- Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
- Texts: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39
- Pastor Lou Florio – June 23, 2019
Evil…There is something about evil in the world that frightens us. And yet, it can simultaneously have the power to entice us…to draw us in. Slowly but surely, if we don’t reject and repent from the evil of the world around us, it can seem to become part of us…It can in a way consume us. In just about every culture of our world, faith traditions try to warn us. “Stay back from evil! Turn away! Repent! Focus on the goodness and promise of this life, or else we risk becoming possessed by the evil we fear.” Our lives can indeed become consumed by the tempting evil around us and the sin at work within us. Life itself can become a kind of nightmare.
Now certainly, we might not always recognize many of our struggles as demonic spirits at work like our ancient forbearers tended to do. Yet after so much time spent as a missionary among Native Americans who see the world in grand, interactive spiritual terms, I can’t say there isn’t a spiritual element to many of our problems. It is indeed the same worldview of the Gospels, and I’ve seen and experienced too much. The many twelve step groups that deal with varied addictions (and have been used by God to help so many) assert this as well. Much of our foibles and sin at some level grow out of an unanswered spiritual hunger or emptiness within us. Yet rather than turning to God, we tend to seek our own way, and that’s when we risk getting lost.
And so, as we approach today’s Gospel story, I would implore us to keep an open mind. We moderns like our demons in movies, not in life. Yet, I would argue we all have demons we deal with at some level. And there certainly seems to be powerful, explicit evil force at work in the world if not our lives as we struggle with sin, death and the Devil each day.
Therefore, however it happened, I feel deep compassion for this man calling himself Legion. I wonder how he got to live naked and alone among the tombs of Gerasene. Did he give in to temptation one too many times? Or perhaps beaten up by the world, did he withdraw from reality and loose himself on the way? Or, he could have even dabbled in magic or other black arts while trying to control the world around him…evil making itself slowly at home in his mind and his heart over time?
We don’t know the answers to how he got to be seemingly consumed by evil. We don’t have his history, but we do know that the path of sin leaves wreckage in our wake: broken relationships, isolation, a loss of our identity as beloved children of God. Sin, our sin and the sin and evil we encounter systemically in the world, has the power to destroy us and all we hold dear. This, to me, is perhaps the scariest part of the story: I fear the deep pain growing in his heart as he began to hate the world around him, our shared life, and most likely even himself.
Yes, this demon possessed man might have forgotten who he was intended to be, but Jesus didn’t. As part of the Triune God and the promised Messiah, Jesus’s actions will embody the Good News as well as fulfill the words of the prophets of old. Jesus will get into a boat to cross the sea of Galilee. It almost seems like a whimsical decision. “Let us go across to the other side of the lake,” Jesus says. And so, they put out. And on that trip, they face death in a storm that Jesus will calm – as only a god could do.
Then, he next arrives in a land occupied by outsiders to their faith, the gentile Gerasenes. Here, he will show his power over the spiritual realm. Right away, he is met by a man who lives among the dead; who claims the name Legion. (This term, recall, is a military unit of 6,000 Roman soldiers and thus perhaps an indication of the many demons hidden but at work inside him). The man cries out at the top of his voice (in Greek the words indicate a deep, guttural, almost painful cry), “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (“What business do we have in common?” is another translation.) Why do you care for or bother to come to me?
Jesus lives his answer. He has come to defeat sin, death and the Devil…to trample it underfoot as one of our communion prayers reads. He has come to call the lost, save the sinner, offer mercy and abundant, eternal life to all those that suffer in mind, body or spirit. He will even die for all, so that we might live forever with him. Jesus embodies the promise of Isaiah, the very attributes of God, as he reveals himself to those who did not ask for him and will be found by those who did not look for him (see Isa. 65:1).
Jesus will save this man with amazing grace. He will send that man – now healed and whole – back to his home to share the good news of what God has done for him…to share his faith in Jesus. Jesus loved this man, and he has crossed the waters to save him. Nothing else is reported from this trip, only this one story. It seems as if Jesus has come only for him…loved him as if he were the only one because that man needed Jesus.
Certainly, this is an ancient story with an ancient worldview, but it remains a story that plays out in our modern lives. Jesus comes for us who are broken hearted, who hate how we behave, who are lonely, who struggle valuing ourselves and the life that we have been given…a sometimes very difficult life. Think of whatever the deepest most hidden sin you struggle with, or consider your greatest fear, and then ask Jesus, “What business do you have with me? Why should you even care?” The answer remains the same, “I wish to share everything I have with you, because I love you.”
So here he is, Immanuel (God with us)…Jesus…reaching out to us, but too often, we are afraid to believe…afraid to trust him. We doubt the power of his cross to make a difference in our lives. “It is too good to be true,” we might say. “My sin is too big to be forgiven.” “I am unlovable and worthless.” To be honest, as a human in need of saving, I’ve heard these phrases in different forms whispered in my own mind at times. Also time and again, as a missionary, chaplain and pastor, I have heard these fears shared by others using varied words. It seems part of our shared, earthly experience – our corrupted spiritual DNA perhaps. These lies (and that’s what they are) tend to haunt us.
In response, always remember that Jesus speaks to us too: in our life among God’s faithful people; in hearing the Word and sharing the Lord’s Supper; in our proclaiming the Good News of Christ through word and deed; as we serve all people following the example of Jesus and strive for God’s justice and peace…Yes, in faithfully living our promises of baptism, we, too, are blessed and healed while evil is sent running away.
Jesus uses these lived promises to perform miracles. He draws us away from the powers of this fallen world and closer to himself. I know it can remain scary to leave what we know (even sometimes the pain of sin itself) in order to embrace this new life in Christ, but Jesus has come far to lead us home. Believe in him, hold on to his promises, and do not be afraid, for we are about to witness miracles beyond our wildest dreams. Amen.
Photo credit: sl3p3r on pixabay.com
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
© 2019 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.
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