"At the Bottom of Life"
Sermon Presented June 24, 2007
Luke 8:26-39
Last Friday the film A Mighty Heart opened in local theaters. It is the story of the kidnapping and beheading of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan five years ago. The film is based on a book written by Pearl's wife Mariane who was pregnant at the time of his death. During the tragic weeks after the kidnapping, Mariane sank to the depths as ministers of evil seemed to win the battle. No one would have blamed this young widow for withdrawing from life, but she didn't. She has been raised from the depths to new heights of influence and power.
Our text this morning is another story of a person who is raised from the depths to new life. I'm reading from Luke 8:26-39.
This is a difficult story for contemporary Christians to understand. We have trouble with the concept of demons and everything that goes along with it. For this reason I've never preached it before, but when I read it this time something clicked and I decided to try it. Let's look at the story Luke tells.
In Luke's sequence of events, Jesus has just crossed the Sea of Galilee and landed at the city of Gerasa. However, Gerasa is 18 miles SE of the Sea of Galilee. Some manuscripts - including Matthew's Gospel - put the event in the city of Gadara - about six miles SE of the Sea of Galilee. It would be impossible to step off a boat into either city. However, the story isn't about geography but about an event that transforms a hopeless man, and this is where we will concentrate.
We know this is Gentile territory because of the presence of hogs. Gentiles raised hogs to feed the Roman troops, while Jews had nothing to do with these animals that are considered unclean.
The man living among the tombs greets Jesus by shouting at the top of his lungs that he can't stand any more torment! What greater cry for help can you imagine? I can't think of one! The text doesn't say he asks for healing, but when he throws his naked and bound body at Jesus' feet, Jesus heals him and the man is no longer bound physically or psychologically.
Legion, as the man calls himself, used to live in the city, but now is banished to a cemetery where he is shackled, naked and living in the tombs. In the land of Israel, tombs were whitewashed so they could be recognized and avoided because no one wants to touch them and become ceremonially unclean. Not so at Gerasa!
I wonder how life was for this man before he became ill. Now he knows himself only by his illness. He calls himself by what he has become: Legion - one possessed by thousands of demons. This would be like asking the name of someone in the hospital and hearing the name Colon Cancer or Schizophrenia in response.
There are several points in this story I don't understand, and I'm not going to pretend I do. I don't understand demons - but I do understand the presence of evil. I don't understand Jesus conversing with demons or letting them choose where they will be banished. I can't explain the geographical conflicts in the story. But I do understand that Jesus healed this man who was without hope and now he has a new life. This story is part of our faith history.
The man is healed, clothed and seated peacefully beside Jesus when the people from the city converge on the site. They want to see for themselves what the swineherds reported. They're familiar with the previous condition of the man and know his violent nature and how he was living. To see him sane, clothed and listening to Jesus is almost beyond their comprehension. But his salvation doesn't compensate for the loss of the hogs. Even though they recognize the mystery and the power of what has taken place, they're afraid to embrace it. They don't want to upset the status quo - especially when it affects the economy. They fear this power that is greater than the spirit world. They fear what they don't understand, and so they ask Jesus to leave.
When a community embraces the Gospel, it will affect the community's economy. If we take the Gospel seriously, our patterns of purchasing and spending will be affected. Healings, conversions and the embrace of Christian ethics will change a community! The people of Gerasa deal with demonic forces by isolating them and trying to control them, and they believe the cost of healing the man is too great to bear.
The man begs to go with Jesus. He needs support. He wants to stay free and whole and may fear that apart from Jesus, he will revert to his previous condition. However, Jesus has a mission for him to the people of Gerasa. This is his home town and he is a changed man. Jesus tells him to proclaim what God has done, but when he goes home, he tells everyone about Jesus - a normal response to his encounter.
This story is about what it means to fall to the bottom of life where all is lost and life becomes a way of death, and then to rise from it. This man is no longer a threat to society. He is a new person!
We all know people who have battled or are battling powers that are beyond their control. When we are bombarded by such powers, we sense no mercy. These powers drive us away from all we know and love - to the tombs. Addictions are means many people use to cope with the demons within, and in turn they become demons. Jesus understands our wilderness encounters because he also went into the wilderness to battle forces that tried to undercut his calling and his personhood. Jesus offers us the opportunity to become whole, just as he offered it to the man in our text.
While I don't understand demons, I do know that powers of evil exist, whether they are personal, political, social, or economic in nature. These powers seek to dominate, isolate, alienate and destroy their victims. For that reason, I believe that we in the church must name oppressive powers in our community and expose them. By naming the powers of evil that hold people captive, the Gospel can offer captive people stature, peace and a sense of belonging to the community. Jesus offers wholeness.
Some people can't accept healing because to do so, we must deal with our demons. I talked with someone recently who explained that when he stopped using drugs, he had to deal with the demons that his drug use was designed to cover. We fear the change that might be expected of us and so we chase Jesus out of town. We get so used to the patterns of our lives - our dysfunctions, our failures, our unresolved problems - that we resign ourselves to defeat or allow ourselves to be shackled over and over again. Relatives and friends may even try to sabotage our healing so that they will still be needed.
Striking out in a new direction is frightening and opens us up to pain. It's easier to drive away hope and live with the familiar defeat than it is to become free. The man who was healed wanted to travel with Jesus so that he could maintain his new-found wholeness.
So far, I've talked primarily about the person who feels hopeless. But how can we help those we care about who are at the bottom of life? We aren't Jesus and we don't believe we have the power to speak the words that will release a person from the pits immediately - like Jesus did. That kind of resurrection usually takes time, prayer and proper medical, spiritual and/or psychiatric care. Those who are at the bottom are often left to fend for themselves because we shy away from helping. However, when God calls us to love, we need to listen for an opening to intercede in the name of Jesus. We can only do this if we are present and listening with our heart as well as our ears. We can pray and then be sensitive to the Spirit of God within.
This morning we have heard a story of hope for both the possessed man and his community. One claimed it and the other ran Jesus out of town. This story also brings a word of hope and assurance to those for whom every day is a battle with depression, fear, pain and anxiety.
Today we don't see people in chains, but we do see those who need release from the bonds within. According to recent articles in the Journal Sentinel, many people in Milwaukee go untreated - both physically and psychologically. God calls us to reach out in love to those we know who are experiencing alienation from people or God. God calls us to seek what's best for another rather than what's always best for us.
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the widower of a member of the congregation in Marysville. His wife Sue died of early-onset Alzheimer's disease soon after I arrived in Milwaukee. Sue was bright, talented and beautiful inside and out, and watching her deteriorate was difficult for all who loved her, especially her husband. To me, her disease was similar to that of the one healed in our text today. No human could free her from the disease, but we could stand by her - and her family - while she was living her hell on earth. Sue's resurrection came at death.
Life isn't fair! Bad things happen to good people! Mental and physical illnesses and events drag people to the bottom of life. But God wants to touch our lives and free us from the depression that besets us. God also wants us to be "little Christs" - instruments of healing - to others. We can be such instruments when we go home and share what God has done for us. Life is dark and lonely at the bottom. Let's seek God's help to rise or to help another rise from the darkness. It's what we are called to do.
