The focus of this worship was hearing about the personal experiences of SE Portland Youth Collective after coming home from their New Mexico trip. For me, it felt like an answer to my barely articulated prayer for years about borders and boundaries. Matt chose the perfect Call To Worship music, Maranatha's Let The Walls Fall Down. A song a triumph and there is a power as it is performed by many voices. "In His love no walls between us, in His love a common ground. Kneeling at the cross of Jesus all our pride comes tumbling down".
Next came the First and Second Readings together with the Gospel reading. Pastor Ray preached about the Gospel text itself which was the story of Jesus Healing the Gerasene Demoniac. One reading informed the others today and, with a past Gospel message or two, this all helped me see this story from a new perspective.
Let's examine the Gospel details with some thoughts and observations:
"Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee." Pastor Ray preached that this was the first time Jesus was traveling to a non-Jewish country.
"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." This is the only man from Gerasenses that we are told met Jesus as he stepped onto the land. The man wears no clothes which may mean, like Peter when John described Jesus walking on the water, that he did not have the faith necessary to clothe him (see additional details in this year's Third Sunday in Easter). He lives in the tombs while being driven by demons out into the wilds while he is bound by guards in shackles and chains. Would guards bind him to the tombs where he lived? What is the purpose of acting like that?
"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.)". The man feels tormented by Jesus. From the story he has just encountered Jesus and, as far as we know, Jesus has not physically commanded any of the unclean spirit(s) to come out of the man.
"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." Why does Jesus give permission for the demons to enter the swine? Why do the swine choose to die in the lake rather than the abyss where they were before entering this man or are there other forces driving them to do it beyond their will?
For me today these details may be describing the spiritual affliction the man suffers from as much as they describe the circumstances of his life. one of the reasons I feel this is important in the details of the story that follow:
"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." If this is all about what would normally be associated with the demons that plague people today (mental illnesses, schizophrenia, paranoia, addictions, obsessions, destructive habits and so on...") why would people react with fear when those demons were gone?
To answer that last question let's quote from the First Reading and Isaiah 65's mention of tombs, "to a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks; who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
Today I consider what the Lord here identifies to be the spiritual affliction this man is suffering - his own sense of holiness which is setting him apart from his community.
This explains why he initially does not want to be cured. He asks Jesus "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" because he sees that Jesus, by his very presence, is calling out the demons and placing him in a new relationship with God.
This has nothing to do with the piety by which he has lived his life so far. When he sees Jesus he knows instinctively this piety has not brought him faith. He shouts in anger. He realizes he is like one who has been living in a tomb. He was swallowed up by living his life according to all the laws of his belief without understanding their meaning. This left him psychologically / spiritually naked.
After Jesus permits the demons of living by piety rather than what is good to leave this man, he is a threat, like Jesus threatened the Pharisees through his understanding of the truth. The guards (his own high opinion of himself that he needed before that bound him with chains and shackles) no longer have the power they once did. He is clothed by a new faith and in his right mind rather than being justified by the piety he used to justify himself with. Yet men are still inclined to think it is better and simpler to live with their piety. What they believe to be law rather than love is more reliable in the outcome and to their own self-interest. They fear good because it undermines their power and is unpredictable.
This is also why Jesus has the man stay rather than become a follower with the other disciples. A man in his right mind can transform others by speaking the truth.
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