Several
years ago, Mickey and I traveled to New Orleans. While there, we took a tour of the city. One
of the stops was at one of the city cemeteries, commonly referred to as “the cities of the dead.” It was a massive cemetery, perhaps stretching for close to a mile. Buried in these aboveground tombs was
a cross-section of New Orleans society—from Voodoo Queens to prostitutes to politicians to priests. The cemetery was a haunting place to be. There
even was evidence that people visited there after dark—evidence that some persons were performing magic rituals at some
of the tombs. I cannot imagine someone wanting to be there after dark.
Yet in
the story before us today, we have heard about a man that was not only in a cemetery after dark, he actually lived there.
Once he had lived in the nearby town.
Once he had a home, and a job, and a family, and friends. Once he
had been a respected member of society. Now, that only was in the past. For when Jesus met him, he seemed hardly
human anymore. He was living in the caves carved into the hillsides where
people buried the bodies.
Alien demons
had invaded his body; they had driven from him everything that once had given him a semblance of his former life. Now, he ran naked from cave to cave—fleeing from people that came to visit the tombs of their loved
ones. Screaming like an animal at the townspeople, his actions seemed unpredictable
and violent. This man survived alone in his despair, estranged from his community,
his family and himself.
The townspeople
feared him. Therefore, they spent considerable amount of time and energy trying
to control him. From time to time, the police would catch him in the cemetery,
bind him with chains and shackles, and lock him up in the local jail. However,
each time the violent forces within him enabled him to escape his confinement. In
the end, the people gave up on him—they simply had reached a stalemate with his behavior. Besides, in having this madman to point to, they did not have to focus on how their own lives at times
seemed out of control.
However,
all that was about to change. Paul Tillich in his book, THE ETERNAL
NOW, (chapter 5, page 58-65) wrote that, “...both
physical and mental, individual and social illness, is a consequence of the estrangement of man’s spirit from the divine
Spirit, and no sickness can be healed nor any demon cast out without the union of the human spirit with the divine Spirit.”
Therefore,
when Jesus and his disciples stepped out of that boat, the demons within the man realized that they were in a life and death
struggle with God. When the man saw Jesus, he cried out at him and fell in subjection
before him. He did not ask who Jesus was, for he knew who Jesus was. He cried
out, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God.” Then he cried out, “I
implore you, do not torment me.” Like the townspeople, this man also
had reached a stalemate with the aliens that dwelled within him. His uncontrollable
compulsions seemed as much a part of him, as did his skin. Without these uncontrollable
forces within him, his life seemed unbearable.
“What is your name”, asked
Jesus? This man had lost so much of his personal identity that he no longer
could claim the name he once had. He therefore could only utter the number of
aliens that had invaded his life—“Legion,” he replied. “Legion” was a military term
used by the Roman Army—an army that oppressed those people in the lands which they had invaded. A “legion” was 5000-6000 Roman army foot soldiers.
At last
the aliens that had invaded this man spoke to Jesus. They begged Jesus
not to send them to the abyss. The abyss was a “watery deep”
place of Jewish mythology—a place where God sent demons. Because of their fear of “water,” the demons were thought to dwell in the dry, arid wilderness
regions, such as the location of this cemetery. These aliens begged Jesus for
a lighter sentence—they begged him to send them into the worthless pigs that were grazing nearby. Jesus agreed to their request, and he allowed them to enter
the herd of swine. When the aliens invaded them, they became so frightened that
they stampeded into the lake and were drowned. That was the end of the
demons.
All seemed
to have worked out well. The formerly wild man now was in his right frame
of mind, and the demons had been destroyed. As for the pigs—the Jews
saw them as worthless and unclean creatures anyway—and therefore their loss was inconsequential.
Following
the stampede of the pigs into the water, the Gentile laborers that had been employed to care for the pigs were frightened.
They were frightened by what they had seen and did not understand. Even more so, they were frightened about the punishment that they might receive
from the pigs’ owners. They therefore ran back to the city, and there
told everyone how Jesus had been to blame for the pigs’ deaths.
The townspeople
then came out to see what had happened. They found the man clothed, in
his right mind, and sitting at Jesus’ feet. In his casting out of the aliens,
Jesus had healed the man—but even more importantly, Jesus had restored the man’s identity to him. The man once again could be a part of the community. Yet the
townspeople, instead of rejoicing that their neighbor had been restored to the community, were incensed over their economic
loss. The townspeople therefore asked Jesus to leave their town. In their refusal
to receive Jesus’ work with celebration, they showed that they, too, were living within their own “tombs.” They were so caught up in their own dysfunction, that they could not accept what Jesus
was bringing into their midst.
What of
the formerly wild man that Jesus had restored to community? The man wanted
to follow Jesus as a disciple. Jesus accepted him as a disciple. He then told him that his ministry would be to go back into the community where he once had lived. He was to go back into his hometown, to his own home, and to his old neighborhood.
There he was to tell everyone what God had done for him. He therefore became the first missionary to the Gentiles. In
the next chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus will send out his 12 apostles, and give them the authority to overcome demons
and cure diseases.
For all
of us, at times life seems to be out of control to some degree or the other. And
for some of us, life seems even more so, to be a constant struggle and an endless uphill climb. It therefore is important for us to recognize when we need help beyond our own resources. It is important for us to admit to ourselves when we are suffering from a debilitating depression; from
an emotionally draining anxiety about the future; from a critical illness; from uncontrollable and guilt filled compulsive
behaviors; from a self-destructive addiction; as well as from frustration over the unhealthy interactions within our own families.
For all
such persons that can admit to themselves that their lives have become unmanageable—this story gives hope. For the same
divine power that restored the wretched man in the Biblical story to be the person that God had created him to be—that
same divine power is still at work today. It is at work through the healing ministries
of pastors, physicians, psychologists, and social workers. It is at work through the ministries of the church.
Martin
Luther, the great reformer, suffered terribly from clinical depression
and hallucinations. In those days they did not have the wonderful medications we have today to help us to live with these
chemical imbalances in our bodies. One time he thought that he saw the devil
sitting in a chair across the room from him. In fear, Luther threw his mug of
beer at the devil, and the mug broke against the wall. Therefore, when Luther
wrote in that hymn we sang earlier, he really meant it. Hear those words again
in light of Martin Luther’s own emotional and spiritual struggles. For these words are Martin Luther’s own profession
of faith in God’s sustaining power in his life.
“Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not
the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He, Lord Sabaoth
His name, from age to age the same, and he will win the battle. And though this world with devils filled, should threaten
to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us...”
Martin
Luther could declare this assertion, for he had been baptized as an infant. His
baptism would become a source of strength for Luther. For whenever Martin Luther
would fall into a spell of severe depression—he would touch his forehead where he had been baptized, and exclaim to
himself, “I have been baptized!”
Luther knew that because he was God’s own, that God would win the battle
that was raging within him.
In the
same way, you and I can have the assurance that whatever challenges we face in our lives, God has claimed and named us through
the waters of baptism. We are God’s own. Like Martin Luther, we too can
touch our forehead where we have been baptized, and we can triumphantly exclaim, “I
have been baptized!” We
too have been claimed and named! “And though this world with devils filled
should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us!”
