In His Right Mind
Luke 8:26-39
This is a radical passage of Scripture, and not just because the Geresene man was demon possessed.
Jesus and His disciples got in a boat and crossed the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.
In doing this, Jesus was crossing boundaries…
…boundaries that had been set up for hundreds of years and had never been crossed before.
The Geresenes were Gentiles.
Gentiles were any people who were not Jewish.
Everyone here this morning, unless you are a converted Jew is a Gentile.
According to Jewish Law, Jews were not supposed to have any association with Gentiles.
But this is Jesus, and Jesus was continually breaking down barriers in order to bring people together in love, reconciliation, healing and wholeness.
Remember in the story of the Good Samaritan: what Jesus told the expert in the Law when asked: “Who is my neighbor?”
Samaritans were Gentiles as well.
And Jesus told the lawyer to go and be like the Samaritan being: the one in the story who stopped and helped the broken person everyone else tried to get away from and crossed to the other side of the road to ignore.
In our passage for this morning, Jesus is living out the parable of the Good Samaritan.
He has crossed over to enemy territory in order to be a neighbor to the Gerasenes.
And who should Jesus run into?
This poor guy who is in the saddest shape imaginable.
Driven by a legion of demons the man seems hardly human anymore.
He has lost his identity.
In the eyes of the townspeople and the man’s family he is basically a wild animal.
He is completely out of his mind, scary and violent.
Mark’s Gospel tells us that “he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”
Some versions of the Bible say “he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.”
That makes me think of a werewolf or something, not a human being.
But he is a human being.
He is created in the image of God.
He is a person of sacred worth.
He is a person who is loved and pursued by God, but his life was out of control.
And perhaps one of the most heartbreaking verses in Scripture comes when he responds to Jesus’ question about his name…
…because he has no name…
…or, more accurately, he says that his name is Legion.
In the Roman army which would have been familiar to everyone living around the Sea of Galilee at this time, a legion was a major unit of the army.
It consisted of 3,000 to 6,000 Infantry Troops and 200 Calvary Troops.
In other words, an army of demons had made their base camp in this guy’s head.
He was in a terrible state.
He’s the ultimate outcast.
He is homeless.
And, sadly, he is not unlike many of our homeless people today who wander the urban wastelands of our bridge abutments, alleys and woods.
A large percentage of the homeless population in the United States suffer from some form of severe mental illness which disrupts their ability to carry out basic but essential aspects of daily life, such as self-care, household management and holding down a job.
Mental illnesses may also prevent people from forming and maintaining stable relationships or cause people to keep their distance from them.
Clair told me of a time she was having a conversation with a homeless man.
Somewhere in the conversation she came to the point of asking him: “What do you want most?”
She expected him to say something like a home or a job that paid a living wage.
But that’s not what he said.
He said, “I want people to say ‘hi’ to me when they see me on the streets.
I don’t want to be ignored.
I don’t want to be invisible.”
In essence, he was saying he wanted to be treated like a human being and that is exactly what Jesus did when He encountered the demon-possessed man.
Jesus didn’t pretend not to see him.
Jesus asked the man his name.
Most of us tend to try and avoid the homeless, the dirty people on the streets who may talk to themselves or act a bit out of the ordinary.
The homeless are in a real sense considered “unclean” and unwelcome in most places, not unlike the man in our passage for this morning.
Oak Ridge has its Garasenes.
They are our neighbors.
And Jesus calls us to love our neighbors.
But of course, not all Garasenes are homeless.
They might be a suicidal teenager or adult.
They may be a depressed and overburdened mother living within walking distance of this church building or the alcoholic father trying to self-medicate his demons, only to find himself falling deeper and deeper into a hole.
(pause)
When I was a teenager, I lost my way.
I allowed my identity to become that of a scared, rebellious teenage heavy metal fanatic whose only past-time had become partying.
When I was a Freshman in college I took a public speaking course.
For our first speech we were asked to compare and contrast two different things.
I brought a boom box to class that day along with a bunch of cassette tapes and I proceeded to compare and contrast—for the class—what was, in my opinion, good heavy metal music versus not so good heavy metal music.
For the second speech were asked to give a speech, in first person, about our hero.
So, I came to school with my face painted like Gene Simmons of Kiss and gave my speech.
In-between our second and third speeches something radical had happened in my life.
I’ll never forget the looks on the faces of my fellow classmates—with their jaws dropped to the floor—as I gave my third speech telling them that I had recently given my life to Jesus Christ, and then went on to explain the Gospel the best way I knew how.
My identity had changed.
I had found a peace of mind.
My life had been transformed and although there would be many trials, tribulations, mountains and valleys—my life has never been the same since.
We are told, in our Scripture passage for this morning that the man who lived in the tombs in the region of the Gerasenes couldn’t even be bound with a chain nor with irons on his feet.
No one could control him.
He was totally lost.
And then Jesus came along, and when the demons left him, the townsfolk found the man sitting with Jesus, dressed and in his right mind.
Is there anything more beautiful than that?
Sometimes, I think, that underneath the rough exterior of the most scary looking folks is a hurting, frightened, broken human being who just needs someone to love them in order for them to blossom, grow and regain their sense of integrity, their identity, their self-worth.
And once that begins to happen, anything is possible.
(pause)
The man, having been miraculously transformed by an encounter with Jesus Christ begs to follow Jesus.
And who can blame him?
Here, in his native land he has been, literally, no one.
What reason was there for him to stay.
Jesus has become all the world to him.
Yet, while Jesus regularly invites people to “Come, follow me,” this time He does not let him come with Him.
Instead, He says, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
And so, we are told that “the man went away and began to tell the people in the region “how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”
Their jaws dropped to the floor, so to speak.
Several years ago I overheard my dad speaking about me to a visitor in another room.
He said, “When Kenny came back from college after that semester it was amazing.
He was a completely different person.”
The formerly demon possessed man in our story became a very successful missionary to the surrounding Greek cities.
He was quite a witness for Christ.
Why do I say this?
Do you remember the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000?
It happened in Galilee—in Jewish territory.
It’s recorded in all 4 Gospels.
But there is another mass feeding that comes a little later.
It’s called the feeding of the 4,000.
And it happens when Jesus later returns to the Gentile territory where he left the former demon possessed man.
Can you imagine?
4,000 Gentiles showed up to hear Jesus preach about the Kingdom of God.
Why did they come?
It seems that the ultimate outcast had been transformed into the ultimate example of what an encounter with Jesus can do to a person.
The people of the Geresenes had pleaded with Jesus to leave their region in our passage for this morning and in a sense Jesus did leave…
…but did He really?
The former demon possessed man became Jesus’ witness to the people in his area.
The change in this man was irrefutable.
The He did what Jesus commissioned him to do: “He went way and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.”
Now the people wanted to meet this Jesus for themselves.
A seed had been planted
It was time for the formerly demon possessed man lived-into his new identity by doing the work of God.
And the same goes for us.
There are so many people in our community living like dead people, howling in the hills, so to speak, and cutting themselves with stones.
There are so many people, young and old, searching for their identity, for something to live for, something to believe in, someone to love them, something to become.
First Oak Ridge United Methodist Church is unique.
You are a Christian Church that affirms all people, welcomes all people and loves them just the way they are.
Literally every person from every lifestyle, sexual orientation, nationality, and political party—you name it—can find a place here and be loved, accepted and included.
That’s what Jesus’ love is all about.
What kinds of transformation will take place in our community and as a church if we go out, not unlike the man of the Gerasenes and tell all over town how much Jesus has done for us…
…and remember, actions speak much louder than words.
Will you pray with me?
Lord Jesus Christ,
We thank you for accepting us and loving us no matter what we might think about ourselves, no matter what others think of us and no matter what we have done.
Thank you, that by accepting Your love and asking You to be the Lord of our lives, we, like the man from the region of the Gerasenes can be found sitting at Your feet dressed and in our right minds.
Send us out to witness to a world that is living among the tombs without hope and in the darkness how much You have done for us. And enable us to go.
May it be so. May it be so.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
