How can I love my neighbor as myself
when I need him as my enemy –
when I see in him the self I fear to own
and cannot love?
How can there be peace on earth
while our hostilities are our most
cherished possessions –
defining our identity, confirming
our innocence? (Eric Symes Abbott)
Did his neighbors love him?
The Gerasene Demoniac lived a hard life – in chains, in the tombs among the dead – the possessed put away from others. Then Jesus enters the scene. He is not welcomed by onlookers. He is an outlander, stranger to those parts. And he is greeted by the demons, who know him!
"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.
So Jesus asks his name – “Legion” they reply…
And then using a herd of swine, Jesus casts out the demons. The people come to see what has happened – and their world is turned upside down – the man is in his right mind, clothed, restored to the living.
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.
But why fear? Because Jesus has challenged and changed the world order.
As biblical scholar Jeffrey Johns puts it: "The miracle story is not just about a personal exorcism. It is about the promise of God's ability to defeat and re-order the disordered powers that afflict individuals and communities" (The Meaning in the Miracles, 91).
Yes, Jesus healed the man but he exposed the demonic, the land is possessed too.
“The demoniac is called by the Latin name "Legion," referring to a company of up to 6,000 Roman soldiers. The exorcism of the evil powers occupying the demoniac is linked with acts of Roman oppression in that region. The Gospel of Luke identifies Roman military might with the supernatural powers that are behind all systems of violent oppression. Personal exorcism becomes symbolic of corporate liberation from oppression. The exorcism breaks the demonic spell that keeps the individual dependent upon the dominant power (p. 86). As we hear the hooves of the pigs clicking toward the sea, the message is that even the power of Rome will ultimately be no match for the liberating power of God in Christ.” (Alyce McKenzie)
That is the deep truth. That God’s authority and love will break any power that chains God’s creation. It is Jesus who challenges us to look beyond labels and beyond our enemies. He calls us to be his ministers in this world to break the chains that create difference and separation, to free the oppressed.
“Too often the demonic systems that we live with, dominate us by rigidly classifying those who are included and those who are excluded…The insightfulness of this miracle story is shown in the fact that Jesus goes out to heal the very one, Legion, Gentile, who is the symbol of the alien oppression. Jesus steps outside the territory of Israel into ‘unclean’ territory, heals the most untouchable of the untouchables, and makes him in effect his first apostle to the other Gentiles. And he does it unambiguously in the role of God himself against Roman occupation.” (p. 92)
The exorcism makes the people fearful because it challenges the status quo and the oppression that is a part of their own lives. But not even Rome can stop Jesus and even as the majority rejected him, the one saw the light, and was free.
“As in so many Gospel stories, it is the least acceptable who turns out to be the most accepting of what Christ has to offer and becomes his messenger of the same liberation for others.” (p. 93)
We might ask today: "Can we accurately name the demons in our own lives and that of our community?" Not only in our personal struggles but also societal struggles…
The Rev. Kenneth Leech, for example, writes, “Already the demons are being named. The enemy is being identified. Its names are legion. Racism is a demon. Poverty is a demon. Powerlessness is a demon. Self-depreciation is a demon. And those who prop them up are demonic in effect. A strategy of liberation includes a ministry of exorcism, the naming and casting out of demons.” (1981)
I listened to some of the testimony given the other day to H.R.40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans. There were two Episcopalians that spoke, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Katrina Browne, documentary producer and active lay leader. But the testimony of author Ta-Nehisi Coates, caught my attention most, because I think he named some of our demons…
“The typical black family in this country has one-tenth the wealth of the typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women. And there is, of course, the shame of this land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet, of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share. The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct redress, but it is also a question of citizenship. In H.R. 40, this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism, to say that this nation is both its credits and debits. That if Thomas Jefferson matters, so does Sally Hemings. That if D-Day matters, so does Black Wall Street. That if Valley Forge matters, so does Fort Pillow. Because the question really is not whether we’ll be tied to the somethings of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them.”
Will we be freed by Jesus, will we name the demons of our times and help love our neighbors and free those who are yoked or will we remain fearful like that countryside, sending Jesus away?
So Jesus 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.
Likewise, may we from our own homes declare what God has done for us, the dead who live, the oppressed who are free. Amen.
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