the bare, naked complexity of their human condition AND still as Children of God, and then do everything in our power to give our neighbors what they need to live with dignity.
You all know me. I’m not one to throw around woo-woo words like “demonic” easily or casually, but I have to say that these days there is no better word for what is going on around us. This story reminds us that THOSE ways are NOT God’s ways and that the best way to deal with both challenging people and our shared community challenges… is the Jesus Way… directly, head on, with honesty, selflessness, kindness, compassion, grace, generosity, and love.
The world’s problems back in Luke’s day were not solved with either the “Might makes Right” ways of authoritarian rule, nor by sending away challenging people or community challenges. Those problems would only be solved, Jesus showed them, by embracing the Jesus Way of living and that way… the Jesus Way, is STILL the best Way to address the challenges of the world. My prayer is that the world might one day soon embrace the Jesus Way to solve its problems… rather than choosing again and again to tell Jesus and his Way to get back in his boat and go away. Amen.
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