“Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac” Mark 5: 1-20

  Imagine that you are meeting someone new for the first time. What are the normal pleasantries that accompany an introduction. Maybe what your name is or where you live. What you do as a vocation or enjoy doing as a hobby. I’m going to guess that you have not met many people for the first time where you were immediately asked what is binding you or what your deepest struggle in life is. 

The story of the Gerasene Demoniac tends to go one of a few ways when it is preached upon. Some preachers focus on the Demoniac in such a way that it comes across as a litany of thanks - thank goodness we are not like this poor man. Others try to wash away his struggles, saying that he wasn’t really possessed, but something else was going on in his life. Both approaches end up doing essentially the same thing - creating space between us hearing the story and the man from Scripture long ago. In fact, we want to keep lots of space between us and this extremely uncomfortable Scripture. 

Yet, we find it in the Gospel for a particular reason. So let us recount the story. There was a man who was considered unclean because he had an unclear spirit within him. Saying he was unclean is hard for us to imagine on this side of history, but it had nothing to do with physical cleanliness - it meant he was cut off from community. That he was not able to worship God with other people. That there was an imposed sense of isolation. 

Not only was he considered unclean by his community but he was living in an unclean place. When Jesus and the disciples docked their boat they did so taking port in a graveyard. Touching dead bodies was considered unclean so a place full of dead bodies was certainly unclean. People did not go there. 

This man is so stricken that he can’t give voice to his own thoughts. All he can do is howl. When words do come out of his mouth they aren’t his own, but the demon inside of him speaking to Jesus. His own voice was gone.

And Jesus is willing to go to an unclean place to this unclean man cut off from contact with other people and who had no voice for his own thought and experience. This was a radial thing! Jesus was willing to go to the places of isolation and desolation in order to reach out to people. And in doing so broke all of the social norms at the time. 

When people were unclean they were cut off from other people in order to prevent the spread of disease, as they understood it at the time. But when they were cut off from worship and going to the temple, even when others weren’t present, it was as if people were afraid that you could hurt God. To which Jesus, the very son of God, proclaims that we cannot harm God - even in our most vulnerable and even in our most broken of places. 

Jesus came off the boat in this very particular place, where no one else is docking for a very particular reason. He is searching this man out. And he comes face to face with him and through compassion, strength, and grace, sets him free. 

This man who could not even be held by chains was enslaved by the demon that was inside of him. Coupled with that, he was locked into his own isolation and shame. And even, and most especially him - he was sought out by our Lord and Savior. 

I wonder if instead of thinking about all of the ways that you aren’t like this man, if the invitation today is to think about the ways that you are. What is binding your heart and life? What are the secret places, that you have tried so hard to hide from others, but Jesus sees and knows and wants you to hand over to him? What makes you be locked away in isolation and shame and how is Jesus inviting you to respond?

The truth is that we all have things we have given power over our lives. Things that maybe haven’t stolen our voice, but have certainly taken over our heart piece by piece by piece. We have ways that we have acted in a self-destructive manner, even if we think that no one else sees or knows or will get hurt by it. In other words, we all have things that chain us. Things that need set free from. What is binding you? Where does Christ want to offer you freedom?

All of a sudden, the scripture test becomes much more personal. 

And then there is a turn. After the man is healed and restored to community - well the community reacts. And they aren’t necessarily joyous. This one who was once known by his past and his chains is now healed and they are fearful. So fearful that they ask Jesus to leave town. 

Which leads us to ask, what exactly are they afraid of? It seems the they are afraid of Jesus’s power and the complete and total transformation that has happened in this person’s life. 

So maybe, if we can’t think of what is binding our heart and life - alienating us from God and name it, well, maybe, we can talk about where transformation - even in the lives of others - scares us. Where does the power of Jesus to change hearts and lives not bring us to our knees in prayer and awe, but in fear? Fear that actually sends Jesus away. 

Sometimes, as the people of God, we try to make Christ and his power small and manageable and when we see just what he can do, we react out of fear instead of faithfulness. 

Because here’s the thing - Jesus didn’t just change peoples lives back in scripture. He’s still doing that today. Jesus is in the people changing business for the sake of the Kingdom. And if we are going to follow him we better be giving testimony to that, but also be willing to go to those Jesus reached out to in compassion to be bearers of the Good News. 

All too often as the church, we have lived out of a place of fear. Fear of others. Fear of change. Fear of what God may be doing, instead of one of awe. Instead of one of anticipation. Instead of one of proclamation. 

It’s time to be unleashed from fear. Set free from that which holds us back from proclaiming the Good News - that Jesus searched for us, found us, and changed us. Because he loves us and because he knows us. In the words from Jesus, “The leaper, the blindman, the deaf and the lame, the sick and the broken. He know their name”. Amen.