The Garasene Demoniac
Luke 8:26-39
By Rev. Heather Howland Bobbitt

A sermon for Highlands Presbyterian Church:  June 24, 2001

Who is this Jesus that even the wind and the sea obey him? This is the question that the disciples have just asked the night before as they all crossed the Sea of Galilee together. Jesus showed them that he had power over the elements, the weather and still they did not really know who he was. Now Jesus answers their question again: he is the one with power over all darkness.

The Garasene Demoniac – I love to say those words – one never really speaks of demons these days, except euphemistically like as in you go to a party and someone offers you a drink and being the pious teetotaler that you are you politely decline and say, “Thanks, but I never touch the demon rum.” Or “Hey I was down in the basement and it smells like the cat hid a little something for you down there – the demon.” Basically, we don’t really believe in demons these days. Perhaps that is because we have it so easy in this twenty-first century life, thank God (amen?) and the forces of evil seem pretty well relegated to other people’s problems, not really all that real to us living in suburbia. But once there was a world where darkness was taken very seriously and was called demonic.

Jesus met him at the shore the minute he stepped off the boat. The demoniac had broken his chains again, I guess. Being of the spirit world, the demoniac knew Jesus was coming for him and in his anxiety he left his usual hidey-hole up at the tombs – a heck-u-va unclean place by Jewish rules, I can tell you and he hauls his filthy buck-neked self down to the dock to meet Jesus first – this is one confrontational demon! And what does he say right off the bat – he names Jesus, names him! Remember in the New Testament world, to know the name of a god or a demon is to have power over them – so the demon makes the first play here by shouting out: “Jesus, son of the most High God – what do you want with me?” As if he didn’t already know!

And Jesus asks for his name to which the tricky demon replies: “Legion.” My friends, this is not a name it is a number. The scriptures themselves interpret this answer to Jesus to mean that the demon is indicating that there are multiple demons contained within this poor possessed man, the demoniac. Though that is undoubtedly true, it is still a screwy answer – the demon is taunting Jesus by not disclosing any single name – because he knows that if Jesus knows the name he will have power over it and be able to cast it out! That is how the rule went in those days. So, Na na nana na Jesus! We aint tellin’ but just in case everyone wants you to please not make us go home to the abyss – please, please, please! What’s this begging? First taunting and then begging? “Oh but if you have to have us out of this man then please, please, please put us into those hogs over there!” Why do you think the demons would trade the man for the hogs? Remember, this is all happening in gentile territory where the people have no rule against eating pork. I think the people of the first century would have understood by this request that the demons felt they could hide from Jesus, a Jew, if they were inside unclean animals – then Jesus would leave them alone.

So what does Jesus do for this poor demon-possessed man whose demons are shouting out all these requests and taunts? Another prophet out to prove his power might have silenced the demons and vanquished them. But in this case, Jesus, the Son of God, grants his permission to the demons to move out of the man and into the pigs. Then, the pigs go insane and jump off a cliff into the Sea of Galilee and drown. Perhaps the demons were trying to hide in the sea next to get away from Jesus. But we know from the previous section of Luke that Jesus has already shown his power over the sea. The moral of the story is: Oh, evil, you can run but you can’t hide from Jesus.

But it’s never that simple is it?

I walked into the hospital room and found her lying in bed on her side with her back to the window where the curtains were drawn against the snowstorm outside. It was a gray and cold winter afternoon. Julie used to be a vibrant young woman, full of fun and so super-intelligent. She is the only person I have ever met with a triple major in college. But on this day she had collapsed emotionally and in order for her to make sure that she wouldn’t hurt herself, she checked herself in to Upham Hall down at the OSU Medical Center. Her room smelled bad. She looked like a corpse. Compared to the Julie that I had gone out to lunch with the month before – well, I just barely could recognize her. The darkness had ravaged her and left her hopeless and empty. She opened her eyes and looked at me. She whispered my name. And for the first time in my life, I could not think of one single thing to say. Hearing my name coming from that weirdly darkened face in that bad smelling, dim room – it was like a peek into hell. What could I say?

In the years since that incident I have wondered why it is that I was so stricken that day. I think I know, now, that it was because I was scared of Julie’s mental illness. And I hid behind that fear to rationalize why I turned around and left her there – after all, I was no psychiatrist and that’s what she needed – right? And she’d be fine in that hospital surrounded by all those paid professionals whose job it was to scrub that filthy darkness from Julie’s soul! Julie had excellent health insurance through the university as well as through her job – she’d be fine! I was scared and I hid.

I know that God has forgiven me for how I treated my friend that day. And I have just about forgiven myself, too. But I have a need to keep remembering that day to remind myself of how fragile my conversion to Christ truly is.

I suppose you think I will now tell you what I should have done then, or what I would do now if faced with that same situation. I wont bore you with the obvious. But I will say that if you still do not believe in demonic possession, o modern, educated and enlightened person that you are, you must confess that evil dwells in mental illness. It is itself like an illness in that it is contagious. When a depressed person comes into the room slinging their special ugliness around, it splashes on us and makes us be ugly, too. We turn tail and hide from it, or we get sucked in to it and lash out and then feel crazy ourselves – just ask anyone who has had a family member stricken with depression or any other variety of bona-fide mental dis-ease. One person out of kilter in the house brings everyone in the house out of kilter, too. Hence the popularity of family therapy.

And if you yourself have been that person, possessed by the darkness and delighting in thoughts of death, then you can testify to the sense of being absolutely possessed by a raging demon. The horror of being inside that abyss is the definition of “exquisite pain.”

In that quality of torture – where no human can survive for long, Christ comes, and is present. In the dark night of the soul, Christ comes to bring the longed for light. There is no force so profoundly bleak that Christ cannot break and enter bringing forgiveness and light and acceptance. There is no land so distant, no sin so grievous, no crime so heinous, no heart so black that Jesus Christ cannot shine forth in all the love of heaven to bring peace and wholeness at last.

That is what this scripture is about, ladies and gentlemen, Christ’s supreme power over insanity, pain and darkness. C.S. Lewis once wrote that, and I paraphrase, when all the evil of the world is rolled up into one giant dark, crusty and gloopy ball, it would not have the weight of half-a-grain of sand in heaven.

Today we hear Good News, indeed! We need not ever be afraid of the darkness that lurks in the corners of our lives or out on the fringe of society because actually, remarkably and of course, illogically, that is where Jesus Christ is! His power is needed there, especially there! And so let us all commit ourselves again to belonging to Christ so that we can rest and never again be fearful of the darkness. In fact, we are called to seek out the dark places – not simply to bring the light of Christ’s love there – but to meet Christ there ourselves. When will we learn – we who profess our faith everyday – when will we learn that Jesus is calling us to himself and that we will surely find him and be invited to embrace him when we

get our bottoms up and out the door and down to Epworth Methodist Church to help feed the homeless people waiting for us there? Oo, homeless, icky, depressed and weird people – no, no, Jesus’ children that he loves and is asking us, no, giving us permission to feed his sheep in this way. The one and only reason we can’t all clear our schedules and go there is fear – as if we have been invited to participate in a boxing match instead of simply providing a little bit of food and prayer for Christ’s sake! Let me remind you that it is absolutely logical self-preservation to have as little as possible to do with suffering people but that logic is not God’s logic. The way of Jesus Christ is to have faith that you will not be sucked in and dragged down, no, you will be given great blessings when you show God that you are willing and obedient to God’s will. Yea, you shall fear no evil. (amen?)

In Garasene, the people who witnessed the exorcism of the demoniac asked Jesus to leave town because he scared them. Does Jesus scare you?