“How did they react?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, October 14, 2024

Luke 8: 26-39 (Forward, p. 77) CEV p. 1068

I wonder how the once possessed man was received by his hometown of Gerasa after he’d been delivered from his demons.  (The man had wanted to be able to join Jesus, but Jesus had told him instead to go home and tell everyone how much God has done for him, which, indeed is just what he did.)  So, I wonder, just how was he received?

We are told in verse 35 that when the people saw him sitting there with Jesus, fully clothed and in his right mind, that they were terrified.  And, when they heard the firsthand testimony of the man’s healing, they begged Jesus to leave because they were so frightened (see verses 36-37).

And surely, when people see the raw power, the authority, of God being manifested like this, there is often a sense of intimidation, even of fear or terror.  Because, after all, this is something far outside and beyond our normal sense of things, far beyond our normal reckoning.  It is certainly not something that we can control or manipulate in any ways, which is, of course, what we normally want or expect.  (We like to think that we are in control.  Indeed, is not this sense of ‘being gods’ of our own lives part of who we are as fallen human beings?)  And so, this exhibition of God’s power in the life of this demoniac was a stark and vivid reminder to them that they were definitely not in control.

But maybe there was something else at work in their minds as well.  Mark’s account of this incident tells us that there were some 2,000 pigs that met their end because of Jesus’ action.  And when people related what had taken place, they told not only of what had happened to the man but also what had happened to the pigs.  Here, too, the power of God in Jesus Christ was very real and obvious.  And so, apparently, the fate of the pigs was very much on the crowd’s mind as well.  And presumably it was also on the minds of those that minded the pigs or owned them.  This was a terrible loss of income, an enormous financial ‘hit.’  And so, what was probably quite unnerving, was the realization that the coming of God into their lives could dramatically change things, and not, I might say, in the ways that they might have wanted.  This, then, is a profound reminder to us as well, that God is indeed in control, and has His plans and goals, which are not always the same as ours.

And, coming back to the former demoniac: sometimes the presence of someone who has been newly touched by the power of God is equally unsettling, even if wonderful, for it reminds us too that we are not actually in control, but that God is.  Thanks be to God.

Forward notes: “Jesus then asked him, “’What is your name?’” (verse 30a)

“It’s terrifyingly easy to dehumanize someone when they remain a nameless (and faceless) entity.  A step toward loving our neighbours starts with getting to know their names.  Once we know their names, it’s hard to dehumanize them; it becomes more difficult to generalize and stereotype them.  Getting to know their names brings me closer to knowing their story, which in turn helps me to know them and see their humanity.

“Farmers don’t name the animals they don’t intend to keep around for a while.  By that same logic, perhaps we prefer for some people to remain nameless so that we can continue our hatred or distrust of them.

“So, what’s in a name?  For starters, it’s the first step to knowing and loving your neighbour.”

Moving Forward: “Whose name will you learn today?”

A concluding note: as usual and appropriate as today’s Forward meditation is his does ‘miss the boat’ in one particular sense.  The name that the demoniac gave Jesus, ‘Legion’, was not his given name.  It was the name given to his affliction, or, more accurately, the name given to him by his tormentors.  It was like identifying a person by his or her malady, ‘there goes a drunk or there goes a druggie or there goes a hypochondriac or there goes a residential school survivor.’  It is basically dehumanizing, forgetting the very real human being with feelings, issues and experiences that lies behind those labels!  But can we not do that in more subtle ways as well, as we can too easily see people simply by their cancer or their heart attack or their gangrene or their diabetes or by their pulmonary obstruction or by their autism?  And sadly, we can even come up with our own names for ourselves, our own labels: loser, invalid, outsider, and what have you, and define and limit own selves in this way.  And so, in all these things, we need to see and care for the individuals involved, and get past those labels, address those labels, even as Jesus did, and bring healing and restoration to those troubled individuals.