Disposing of Demons
Rev. Dr. Mark Porizky
6/24/07
Luke 8:26-39
Once
upon a time, a duck named
Would
you like to know the moral of the story, or would you rather know how a cow
dials the phone?
Stories
are wonderful devices used to generate images, to illustrate points, to
stimulate interest and to convey a message. However, the secret to gaining the
most from a story is to focus on the message or moral, not the details.
The
same is true of our Scripture lesson today. If we focus on the details of the
story we will become bogged down and miss the wonderful message. We will never
be able to answer some very basic but perplexing questions about the story.
Like
what? Well, as we read the story we
could get bogged down by why is Jesus cruel to animals? Or
how could Jesus have caused the owners of the pigs such a financial loss?
Why did Jesus have to ask the demon his name? Didn't he already know?
Rather
than impose our questions upon the text, we must be willing to listen to the
message of the text.
The
story could easily be dismissed because of the description of the man's illness.
The language of demons and exorcism appear bizarre and extreme, a superstitious
way of describing the unknown. We are painfully aware of the abuse and
mistreatment people who suffered from various mental illnesses received because
they were suspected of being possessed by demons. Some would prefer to push this
story aside and credit it to an earlier understanding of the world and the human
psyche.
That
is a mistake, however. The basic
intent of the story has a powerful message on the liberating power of God.
The
story that we are about to consider is more than a story about the deliverance
of one man from the demonic. For me this story illustrates how Jesus heals us
from all types of emotional turmoil. During this sermon when I refer to demons
or the demonic, I am referring to all forms of psychological, emotion and
sometimes, physical stress that the situations of life put us under.
In
saying that however, I want to be perfectly clear that I do not believe that all
mental illness or mental distress is caused by demonic possession. If you or a
family member has suffered from any form of mental or emotional distress, I am
not saying that the person is possessed. Some forms of mental illness have an
organic origin, while other forms are situational based. The Evil One has powers
to attack us in many different ways. That is why we pray in the Lord's Prayer,
"Deliver us from evil" A better translation of those words would be
"from the evil one." Evil is not a neutral, abstract force. Evil is a
very real presence that personalizes its assaults on people using the situations
of life to produce emotional turmoil. When a person cannot cope with the stress,
they begin to suffer from either a severe physical aliment or some from of
mental illness.
Actual
demonic possession is much different than mental illness. It has a much
different cause and much different manifestation. I am not going to say much
about it because a) I have had little experience in dealing with it and b) it
would side track us from a much more fruitful discussion of how Jesus can heal
us from the emotional turmoil of our lives.
So
let us consider the story to discover the elements that are important in the
man's illness and how Jesus brought this man healing and deliverance from the
demons that raged within him.
In
the story we learn that the man is plagued by not one but a "Legion"
of demons. I am going to use that concept and describe three types of demons
that haunted not only the man of Gerasenes but you and I.
Luke 8:26-39
Then they 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. 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.) 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.
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. 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. 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.
We
know that Jesus was a healer. He healed physical disease. But he also healed
social illness. Lepers are healed physically, for example, but in Jesus radical
action of touching these unclean/untouchable, he is attempting to heal the
societal illness which shuns the sick and the marginalized. Women who are not
allowed to touch men in public are allowed to touch him. They are healed of
their physical ailment, but at the same the social illness of a patriarchal
value system is exposed. Jesus healed physical disease but also social disease
and of the two this might be the more profound healing that he set in motion
2000 years ago.
So
getting back to the three demons this man, and perhaps some of us, possess, what
was it that Jesus healed in this man of the shadows?
First,
Jesus heals “The Demon of Isolation “
Luke
tells us that the man lived among the tombs. The tombs provided a grim setting
and dramatically illustrate his detachment from society. The patterns of hiding
from reality may have begun long before this. They
may have started with lonely walks wandering the countryside away from the
family, or just as time alone in the house not talking with people. Slowly the
periods of isolation grew longer and longer until complete separation had to be
made. His inner turmoil could no long tolerate the companionship of others.
The
Demon of Isolation is a very dangerous companion. Let me be clear, isolation is
far different than solitude. Solitude
is a refresher for re-engaging the world. Isolation
is loneliness gone wild.
In
solitude, we are alone with God. Angels minister to us affirming our dignity and
self worth. We are reminded of our giftedness and how God has worked through our
lives.
In
a person's loneliness, the demon reminds them of all their failures, all their
mistakes. Every embarrassing
and shameful experience is remembered and elevated in importance. A person's
thoughts are filled with their own problems and they are overwhelmed with
feelings of failure. They become trapped by the negative voices.
In
the early stage, the man could easily be helped, but he may have waited. He may
have thought that he would someday have the power to get his life in order and
to turn things around. But that day never came and the inner turmoil
intensified. But his isolation is
broken through, and into, by Jesus.
The
second demon Jesus works upon is the “Demon of Unrestrained behavior.”
If
the Demon of Isolation is allowed to work unchecked, he opens the door for the
Demon of Unrestrained behavior. Rules are broken, laws are manipulated authority
is resisted. The man in today's passage could not be contained even with chains.
He would break loose and become uncontrollable. He would wander in the mountains
wailing and crying out. What may have begun as an inner turmoil had exploded
into an overwhelming, uncontrollable rage? He could not find satisfaction in
people or things. His inner turmoil drove him on a desperate search for inner
peace until he became an uncontrollable sociopath.
Our
unrestrained behavior may not make us sociopaths, but it may draw us away from
God, from friends and from family. Drink,
drug, the Internet, even work or food, such as food addictions, these behaviors
left untended tend to feed upon themselves and we become controlled by that
which we were never meant to be controlled by.
We feel like the man in the tombs, like we are in chains.
The
only answer is community, accountability, the trust of others with the struggles
in our lives. At its best the church
should be a twelve-step program, a “hospital for sinners rather than a
showcase for saints.”
Why?
Because if we don’t hold
each other accountable, then our struggles in isolation become the unrestrained
behaviors
And
finally, Jesus heals the “Demon of Self-destruction.”
Alone
and out of control, the man was then vulnerable to the Demon of
Self-Destruction. This demon enticed the man to express his self-hated in
tangible ways by inflicting himself with pain. Our patterns of self-hated are
manifested in much more subtle ways. We overindulge, overeat, and overwork. We
depreciate our achievements and belittle our own giftedness. We refuse to take
credit for the good that we do. Or
we know that our marriages depend on quality time with our spouses, but week
after week we just never seem to find the time.
For
the man, his family and the people of Gerasenes the situation appeared hopeless.
They appeared to have a non-involved attitude. "Leave the man in the tombs,
so he does not hurt anyone else everyone was to keep their distance. Provide him
with some food so he does not starve. Maybe one day the gods will end his
suffering and our misery."
That
day finally arrived when Jesus decided to take a boat ride.
The
healing begins when the two at quite a distance from one another. Luke tells us
that Jesus having sensed the presence of evil had begun to cast the demon out
with prayer. This immediately began a spiritual battle. The unclean spirits
sensing the presence of the divine were struck with fear. Jesus completes the
healing by casting them out. At his word, the demons must respond. The healing
though begins and ends in prayer.
We
talk a lot about prayer and the power of prayer to heal and change lives and
situations but do we really believe it. Even as a pastor I find it hard at times
to always believe, to always have the confidence that my prayers will make a
difference in a person's life. I see few demons cast out, people still die,
people still go on doing mean things to others.
C.S.
Lewis notes, "Every war, every famine or plague, almost every death-bed, is
the monument to a petition that was not granted."
Hospice/Dr.
Feltes/comment
So
let me begin and end this sermon on healing.
What is it that you need Jesus to heal in you?
Jesus will come to you, but you must also come out of the tombs to him,
knowing who Jesus is, and like the demons, knowing what Jesus can do.
It
begins by coming out of the shadows. Who
here will you trust to be the living word of God, the face of Jesus for what
binds you in chains unseen? Me?
Someone in the choir? That
person in the pew next to you. Let
it be someone. That you might be
free.
That
Jesus might remove the chains.
Will
you pray with me now?
Man of the Tombs by Bob Bennett
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton
,
Web Site: WWW.SAPC-CT.ORG
Office Email: OFFICE@SAPC-CT.ORG
"Permission to use is granted provided use is not for publication."