They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at His feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and left. (Luke 8:26-37)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Some of you know that I’m sort of an amateur movie buff, and so you may find this hard to believe, but it was only a couple of years ago that I actually saw the movie “The Exorcist” for the first time. I have to be honest. I was actually rather underwhelmed by the experience, and I thought the movie quite over-rated, which means that as I did some reading about the movie and its background, I was really quite startled to discover the reception the movie received back in the early 70’s when it was released. With my now 21st century sensibilities, I regarded “The Exorcist” as really not much more than a pretty standard horror movie with not a whole lot going for it. Back in the 70’s, though, it was quite the controversial movie. There were calls in some countries for it to be banned. It was considered too shocking for people to view. In the UK, although it was released in the cinema with very severe restrictions as to who could watch it, “The Exorcist” wasn’t approved by the British Board of Film Classification to be released on home video - until 1999! It wasn’t considered appropriate as a film you would take home with you. I wonder what its critics would have said about today’s gospel passage, in which Jesus performs an exorcism - and drives a demon out of an obviously tormented man?
The great author C.S. Lewis once wrote that “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” Those words probably grate a little bit on our post-modern ears. We’ve entered an era which repeatedly tells us that the most important thing in the world is “me” and “my comfort.” Sometimes that way of thinking has taken over the church as well, so that people come to church to be made happy and comfortable - and woe to the preacher who doesn’t offer that in abundance! That reality was noted as long ago as 1965, when Pierre Berton wrote a book called “The Comfortable Pew,” in which he accused the church in general of simply becoming a part of the establishment with no desire to challenge the status quo rather than what he thought it should be: a calling to a counter-cultural way of life. I suspect that a part of the reason that we don’t take up that challenge often enough is because, among other things, it would force us to confront the very real existence of evil - and most Christians (I’ve observed over the years) like to shy away from the real existence of evil. In our post-modern, New Age, “spiritual but not religious” culture, it baffles me that most people are quite willing to concede the existence of “good” spiritual forces (such as angels) but they shy away from evil spiritual forces (such as demons.) I don’t see the logical reason for believing that one can exist, but the other can’t, but that seems to be where a lot of people are.
But then we get confronted by passages like the one today: Jesus confronts and sets free a man possessed by a demon. What do we make of that? This might be an example of what Lewis meant by saying that Christianity isn’t what you choose when you want to be made comfortable. The type of picture painted in Luke 8 is a frightening picture. It gave birth to movies like “The Exorcist” - and even today in the Roman Catholic Church every diocese is supposed to have a priest who’s trained as an exorcist to deal with people who have been determined to be possessed. I knew a minister once (of a United Church!) who told me that he had been involved with exorcisms - and who then advised me not to get involved with that kind of ministry unless I felt a true calling to it. And I’ve had at least one situation in my own ministry (many years ago) of dealing with someone who frantically claimed to be possessed by a demon and who was finally “set free” (so to speak) only when I agreed to pray over him.
I’ll be honest - I don’t really know what to make of this story. I’ve seen enough in my life and in my ministry to be forced to believe that evil exists - not just as bad things that people do, but as a real power that overtakes a person and forces them into completely inhuman behaviour. I can’t think of Paul Bernardo or Clifford Olson and not think that these were more than just bad people - that real evil was somehow involved. I can’t think of the Holocaust or 9/11 or the slaughter of innocent children in Connecticut and not think that these were more than just horrible events - that real evil was somehow involved. If you’ve ever heard someone ranting and virtually frothing at the mouth about blacks or gays or immigrants or Moslems then you’ll surely know that there’s a type and form of hatred that goes beyond anything rational and even beyond anything that can be explained in psychological terms, and if the love of God for us is beyond comprehension, so is the hatred that lurks behind evil. It’s deep, it’s dark and it’s dangerous!
To me, the most frightening thing about “The Exorcist” is that there was no real explanation of how the young girl got possessed - which was probably the point: evil can strike anywhere for no obvious reason. There’s no explanation of the possession of the man Jesus encountered. He simply was possessed by evil. He was isolated (he lived in a cemetery) and he was violent and dangerous and apparently ridiculously strong (he was kept in chains and under guard, although he apparently kept escaping.) This story (and the movie) paints a great picture of possession - too great a picture, frankly. I think that people take from these pictures that evil is obvious. We’re going to know when it’s there and when it strikes. Like the Holocaust. Like a wild man living naked in a cemetery. Like a girl walking backward and upside down like a spider. Sometimes, perhaps, the stories of the gospel are too good. They paint such vivid pictures that we get complacent. If there’s no demon screaming from our mouth, then there can’t be a demon, and since that’s the stuff of a horror movie or even “just” the Bible - and not our real, everyday life - then there can’t be demons.
I don’t know what to make of demons; in much the same way that I don’t really know what to make of angels. The Bible speaks of both. Whether we’re intended to take the stories literally and so assume that they’re actual sentient beings of some sort, or whether they’re meant to be understood as simply the spiritual forces of good and evil around us and within us I’m not sure. But we do know that good and evil are both all around us and within us, and so, in one way or another, angels and demons are all around us and within us. I suppose that we can deal with the angels, but the demons - whatever they are - are more trouble. One of the pledges that gets made when a person is baptized is that evil will be resisted.To put that into the context of the gospel, the demons won’t be given free reign over our lives. They’ll be stopped. They’ll be fought. They have to be, because we all have them. We talk about them. Our “inner demons” we call them. Things that have entered our lives, usually through no fault of our own, and that - indeed - can take possession of us. Some are horrible things - addictions, experiences of violence or abuse. Many of them are fairly benign. They live in the background of our lives and our minds. They don’t pop up all that much. Maybe those around us don’t even know that they’re there. They don’t control us on a day by day basis and dominate our lives. But they’re there. And unfortunately, they do conquer some people - with usually tragic results not just for those who are conquered but for others as well. And if we don’t take them seriously then we give them free reign.
To go back to C.S. Lewis for a moment, Christianity doesn’t exist to make people comfortable by patting them on the head and telling them, “now don’t you worry. There’s no such thing as evil and demons.” Christianity says that such things (in some real and tangible form) are real and that they’re powerful and that they affect us and that we shouldn’t take them lightly - and then to remind us that as powerful and as frightening as they seem, they’re beaten. Completely and totally beaten. Because Jesus can set us free. Completely and totally free. Which doesn’t mean that we’ll never be bothered by evil again, but it does mean that it can’t beat us and it can’t take away that which God has given us - grace, love and new life. As I said earlier, I don’t really know what to make of demons - except that they’re mentioned in the gospels, and Jesus did battle with them - and He won! Forget Father Merrin in the movie “The Exorcist.” Jesus is the real exorcist. He’s the one who sets us free. He’s the one who makes it possible for us to live for God.
No comments:
Post a Comment