Sermon Luke 8. Healing Legion, Demons and Swine

In his book The Screwtape Letters, C.S Lewis wrote, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about demons (devils). One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased with both errors …with the same delight”.

Our world tends to play with spiritual forces rather than taking them seriously. Psychics advertise in the daily press, and on the street, there are psychic fairs, and you can read your horoscope and rely on it for what will happen in your life.

When I was about 14 at my Convent school a group of us played around one day with a Ouija board and the glass finally and dramatically leaped off the table and smashed. I also remember reading the New York Times for the first time, and in the classifieds you could call a number and for a fee get a voodoo curse put on an enemy, and they accepted payment by American Express. And in this personal reminiscence about demonic things, when I was a curate in England in a benefice of seven churches deep in the Oxfordshire countryside, in the village where I lived, there was an active group of Satanists. The cross on the high altar of the medieval church regularly went missing – the church was never locked – and it would turn up again, usually tossed into the graveyard some weeks later, having been used for the group's demonic rituals. We might think these things as intriguing and harmless, but they really are not. They are on the periphery of the forces of spiritual darkness, and we need to be careful they don't get a foot in the door of our minds, because the forces of evil most certainly can infect and corrupt with great stealth.

Cinema has long exploited human fascination with the dark forces. Films like The Exorcist, The Shining and recently Angels and Demons provocatively encourage a popular sense of something malevolent, that we cannot see or control. But the button they press most effectively is the one that stimulates our interest in demons with a sort of forbidden inquisitiveness. Recognizing this fascination with things demonic, we approach with caution today’s Gospel reading, the encounter between Jesus and a man “who had demons”.

Some scholars try to explain this incident away, saying that the Evangelists lived in times less knowledgeable than our own, which could not have understood the psychological complexities of the human mind, and we know better today how to de-mystify such stories.

But the persistence of fascination for demons suggests that we should indeed take seriously what the Evangelists say about the poor man Jesus met on the hills at the far side of Lake Galilee. The description of him 'having demons' is deliberate, and understandable, even if we cannot fully account for the phenomenon. The man in the story had demons: and to a greater or lesser extent, so do we all.

These demons are our fears. They are there in moments of darkness, and they frighten us. They speak to us of death and the loss of those we love. They whisper into our sleepless nights irrational fears that damage relationships, fuel negativity and despair, prompt hatred, and other unhealthy emotions.

The wild man who confronts Jesus describes himself as “Legion”. This immediately suggests he has an imaginative mind, picturing the fears that torment him being like a division of the Roman army. Mark's account suggests a band of 2000 — the number of pigs that are killed — though a Roman legion was in fact more than twice that number (Mark 5.13).

As with the narration of any story, the details of the setting enhance the truth of the message. Take the extended reference to the swine. It illustrates the arrival of Jesus into foreign territory, outside the arena of the House of Israel, whose observance of dietary regulations decreed that the flesh of pigs was ritually unclean.

This also emphasizes the authority of the divine character of Jesus in places that are culturally, mentally, and emotionally beyond the borders of what is his home territory. But even in Gentile territory, truth will out: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” Jesus is recognized by the demons in this foreign place, just as he was among his own people and followers.

Stepping back from the events in the story for a moment, let's look at its context in the gospel narratives. The story is told by Matthew, Mark and Luke, and all three position it immediately after Jesus has stilled the storm on the lake. Out on the sea, the wind and waves suddenly erupt, reminding us of the early Genesis story of chaos, over which the spirit of God hovers, bringing to it order, life, and beauty.

Here, on the other hand, the chaos is a very tangible manifestation of what first century Palestine regarded as the demonic forces of the sea.

Jesus calms the storm because he can. In a similar way, he rules over the legion of fears that torment the madman on the far side of Galilee. Caught in the storm, the disciples, to whom the gospel of life and hope would be entrusted, had already encountered the demons that Legion had seen in his army of fears: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus had said to the disciples as the storm raged.

Faith in Jesus as the God who conquers demons and the forces of evil is the meaning of today's story. It is a gentler story of transformation than its content might suggest.

The man possessed by demons had no hope. His life was completely ensnared by powers beyond his control. He was a danger to himself and others, and the community could not subdue him, even with guards and shackles. They feared him, had given up on him. He lived in isolation; he had no family, friends, or support from anywhere. Despair increased his self-mutilation and desire to end his captivity once and for all, yet without success. There was no way out for him. But then Jesus came on the scene.

Amid utter hopelessness and despair, Jesus brought hope and new possibilities. Jesus approached in confident peace. With Jesus’ arrival, hope entered this man’s life for the first time. The only response he could apparently manage was to cast himself at Jesus’ feet, begging Jesus to take him with Him. In that act of submission, his past despair and hopelessness was over. What mattered now was God’s power and willingness to act in his life against all other obstacles.

Released from his demons he seemed to feel that Jesus' presence would preserve him for all time. Singled him out for healing, when his whole life and the whole town had shunned him. Little wonder he wanted to turn his back on his miserable past and follow his rescuer. But Jesus wanted his release to be complete. He was to step beyond the fear of returning to his prior state by embarking upon a mission to proclaim the good news throughout the region. So he tells the man something he doesn't want to hear, but which was right: "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." His community knew how powerfully demonized he had been, and now they are forced to contrast that with how free he is. Wherever this man goes now for the rest of his life, the story of Jesus' deliverance will be repeated again and again.

Sometimes, it's tempting to go somewhere else to begin life again where nobody knows our history. But in this man's case, his history culminates in being liberated. Jesus freed him twice, once from the demons that had possessed him, second from the fear that he would not make it without being with Jesus from then on. He had to learn to trust in God even in the worst of times. The key statement in this story is this: Return home and tell how much God has done for you."

This man becomes the witness Jesus leaves behind to proclaim the Good news to this Gentile region. They had rejected Jesus out of fear, but from now the restored man's testimony can't be so easily rejected. He will remain among them, a walking testimony for ever.

At the end of the story, Jesus not only restores this poor man but gives him the shirt he is wearing too. So, re-clothed in body and mind, he returns home as a beacon of hope in the light that casts out darkness (Luke 8.39).

The good news of Jesus Christ began to infiltrate the consciousness of people of ancient Palestine, where demons challenged the Christian virtue of hope. Then, as now, the gospel message was to proclaim the promise of love by which God will dispel our fears and demons.

St Augustine puts it like this: demons “are not able to effect anything which they are not allowed”. The fear they inspire, the damage it causes in us — this is real and deadly. But ultimately, God allows them no power over us.

AMEN

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