Luke 8:26-39
“Demons”
June 19, 2022
I am not a fan of horror movies.
I am not entertained by being set up to be afraid.
To not know what will happen next – what horror will be unleashed – often resulting in some form of violence or mind control – is not how I want to spend my time or money.
But what scares one person does not always scare another person.
My most vivid memory of this is when my sister and I visited Puerto Rico in the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school to spend 2 weeks with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Gladys.
One evening we decided to see a movie while my uncle and aunt had a commitment somewhere else.
What was playing in the theater there in Ponce was the wildly popular movie, “The Exorcist” which everyone told us would be edge-of-your-seat scary.
What it turned out to be was, believe it or not, hilarious.
Mind you, the theater was filled with those whose first language was Spanish, and it was clear that whoever did the Spanish subtitles did a hysterically funny and really poor translation because all of the goriest and seemingly frightening scenes were translated in such a way that every one of them evoked peals of laughter.
The demon that possessed Regan in the film turns her from a typical teen into an almost unrecognizable embodiment that has her levitating and speaking in tongues.
A local priest sees an exorcism as the only possible way out when all medical options fail, and they bring in a priest who is an expert in exorcisms to help Regan.
Jesus and the disciples arrive on the other side of the lake and are immediately met by this long-suffering Gerasene man whose demons have so taken over his body and his life that the only refuge he can find is among the dead.
In what must have been a life stripped of hope long ago he presents himself to the one whose specialty is
hope.
And when it’s clear that the demons are not going to leave the man on their own, Jesus takes a different approach – a more loving approach.
He asks the man for his name.
We’re not sure if it is the man who answers or the demons within him.
His answer of “Legion” speaks both of the multiple entities within this man and seems also to be a nod to the Roman Empire which occupies this land.
A Roman “legion” is made up of six thousand soldiers.
The demons beg for Jesus’ mercy, recognizing his powers even before others do.
And Jesus grants the demons their request by allowing them to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs.
Pigs, were not animals that would be valued by Jews but here Jesus is in a heavily Gentile territory having crossed the lake.
When word gets out and the townspeople come to witness what has happened to the demon-ridden man they are met with a clothed and sane person sitting with Jesus – and this is what scares them.
The demons accepted that God was at work through Jesus while the Gerasenes have a much harder time respecting his authority.
Sometimes we are better at accepting the ugly and known in our midst rather than take a risk on unknown possibilities.
The shaming and ostracizing of those with mental illness which this demon-possessed man seeking Jesus’ help was dealing with, reminds me of how far we’ve come as a culture in the treatment and care for those living with mental illness and yet we also have a way to go.
Having interned as a chaplain in a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts during seminary, I saw firsthand what happens to those who can no longer live out in the world.
Some were battling schizophrenia.
Others had committed serious crimes but were found guilty by reason of insanity.
There were those who had been in and out of institutions for most of their lives and others still who were so drugged up as to be almost zombie-like in their complacency.
Many days I walked out of the half dozen locked doors to get to my car carrying their heavy, sad, and often lonely stories with me, trying to think about what part of Jesus’ message of hope I could share with them that would make a difference.
I, too, needed that message of hope some days just to walk back in through all those locked doors intended to keep the patients safe but which also served as a way for the outside world to feel like they were being kept safe and distant from those kinds of people.
I am here to say that there are signs of hope here in our community for those battling mental illness, addiction, and other challenges.
This past week I had the opportunity to attend the United Counseling Service Staff Recognition Luncheon with well over 150 employees in attendance in my role as a member of the United Children’s Services board.
What I heard in the stories of those employees whose work with some of our neighbors who live with a host of issues that previous generations would have written off as demons and dismissed them or worse yet isolated and ostracized them was that there are many dedicated employees who serve as beacons of hope in the lives of those they work to encourage and stand with and teach.
They work tirelessly to help them live their best lives.
When Jesus changed the Gerasene man from a demon- ridden outcast to a clothed and respectable fellow citizen, Jesus himself got the boot from the people for whom fear took precedence over the amazing power and presence of God in their midst.
But Jesus performed still another service for the community before he left.
He commissioned the healed man to use his newfound health and well-being to be a teacher with a story to tell – a story of God’s grace and power.
What story can we tell of such grace and power?
Who do we know who needs us to be vehicles of such grace and mercy?
Jesus did not talk his mercy and grace – he lived it.
Then it was the healed man’s turn.
Now it is our turn.
Amen.