All our demons

 Luke 8:26-39

  

I want to give a sort of preface to the message today. Rather than thinking of demons as separate beings, I am thinking of them as psychological and emotional expressions of pain. It’s important to give weight to mental illness as real and, when severe, as causing serious symptoms.

 

I am convinced we all have demons. For most of us, our demons are not as intense as the demons who possessed the homeless man living among the dead in Gerasa. But we all have them. My demons include a desire to be perfect and to have everyone like me. I have others, but this is not true confessions, it’s simply an introduction to the topic.

 

Jesus left the Galilee and traveled intentionally to non-Jewish territory. We might wonder why he did this, but Jesus offers no explanation. He just goes. And he meets a man who has demons.

 

I read a suggestion this week that the man may have used the name Legion to describe himself, rather than to count the demons he felt within himself. There was a Roman legion who attacked the region a few years before and did a lot of damage. Perhaps the man lost loved ones and was so saddened by the event that he never recovered and sort of went crazy. And named himself Legion as a symbol of the horror of that time.

 

Jesus treats the man in the tombs differently than the rest of the community did, because he knows more about the man. He even responds to the demons with care. “Come out, demons!” Jesus orders. They say, “Please, Jesus, don’t send us into the abyss! Send us into those pigs instead.” And Jesus agrees. Of course, the demons are so wild and uncontrollable, the pigs promptly run into the nearby lake where they all die.

 

Do you notice that the demons recognize Jesus’ power over them? They try to sound like bullies, but in truth they know they have no power over Jesus. They can only yield to his power. So, they ask for a favor, and he grants it.

 

The healed man wants to join Jesus, but Jesus tells him instead to go home and tell his story around the city. He was famous, known as the man who was filled with demons, out of his mind, living in the caves at the cemetery. Many knew him, at least by his reputation, so his story would grab a lot of attention.

 

Now, we also notice that the swineherds are not so happy. They have lost their wealth, their source of income. And while they would love to harass Jesus about this, they know it would not work. Instead, they go into the city to tell the story. By the time the swineherds return with some city folks, the man has clothes on and is sitting with Jesus and the disciples.

 

Was that Jesus’ plan? To spread news about God’s love there in Gentile territory? To reach out to those who would not normally believe that a Jewish rabbi would heal a Gerasene man? … This healing gave a message to the disciples, too, that God’s healing is for all people, not just the Jews.

 

So, back to today, and our own demons. As I said at the beginning, we all have them. Some of our demons are learned behavior, taught by those who raised us. My need for perfection often expresses itself in the worship bulletin. If I work to get it perfect, we are less likely to have last week’s hymns in this week’s bulletin, and less likely to have surprises in worship.

 

Some of our demons are caused by ancient wounds. Some pain that happened in childhood or during a marriage that ended in divorce caused deep wounds, and the anger and regret and sorrow never leave us. There are demons that infect us with unhappiness, with unforgiveness, with frequent reminders of how unfair certain people are. Sometimes the demons are fear, fear that we will fail, fear that bad things will happen to us or to someone we love.

 

Most of us are familiar with the story of Martin Luther. He was so obsessed with the need to confess that he spent hours in the confessional, confessing every sin he could think of. What shall we call this demon? How about the demon of fear, fear that he was never free of sin? Before Luther’s time and insight, even “minor” sins could condemn a person if they were unconfessed.

 

So, he spent a lot of time confessing. He received absolution for all the sins he could think of to confess, and some penitent action such as a dozen “Hail Mary’s”. Just as he was leaving the confessional, he realized he was proud he had confessed all his sins, and just as quickly recognized the moment of pride as a sin.

 

His confessor finally sent him out of the abbey to serve in Wittenberg, in contact with everyday people. And to teach the Bible in the University. As he taught, he discovered that only God has the power to forgive sins, not the Pope, not the parish priest, not the coins one paid for indulgences. Nothing and no one other than God has the power to forgive sins.

 

It was when he encountered this verse in Romans 1:17 that he put it all together. "God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous person will live by faith.’ "

 

We all have demons, whether we know it or not, whether we admit it or not, whether we like it or not. Some are small fears, some are larger. They are brought to us by pain we may not even be aware of. They are all less powerful than Jesus. As we become aware of them, we can ask Jesus to cast them out and he will. But, we need to really let them go, or they will come back again. We will discover that the demons don’t stay in the pigs, drowned, but have a life of their own.

 

And so, my need for perfection in worship and in the bulletin is often challenged. And I have learned to tell myself and anyone who notices, “It’s just God reminding us that no one except God is perfect. What matters is that we came and worshiped.”

 

Amen