Isaiah 65:1-9 • Psalm 22:19-28 • Galatians 3:23-29 • Luke 8:26-39
27282930313233343536373839Then 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 may want to think that the story of this demon-possessed Gerasene man happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. But he is alive, his story lives among us.
His story lives in people like Martin Torres. Martin grew up on Chicago’s South Side. This guy was a rough character—the leader of a Latino gang. In high school they called him “Pacman”, because everyone knew he was always packing a gun. Martin was first shot when he was twelve by members of a rival gang. He was eventually shot five more times, including in the jaw and in his right shoulder. The scars and markings on his body serve as constant reminders of how deep a grip violence has had on his life. The .38 caliber bullet from the last time he was shot, nine years ago, still sits in his right thigh. On his chest, he has tattooed the name “Buff” as a tribute to a friend who was killed on his eighteenth birthday. And on his ears he still wears two silver studs—which were his sign of gang affiliation. Even though he’s now grown up, even though you’d have to look hard to find these scars, tattoos and earrings, Martin remains haunted by the daily grip of violence that he faced daily growing up. Years later, all it took was one incident, one event, to trigger “Pacman” to rear his ugly, violent head again.
It happened three summers ago, when Martin was working as a cook in Austin, Texas, and on one August morning he received a call. His nephew Emilio had been murdered on Chicago’s South Side. Martin got on the first bus he could to Chicago. “Pacman” was back. He was in town, asking around about what happened, and in a day, he figured out who he believed had killed his nephew. There was only one thought on his mind. Revenge. He later said, “That’s how I live. I was going hunting. This is my old blood, my nephew.” Martin bought guns. He began to drink. He thought he’d wait until after the funeral to track down his nephew’s murderer. He was back to his old self—back in chains.
Then he got a call from Zale Hoddenbach. Back in high school Zale belonged to a gang that was under the same umbrella as Martin, and they had become friends while doing time together in prison in Pontiac, Illinois. When Martin’s brother asked Zale to call him, Martin was thrilled. “Hey, my old prison buddy is going to join me to search for the killer!” Martin was still thinking and acting like “Pacman”. But Zale had changed. Zale said retribution wasn’t what Martin’s nephew’s dad wanted. An eye for an eye wasn’t the way out. Martin said, “What are you talking about?!” Zale knew it would be hard to stop Pacman. Martin was still a man possessed, without hope, and full of fear.
This is the same story we just heard. This story from a recent New York Times Magazine article of a man lost in the grip of demons—the demons of violence and fear. The man Jesus meets has been robbed of himself: demons have stripped him of his clothes, have made his home into caves and tombs, have isolated him from everyone else.
OK, now I’m not asking you to believe in demons. For some that may be a
Well Jesus has news for those forces that rebel against God: they have no power over us! Because of Jesus they do not get to define us! Jesus’ power gives them no legitimacy whatsoever. Jesus comes to this man’s defense, and “commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man.” (8:29) The way Jesus does this is very important, and so profound. He does not try to convince these demons that they are not powerful. When Jesus is dealing with demons, with forces that make someone addicted to something destructive, he does not give that force any legitimacy. He won’t argue with them. He simply tells them to go: leave, get out, scram. Jesus is kind of like the ultimate, nonviolent super-homeboy! And Jesus doesn’t use fear or intimidation to tell them to leave. He uses anger, which as Augustine says has two beautiful daughters, hope and courage. His channels his anger at what has possessed this man into energy that builds a hopeful, courageous relationship with this man. He does this by affirming, and loving this human being, this child of God. Jesus does not scare this man straight. As one priest says, he cares him straight. He cares him straight.
And then Jesus continues to care this man straight by doing something so simple: he asks him his name. Now the multitude of demons and forces within him are still possessing him, and I bet he cannot even remember at that point what his name used to be. The man says his name is “Legion”. It’s a whole legion, an army, of spirits and people and opinions that had consumed and possessed him so much that he was no longer the name he once was; he is no longer himself.
But Jesus will have none of that. The demons see Jesus’ authority, his confidence, his giving no credence to them whatsoever, and they are gone from. Next thing you know they are in a herd of pigs, tumbling into the sea. And what’s left? This man. No longer labeled. No longer “that possessed man.” No longer “the Gerasene demoniac.” A man. A person. With a name, an identity, a character that is not a wimp, that is not a wuss. He’s healed. He’s whole. He’s free. Jesus gives this man his dignity back where it rightfully belongs—dignity in his grateful heart. This man sits at Jesus’ feet with a heart free of resentment and bitterness. He now has a heart of dignity—the same heart that God also sees in each and every one of us. Jesus defends us from all that takes our dignity away—at all costs, even with his life. It is our name he defines us with, and not whatever any person or force or demon may want to call us or do to us.
Martin and Zale met up at the nephew’s wake. Zale spent the day by his side, urging him to respect his brother’s wishes. Zale knew the longer he could keep Martin from leaving the service, the more chance there would be from keeping him from shooting someone. He listened. He let him vent for a few hours. Then Zane put it to him straight: don’t do it. Don’t give in. What is your real name? You don’t have to be Pacman. You can be Martin.
As a “violence interrupter” for the City of Chicago’s violence prevention program Cease Fire, Zale stood in the struggle of resisting the violence that tried to take away Martin’s dignity. He saw past the demons that had Martin in the chains of fear. Jesus sees us the same way: as dignified, beloved, beautiful children of God. No one bullies us. Jesus won’t let them! Each week when we say in the creed “Jesus is Lord”, we affirm the dignity our Lord gives us freely. And when we affirm our baptism we speak our renouncement of those forces that try to take away what our Lord gives us. These are forces we will never overcome on our own. But …in our struggling…there is Jesus, commanding the spirits of violence to leave us. There is Jesus filling us with hope and courage to face our future. There is Jesus drowning the ugliness of violence with the beauty of his grace.
In our fear of what tries to destroy us, United Lutheran serves as our own “violence interrupter” community, we who all gather together to sit at the Lord of life’s feet, humbled by the clarity with which he carries out his non-violent vision, a vision that builds the kingdom of his life-giving peace through us. With the healed Gerasene, with Martin, he sends us out today as bearers of his dignity, to give new life to all on the margins who have forgotten their true name, to call them the name that Jesus calls them: beloved brother and beloved sister. Amen.
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