Sermon: "It's Not About the Pigs"

Luke 8:26-39 – Scripture Intro

In this passage, Jesus travels to the other side of the Sea of Galilee,

outside the land of Judea, where he encounters one of the most bizarre and frightening characters in all of the gospels –

A man possessed by a multitude of demons, who calls himself Legion.

The man is naked, shouting at the top of his lungs, and was likely bruised and battered after having broken free of the shackles that were used to contain him, again and again.

It is no coincidence that the name this demon-possessed man gives to himself is the same name that the Romans used for their military forces.

Historically, a Roman legion was a contingent of about 5,000 soldiers.

We know the name is no coincidence, because Luke also tells us that this encounter with Legion took place in the country of the Gerasene’s.

The region of Gerasene was the setting of a horrific historical event that took place about a decade before Luke wrote his gospel.

According to the first century historian, Josephus, at the end of the Jewish revolt in the late 60’s CE, the Roman general Vespasian sent soldiers to retake the Jewish city of Gerasa.

The Romans rounded up every able bodied man in the city and executed them, took their wives and children captive, then burned the city and every neighboring village to the ground.  Thousands were killed.

Most of the victims of the Roman legions were buried in the Gerasene tombs – a vast expanse of caves in a now empty dessert, where only the dead and the as-good-as-dead resided.    (Think 9/11)

This is where Jesus found the man possessed by thousands of evil souls,

who collectively called themselves, Legion.

Jesus goes on to heal the man of his possession, but in the process we’re left to ponder the political, historical, and spiritual undertones of this passage,

as not everyone who learns of the healing is happy that it occurred.

As you listen to the story, pay attention to what feelings arise in you…

when you first encounter the naked and screaming Legion and when you’re told there’s no longer a reason to fear him, because he has been healed.

Let’s listen to the passage from the Gospel of Luke, and listen also for the Word of God:

Luke 8:26-39

Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

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.  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.)

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.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.

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.  The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”

So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

June 23, 2019 – Second Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 8:26-30

“It’s Not About the Pigs”

How many of you have read “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy?

(and I mean read the whole thing – not started it, put it down, and left it on your nightstand never to pick it up again?)

How many of you have read “Ulysses” by James Joyce?  Also cover to cover?

How many of you have read and finished “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner?

How many of you tried to read any of the three and never made it through?

If you have read these books – either completely or partially – congratulations, you have tackled three of the most difficult books ever written, according to an extensive poll taken amongst avid readers.

Even those who love to read rated these books to be challenging –

for their language, content, and length.

Works by William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Charles Dickens also made the list of difficult books.

While many of us may have read or attempted to read these works in high school or college, what the poll also tells us is that there isn’t a huge percentage of average readers who fully understood them or enjoyed them enough to want to go back and read them again and again.

Then we have the Bible.

Which it may come as no surprise to you also wound up on the list of books deemed difficult and challenging to read.

Don’t worry, I won’t ask how many of you have read it from cover to cover.

But you may be interested to know that 20% of Americans claim to have read the Bible in its entirety at least once or more than once.

27% said they’ve read at least half of it.

And 53% said they’ve read a few passages here and there, or none of it at all.

This in contrast to another unsurprising statistic:

According to the American Bible Society, nine out of ten US households contain a Bible, and the average household has three.

So why aren’t we reading it?

Even among regular churchgoers, very few pick up the Bible and read it on a regular basis.

As one researcher said, “The only time most Americans hear from the Bible is when someone else is reading it.”

When poll responders were asked why they aren’t reading the Bible,

some said they don’t have the time or they don’t prioritize it,

or they’ve read it so many times so there’s no reason to read it again (somehow I question that last one).

But for the most part people said they don’t read the Bible because it’s difficult to understand, or they struggle to relate it to their own lives,

or there’s too much in it that they either disagree with or doesn’t represent their understanding of God and how God intends for us to live in the world.

The passage we read this morning from the Gospel of Luke is a prime example of all above.  

It’s confusing, deals with a subject matter we don’t fully understand,

and challenges our modern day perceptions of who God is and perhaps who Jesus is as well.

First - this passage revolves around a demonic possession.

Which automatically causes some of us to dismiss it.

Because we don’t believe in demons or possessions,

or we think it’s an outdated understanding of physical or mental illness,

or it conjures up images of Linda Blair in the Exorcist or other pop culture portrayals of demonic beings that only serve as a distraction and cause us to not take this text very seriously.

Second, we’re given specific details in this passage that may leave us confused because we’re unaware of their original meaning and context –

like the aforementioned inclusion of the name Legion and the location of the encounter in the country of the Gerasenes. 

Lacking an understanding of the historical context, we may overlook these details entirely and never reach the depth of interpretation that the author,

or Jesus, intended.

And finally we have the pigs.

The poor innocent pigs.

Who were just minding their own business hanging out on the hillside when Jesus sent a legion of demons into them causing them to run headlong into a lake and drown themselves.

That image alone is enough to distract some us from the rest of the passage.

Because we feel bad for the pigs who lost their lives.

And we feel bad for the pig herders who lost their livelihood and means of feeding their families.

Some of us may be left questioning Jesus’ compassion and sense of justice –  for the pigs and the pig herders –

as we wonder if we should be reporting him to the ASPCA and the ACLU.

The point is, there’s a lot here that can trip us up, or distract us,

or cause us to completely miss the depth of meaning in this passage.

Because it really is a beautiful passage with a wonderful message.

And I can tell you – it’s not about the pigs.

Legion is a man with a past.

Regardless of how he came to be in his current state – our first impression of him is of a man possessed – with an illness, with a debilitating pain, with a traumatic experience that has left him naked and screaming – and hiding in the tombs in direct defiance of those who had tried to contain him.

We assume that they bound him with shackles so he wouldn’t be a danger to himself or society.

But allowing him to be free was a danger in other ways as well.

In naming himself as Legion,

He invoked the memory of a tragic event that no one wished to relive.

He was the pain of loss and grief.

He was the fear of violence and destruction.

He was the threat of chaos and unpredictability.

Better to keep him locked away so the people would be safe –

as they cast all of their pain and fear and suspicions onto him –

so they didn’t have to acknowledge that it actually resided within themselves.

Jesus, as always, shook things up in an unexpected way when he came sailing across the Galilee and healed the man.

He cast the demons out – the pain, the fear, the wild unpredictability –

and he sent the man back to live among the people.

And the people responded with renewed fear of their own.

We may understand that fear, if we think of how we might respond if we learned that a convicted violent felon is now living next door.

Or how we might respond if that new neighbor was someone who had been repeatedly institutionalized with a mental illness,

or had spent time in a drug rehabilitation facility, on multiple occasions.

or came bearing the uncertain label of refugee, or sanctuary seeker, or undocumented migrant.

How would we respond if Jesus cast them into our midst and said,

“I’ve returned them to their home, so they might declare how much God has done for them.”

We see how the people in Luke’s gospel responded.

They were said to be in great fear of the man – and what he might do next.

And they were said to be in great fear of Jesus – and what he might do next. 

Jesus had a way of stepping into neat and tidy worlds and creating chaos.

He has a way of transforming lives and situations that naturally throws change and unpredictability and instability into the world –

when what we crave is stability, predictability, and sameness.

But we knew what we were getting into with Jesus.

This is the man who announced his ministry by saying,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me – He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, release to the captives,

and to let the oppressed go free.”

But release and recovery and setting others free may not be our idea of Good News – when it makes us feel less safe, more fearful, and more suspicious of those who seek to be our neighbor.

Which is why we see resistance to zoning changes that allow low-income housing in our upscale neighborhoods,

And why we hear objections raised when half-way houses or drug rehab programs seek to set up residence in our cities,

And why it’s deemed acceptable to separate and detain migrant families and asylum seekers at our nation’s borders – leaving children traumatized and funneled into a system where they may never see their parent’s again –

because laws were broken and a price must be paid for the transgression –  

so we can feel secure and safely distanced from those who we’ve been told mean to take from us or do us harm.

Legion was screaming in the wilderness.

Wild and naked in his pain.

And Jesus set him free.

The wonderful message here is that our past and our pain does not define us – our trauma, our crime, our illness, our addiction, our fear, our brokenness, our demons do not define us.

And we all have these demons to some degree.

What defines us is our humanness –

and our innate status as beloved children of God.

The Good News of Jesus Christ –

the good news of release and recovery and transformation –

is meant for us all.

It is meant for those of us held captive by our pain,

And those of us held captive by our fear.

If we were to rate our Biblical texts on level of difficulty and readability,

this passage from Luke would likely fall in the challenging range.

It’s confusing, and contextual, and messy, and loaded with uncomfortable triggers that may leave us arguing with Jesus –

Because what’s the deal with the demons,

and what about the pigs,

and why should someone else’s healing take precedence over our fear –

our need to feel safe and secure?

Because the Good News is for all of us.

And the Good News is that truly welcoming someone who needs healing

will drive out our fear – if we allow it –

and we will be healed as well.

Then we too might return home

and tell others how much God has done for us.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.