Meditate on God’s word with me:
Then they [Jesus and the apostles] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he 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.
Jesus enters a city with his people, but they do not even have the opportunity to enter into a house of hospitality before he is greeted by a unlikely host. This outcast citizen is overrun with demons dwelling in him. He himself no longer able to dwell in a house, but must live naked in this unholy place: the cemetery.
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.)
When people are inhabited by many demons, to whom are we speaking when we talk with them? In this outlandish conversation, we might hear the voice of the man, the voice of an individual demon, and the voice of this community of demons. In this unholy place, the holy man Jesus stops his holy little tribe for a conversation with this dangerous and unholy person. This might seem foolishly dangerous to any observer, because even this man’s own people had chosen to chain him up, and to set guards to protect themselves from him. To have that talk, Jesus must create a safe space for that exchange, and make an opening for the voice of the man to speak, free of the oppression of this unholy community of demons. The true bondage of this man does not come from a chained body, but from a mind bound by the thoughts and control of others. To make that safe place, Jesus must set boundaries to godly hospitality; demons are not welcome among the holy.
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.
We often wonder why Jesus sent the demons into the pigs, the livelihood and food of this community, only to watch them tumble over a cliff to destruction. But is that the right question?
Jesus hospitably allows the demons to enter the pigs because it frees the man. This keeps the freed demons from finding homes in other human beings. Luke, though, does not tell us that Jesus went so far as to send the pigs to their death. The demons inhabited the pigs, and now the unholy community of demons with its unholy leader, Satan, was in charge of them.
I do not want to encourage you to think like Satan, but can we not see that he would delight in turning an entire community of people against Jesus? Would not the fastest way to block the work of Jesus among this people be to deprive them of their wealth, of their source of income or food? If Satan can make them fear the truth of the holy power of Jesus instead of celebrating the hope that it brings, perhaps he will not lose them. So, Satan could direct the herd into the lake, knowing full well that it will prompt a farewell instead of a welcome for Jesus from this community. After all, it should not surprise us that Satan would swiftly and mercilessly sacrifice a whole tribe of his own servants to prevent Jesus from enacting his mission of God’s hospitality to a single community.
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.
The people find the strangest thing: this dangerous outcast, clothed and coherent, sitting in a place of hospitality with Jesus. Now that Jesus has passed through the moment of spiritual, physical, and social vulnerability to create this safe place for his people and this man, an open conversation is possible without the sacrifice of anyone’s holiness. It is still true that this man has been a demon-possessed outcast, but now there is a believable hope of restoration to relationship with his community and his God.
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.
Satan cannot make humans fear. Satan cannot force humans to prefer wealth over other humans, and especially the outcast. He only has the power to highlight the choice. Human beings choose to fear. Every day, humans choose their own fiscal security over the health and physical safety of others. We’ve become so good at it that we can even feel pious when we do it.
“Those people chose that lifestyle . . . .”
“Those people should expect consequences . . . .”
“Those people . . . .”
But when we choose cash over community, power over people, we send Jesus for a hike. Away from us.
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.
Even when we send Jesus away, he does not give up on us. He makes use of his remnant, his outcast, to continue to offer hope, even where hope and healing have been rejected. This man becomes a sign of the hospitality of God, and a living enactment of that same hospitality.
May God choose to do the same with us.
Grace, and peace,
Ron
