There’s a story in the Bible that tells of how Jesus cast demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs. It’s one of my favourite Jesus stories. There are versions of it in three of the gospels, but I like the version in Luke 8:26-39.
It’s one of my favourites because it’s full of important things to wonder about, like healing and restoration and community. It’s a bible study dream, too, with really interesting details about the location, the characters and the pigs. You have to love a story with pigs.
This isn’t the place for a bible study, though, so I’d just like to highlight a couple of things worth wondering about today.
I think identity is a key part of this story. When the possessed man confronts him, Jesus asks his name and he says it’s “‘Legion,’ because many demons had entered him.” But that’s not really the man’s name, is it. We never do learn his name, only the name of what possesses him, the name of what Jesus frees him from. Because that’s what’s happening here. It’s not about Jesus casting demons into pigs, it’s about Jesus freeing a man to be himself, to find his own identity and live it out. And what’s more, once “in his right mind,” the man wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus tells him he must return to his home and share with others what God has done for him.
Labelled by others as possessed, Jesus frees this man. The gospel only says that the demons asked Jesus not to torment them “for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.” Here’s what I imagine happened: in those moments with him, Jesus offered the man such profound love, compassion and safety, that the man was able to find his freedom. I don’t think that detracts in any way from the miracle nature of this story, far from it. I think Jesus is showing us a miracle that we can make happen, too. The kind of miracle we need a lot of today.
I think that’s why Jesus tells the man to stay behind and share his story. He wants to go with Jesus, but he knows the man could do so much more for his community by sharing his story with them. And that’s the other thing I wonder about.
The man had been like this for a long time and when he’s healed, the people of that community wanted Jesus to leave because they were afraid. Of what? The man they had tried to lock away, the one who had been possessed wasn’t possessed any longer. Why’s that so scary? Were they afraid of the change in the man? Were they afraid of the power that made the change happen? Were they afraid that more may now be required of them, to understand and grow from this miracle moment? Yes, to all the above.
It is often so difficult to move us forward into growth and understanding, especially around healing the spiritually, emotionally and mentally broken. It is so much easier to stay where we are and hold fast to what we know - good or bad - than to embrace change and, more importantly, the power that makes it happen. Ironically, it’s the experience of that power, of that love, that moves us.
And when we experience love, embrace it and are freed by it, we might still face the hostile environment of the unchanged, the unmoved who have yet to share that experience. But then, isn’t it all the more important that we share it and, in our own ways, return to our homes and declare what God, in Jesus, has done for us?
