Galatians 3:23-end; Luke 8:26-39
It is tempting to form the view that the world of Jesus was very different to the world today. Compared to our 21st century context of what seems to be increasing violence and threat, we can easily imagine the world of Jesus as a bucolic idyll, with timeless truths offered in pastoral settings, agricultural images aplenty, and even a boat trip thrown in. Too bad, we might think, that Jesus’ message was for simpler times. I wonder what Jesus would do and say if faced with real chaos.
Today’s gospel reading from Luke chapter 8 invites us to reconsider such a view, for while it is set by the lakeside, it is a story of fear and chaos, violence and threat. People run around. Chains are broken. Pigs fall of cliffs. Villagers are scared witless. Jesus himself is not welcomed as a sought-after moral teacher but chased off as a source of dread. Certainties are being questioned. Normalities are being undermined. Ring any bells?
And yet at the heart of this reading is the remarkable encounter between Jesus and one man. It takes place against the most unlikely background. First, this is enemy territory for any first-century Jew such as Jesus. The presence of pigs in the story should flag to us that this is Gentile territory; the other side of the lake - the wrong side of the tracks. Not a promising place to encounter God. And then everything about this man would have seemed to strike him off any invitation list to encounter the divine. He is naked, homeless, noisy and out of control. Not exactly Royal Garden Party material.
Let me say at this point a brief word about demon possession. Whatever any correlation with symptoms of some forms of mental illness, we must be clear that a psychiatric condition is not in view here. This is something else, a form of demonic possession which can happen today as it happens then. If you want to think about it from a more modern perspective, can I recommend Dostoevsky’s novel The Devils, inspired by this story, or the more recent St Benet’s trilogy by Susan Howatch. We can be clear, this man is deeply troubled – and indeed controlled – by spiritual forces of evil. Jesus sees them for what they are and calls them out (literally), and these forces enable the man – Legion – to see Jesus for who he is – Son of the Most High God.
And the crux of this story of this story is when Jesus does something for this man that he cannot do for himself. Jesus shows that these devils do not have ultimate authority – he does. It is at his command that they enter the pigs and are drowned in the lake – I have been to the cliffs where this happened and being there conjured up what would have been an unforgettable scene.
But this story is not about Jesus showing off his power. It is about Jesus encountering and restoring a man’s life. For there the man is – as Luke reminds us the man who had had the demons. Instead of chasing around he is sitting quietly. Instead of the shame of nakedness he is fully clothed. Instead of confusion he is in his right mind. And the key is who has made that possible. It is the man he is with. From shouting at Jesus from afar, he is sitting at his feet, in his presence and surrounded with his love. I wonder what his real name was and whether Jesus called him by it. What we can say is that this is a man fully human and fully alive. A man restored to himself.
One of the most easily overlooked aspects of the gospel narratives is the space they give to individual encounters with Jesus. Women and men, often from unlikely backgrounds or in unpromising situations, who encounter divine love as they meet and are transformed by Jesus Christ.
Here at Durham Cathedral our shared mission is that, inspired by our saints Cuthbert and Bede, we want to offer everybody the opportunity to encounter God and God’s love in Jesus Christ. That encounter we believe can happen in many different ways, in the rhythm of daily prayer, the quiet of ancient stones, the joyful praise of God’s people, the welcome at a time of need, the presence of the saints, the gathering around the Lord’s table, to name but a few.
But these encounters are all rooted in what the man called Legion experienced that day, that in Jesus God did something for him that he could not do for himself. The peace, forgiveness, inner healing, freedom from shame, sense of hope and generosity of love which are the hallmarks of an encounter with God in Christ– they are more genuine and lasting than we can ever create for ourselves. Whatever our encounter with God in Jesus Christ looks like, it was made possible by him and not us.
But here’s the sting in the tail. This encounter is not the end of the story. The man called Legion wants the reverie to continue. He wants to go with Jesus away from the region of the Gerasenes and to start a new life with Jesus. But Jesus does not let him. Instead he gives him a mission ‘return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he does just that. As former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright says, he becomes the first apostle to the Gentiles. While others told of Jesus in fear, he proclaims him in joy.
An encounter with God in Jesus Christ is not designed to take us out of the world, as if Jesus were a big duvet under which we hide from the reality around us. Encountering God – be it in a dramatic way or what is more usual which is a sense that he with us in the everyday – equips us as it did Cuthbert and Bede to bring the life and truth of Christ to everything we do and say.
This week at Durham we are launching our Vision 2033, our plans for the years leading up to the 900th anniversary of the completion of this Cathedral back in 1133. Encountering God: Pilgrimage, Prayer and Proclamation – they find no small resonance with our gospel story this morning. A man who encountered God in Jesus Christ and spent time in his prayerful presence, whose life pilgrimage involved a particular ministry of proclamation.
I don’t know how you would describe an encounter you have had in God in Jesus Christ. It may be dramatic like it was for Legion, but it often isn’t. It wasn’t and it isn’t for me. But it is a real sense that I am known, loved, forgiven, called and held but the one who made the world and made me, gave himself for the world and died for me and reigns over all creation and invites me to call him Lord. I didn’t earn it and I didn’t create it. But I can receive it.
So can I invite you this morning to come to the Lord’s table, amidst a world that threatens, to encounter God? Come and receive his life and his love in his body and blood. Come and be fed. Come and be filled. And prepare to go out into that world God made and which God continues to love, and proclaim in word and deed all that God has done for you and me in Christ. Amen.