June 19, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Luke 8:26-39[1]
Jesus took a
trip to the other side. The country of the Gerasenes, in the region east of the
Sea of Galilee, was not a Jewish community. The occupation, first by the
Greeks, then by the Romans, had resulted in a culture quite different from that
of Israel. An outpost of the Roman empire, there were shrines to many gods, and
there were pigs.
The man they
encounter has lost his identity, consumed by the demons that haunt him. Who he
was, and who he becomes, remain largely unknown. Because of his condition, he is
outcast from the community, living in the tombs outside the town. This was not
the first time that Jesus engaged with someone that the rest of the world rejected.
This was not the last time that Jesus would connect with an unknown person,
redeem them, and make them an instrument of revealing his glory and his identity.
When Jesus
permits the legion of demons to enter the herd of pigs, which promptly rush to
their destruction, the man is restored to health and, at least potentially, to
the community. That community, though, responds with fear so intense that Jesus
has no choice but to leave. The people were afraid when they recognized that
Jesus had the ability to change their circumstances. Even if things would be
better, they couldn’t handle the idea that things could be different.
The man, restored
to humanity, now tries to remain with Jesus, yet Jesus sends him back to his
own house. He will be the one who tells the Gerasenes, and by extension the
Gentiles, the story of God’s saving work.
In addition to
the story of healing, and the rejection of Jesus, there is a political
undercurrent. Shortly before Mark wrote his gospel, there had been an attack by
Roman soldiers on a town named Gerasa. More than a thousand people were killed.
Mark apparently took this story of exorcism from the oral tradition of Jesus
purposefully set it in Gerasa. If this was the case, he wanted his readers to
think of that Roman attack. He was linking the Jesus story and the recent
massacre.
The Latin word
“legion” meant only one thing — a Roman legion, a large division of imperial
soldiers. The term “herd” used for the swine was commonly used to refer to
military recruits., and the pigs “charge” like soldiers down the steep bank
into the lake.
Pork was a
staple in the diet of imperial troops. Jesus sent the legion of demons into the
unclean food they ate and they destroyed themselves. They drown like Pharaoh’s
army, chasing Moses and the Israelites across the Red Sea. The man who had been
occupied and tormented by the empire was liberated. The enemy was vanquished, he
was restored to his right mind, and now can live as God intends. Tell everyone,
Jesus told the man. “Return to your home and declare how much God has done for
you.” Marks readers might interpret this as Jesus saying: “Tell your neighbors
that God is going to throw Caesar’s army into the sea.”
Why would the
people in the story, the Gerasenes, be afraid? Why do we fear change? I think
it may have to do with the comfort of keeping things the way they are and the
fear of losing who we believe ourselves to be if we change. It’s often easier
to claim helplessness or adopt a fatalistic attitude than to do the thing we
don’t want to do, even if change would be better. That’s why we may find it so
challenging to hear the truth. There is a comfort in being controlled by the
“legion.” We can claim that identity that absolves us from responsibility for what
is happening around us. We can stay on the periphery, not necessarily safe, but
comfortable in our complacency.
A UCC minister,
the Rev. Cheryl Lindsay, had a conversation after the mass shooting in Uvalde
with someone who said, “I just don’t know what we can do.” She immediately
thought of at least half a dozen things that can be done to reduce gun violence
and mass shootings. They have been documented and reported for years. They’re
supported by large majorities of Americans. But they would require change.
I think of the
similar situation we find ourselves in with climate change. We know that it is
happening, and that it will have devastating effects on millions of people.
There are many things that could be done to slow or mitigate the effects, but
they would require changing how we live as a whole society. As individuals,
we’re trapped into thinking, “I just don’t know what we can do.”
Would it take a
miracle? Do we need the legions that hold us captive to be cast out? Like the
man freed from his demons, it would be good to find ourselves sitting at the
feet of Jesus, clothed and in our right mind. That is the hope of salvation and
the promise of re-creation. Even if we have to return to the community that
cast us out, which still lives in fear of change, we are sent declare how much
God has done for us. It is becoming who we are and who we’re meant to be. Liberation
is possible, in fact it is at hand. It would be a miracle. And that’s the
miracle we need right now.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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