Casting Out Demons
Proper 7C-25
Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago
The Prophet Isaiah reveals God’s own breaking heart. “I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that did not call on my name” (Isaiah 65:1).
As Paul lamented to the Christians in Rome, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind…” (Romans 7:15, 22-23). This is a paradox familiar to all people of faith. Why would anyone turn away from love? Why reject the unconditional, life-giving, love of God? Why do we settle for peace that is no peace?
Jesus ordered the disciples into a boat and said, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ (Luke 8:22). It must have seemed like a very bad no good idea from the beginning to the disciples. They knew this wasn’t merely a trip from one side to another. It was a journey to a hostile land. They sailed into the region of the Gerasenes, opposite of Galilee. The other side of the lake was unclean, filled with foreigners, and pagan gods. It proved to be a dangerous crossing. As if on cue, the disciples are nearly killed by ferocious wind and waves that threatened to swamp their boat.
Then as they step on shore, they encounter a wild man who lived among the tombs! He’s a naked, filthy, demon-possessed man! Their first introduction to this forbidden, no-go zone must have confirmed all the stereotypes about unclean Gentiles they had ever ha—but worse!
You can just hear the disciples. ‘Why couldn’t you leave well enough alone, Jesus? Can we just go home now?! The disciples live in a world of good people and bad people, our people and those people. We worship the God on our side of the lake. Those people worship false idols on their side. That’s just the way it is, and you can’t change it Jesus!
As our nation declares war with Iran, war against trans and queer people, war on immigrants, war on people of color, war on Jewish people (even while it stands with the nation of Israel), war on diversity, and war on the rule of law, and war on democracy God’s heart breaks. “I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices…” (Isaiah 65:2). Jesus exposed the disciples to a new version of themselves. He took them to an unexplored land, the land of the beloved community, the kindom of God where no one lives outside the boundaries of God’s grace. Jesus has shown us that it is not God’s will but the will of diabolical forces and fears, the powers and principalities, which rule this world that keep us separated and afraid of each other. As we sow, so shall we reap.
The very deepest part of you is fashioned in God’s image. You are manufactured to oppose the forces of hate with compassion; to overcome fear, with love. Jesus doesn’t leave well enough alone. Jesus won’t settle for peace that is no peace. The liberation Jesus brings is liberation for something as well as a liberation from something. It is transformation that often costs us something. In our gospel today the healing of one man is paid for in pigs.
When we meet him, the Gerasene Demoniac is a man who has lost everything, including his proper name. He is a boiling struggle of conflicting forces. He calls himself ‘Legion,’ as in a Roman legion. A force of about 6,000 soldiers is at war within him (Culpepper, Luke, New Interpreter’s Bible, p. 188). He has lost his individuality. He is driven to distraction by a multiplicity of influences. And most of these whims, it seems, are self-destructive. (Paul S. Nancarrow, Process and Faith)
For all their differences, the Jewish disciples and the Gerasenes have this much in common: they are both willing to leave well enough alone, rather than to make the sacrifices or take the required risks that could make things better.
If you asked them, I’m sure the Gerasenes would readily admit that life with a demoniac got a little crazy at times. But they had learned to cope. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked out just fine most of the time. They chained him up, posted a guard and kept him far away from other people—most of the time. Problem solved—right? Problem solved for everyone except the suffering man.
We are told he was possessed of many ‘demons.’ The word diabolic comes from the Latin root that means, “to tear apart”. By contrast, the root of the word, symbol means “something that connects or binds together.” When the bible talks about demons, it is pointing at those things, customs, or behaviors in us or our way of life that tear apart the wholeness and holiness of life. Madeleine L’Engle calls them ecthroi, i.e., those things which “x” us out, “x” out beauty and truth and peace (Awaken, Pentecost 1, 2007). When understood this way we realize that demons are not uncommon today, but instead, they are legion.
As Jesus gets ready to leave, the wild man, now healed, sits at his feet, learns from him, and wants to go with him. And why wouldn’t he? “Look at his options! He is standing on the beach with Jesus in front of him and the townsfolk who banished him to the graveyard at his back. He wants to go with the one who healed him, the one who wasn’t afraid to come near him. He wants to go with his new teacher and Lord and learn more about the kingdom of God. He’s ready to follow Jesus. There’s room in the boat, and he’ll leave without looking back — there’s no one to say good-bye to. But Jesus says—“no.”
To others along the way Jesus issues the invitation, “Come, follow me,” but to this one he says, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39) God holds out their hand. God says, ‘here I am, here I am’ right where you are. You don’t have to go anywhere to begin to travel across barriers, boundaries, and secrets that separate us and to defeat the demons that guard them.
Most often, the call to ministry, involves staying rather than leaving, opening the door rather than moving on. Apparently, it worked. We learn from Mark’s gospel (7:31) that crowds of people come to see Jesus from the region. Change did come for the Gerasenes, just as change has come to us. Whole communities are restored to health, demonic forces of violence and hate are cast out as we give “Praise [to] the one who breaks the darkness with a liberating light” (ELW #843)
