The Second Sunday after Pentecost - June 22, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne examines Jesus's encounter with the Gerasene demoniac in "the land of the Gerasenes," highlighting how Jesus crosses boundaries to restore the identity of a man possessed by Legion. This Gospel story reveals how Jesus meets us in our brokenness, asks for our name, and transforms us from being captive to our own "legions" into missionaries who share God's healing love.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                              Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples 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.

Artwork: The Swine Driven into the Sea, by James Tissot (Created between 1886 and 1896)

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

Be not far away. Oh Lord, you are my strength. Come help me in the name of the Triune God, father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. In this morning's gospel, we find Jesus and he is crossing over the sea of Galilee to the land of the Enes. Well, that's a word for you, isn't it? Not one we hear very often. Well, the translation for that simply is that Jesus is not only crossing the sea, he's also crossing boundaries because the land of the enes is the land of the Gentiles. To say that it's unusual for an itinerant Jewish rabbi to venture to gentile land is an understatement, to say the least, but that is exactly where we meet Jesus this morning. So when Jesus arrives, he's confronted immediately by a man who is absolutely out of control and possessed truthfully. He's more than possessed. He's occupied because that's what a legion was, a unit by which the Roman military organized itself. The man isn't possessed by just one unclean spirit. He's occupied by a host of them, dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands. We know that because in the Roman Army Legion, that meant 6,000 Roman soldiers, so we can be certain he was possessed by a lot.

So this is a man who haunts the places of the dead. Every night, the townspeople, they hear him shrieking amongst the tombs, trailing broken chains. Behind him, he wanders. He tears at his skin until it bleeds trading one kind of paying for another. If he has a name, no one knows it. If he has a history, no one remembers it. If he has a soul worth saving inside his living corpse, not one person sees it, because not one person dares to look until Jesus does. So the story of the ene Dimo is a tough one for us, 21st century Christians to enter into because it's full of details, frankly, we find bizarre, talkative demons, suicidal pigs, instantaneous healing. You might be wondering, how is an ancient exorcism story good news for us today? Good question.

Well, this naked possessed man's story is beyond tragic, but not so far from many of us. Today, he's alone. He's wandering around and he just happens to be wandering around in tombs, no sense of purpose. He's been pushed out to the edge of society among the tombs of the dead because he too was seen as dirty and as unclean. All of which means that Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, proclaiming the coming kingdom of God does this. He purposefully goes to an unclean land to meet a man possessed by an unclean spirit living in the tombs, an unclean place that is in short, the very last place Jesus should be, which when you think about it, is where God usually shows up at our moments of most profound doubt, grief, loss, defeat, feeling of being unclean. That is often where we meet God.

So things change drastically for this man. When Jesus stepped out of the boat onto the land. What is your name? Jesus asks this man, this is how Jesus chooses to enter in and meet this man who is scary, who is possessed. Jesus simply asks his name, and by doing so, begins to remind this broken man of his humanity. What is your name? Perhaps this man somehow reminded that he is a precious child. He has an identity. What is your name? Oh, this question certainly hits home for me. If you've been a part of grace for any length of time, you better believe I'm going to know your name and I'm going to say your name. Why? Because names are important. It goes straight to identity. And for me, the identity of each of us is seen in the eyes of God. We are children of God.

Who are you? And to whom do you belong? And so it seems with Jesus too. He asks, who are you? What is your name? What do you yearn to be called? Who were you before you lost yourself before something vital in you died? Do you even remember who you are? Jesus begins where we all must begin simply by asking, what is your name? Legion. The man says in response to Jesus's question, my name is Legion, a multitude, many demons. That's his name, and that is what torments him. In other words, the sources of his brokenness are countless. The assault on his mind, soul, body comes from many sources which have stripped him of agency, sanity, dignity, and community. He is, it keeps him in isolation. It renders him anonymous. It deads his soul, divides his mind. In short, it deprives him of humanity and how true that is for many of us today, this hits home.

It hits home the evil. Those things that aren't good, you might not want to call it evil. Those things that aren't good, that haunt many of us, boy do. They have lots of faces and names too, because we're all vulnerable to forces that seek to take over and take away our true. They also seek to separate us from God, from one another to imprison us and to hold us captive. You know what yours are? I know what mine are. Whatever is coming to your mind, that's what yours are. You know what holds you captive? I know what holds me captive.

The failures that we tuck away. Oh my gosh, we hold on to them. We can't seem to let go of 'em. The deficiencies, the setbacks, the disappointments, the failures. Oh my gosh, the list goes on and on, don't they? Yeah. Those things that conspire to keep us dead when all God wants is nothing more than for us to be alive, thriving, living in abundance, living in abundant life, those things are our allegiance. Yeah. Thankfully, this story doesn't end there. When the ammonia sees Jesus, what does he do? He falls down at his feet, and when the townspeople come running to see what's going on, they find the man sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed. And guess what? In his right mind, he's normal and they are scared to death.

But friends, salvation man, it's with Jesus. That man sits at the feet of Jesus and he finds salvation. It lies in surrendering to the one who alone has the power to cast out our own legions, which torment us. Let me say that again. There is no power in this universe that can withstand the saving, healing, resurrecting power of Jesus. Nothing. Why? Because even the most destructive demons we can conjure up, beg for mercy when they come face to face with the creator of the universe, good always wins. Always. So this story, it ends in this surprising way.

Jesus commissions this healed man once possessed to stay where he is and be a missionary to the townspeople, the same townspeople who feared, shunned, trapped, and shackled. This man for years is now the first called missionary. Isn't that just God? The reversal is stunning to choose the very people we consider the most holy, the most unredeemable, the most repulsive and unworthy, and commission them to teach us the gospel. Wow. Yeah. That's what's going on here. If that doesn't give you chills, I don't know what else can y'all this morning, this story, it is a story about who we are. Yes. And I hope this story doesn't feel so far away anymore. I hope you have a way to enter into the ene democ because we are all that we are. Why? Because Jesus finds us naked amongst the tombs, and he close us with dignity. He scatters the demons to save our souls and turns us into storytellers, missionaries who will help heal the world. This is our story. So when we lose our identity, when we feel trapped by our past TURs, we feel possessed. By those things done and left undone, we are forbidden to come back to Jesus. Why? To have those demons cast out, to have our identity restored and to be reminded again of just how much God loves us. Amen.