Legion

What is your name?

I’m taking the title of this sermon from that terrifying moment when Jesus asks the man his name and his sad response:

Luke 8:30 NRSV

30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.

The whole passage - Luke 8:26-39 is one of those fairly strange ones - there is a lot going on - and I anticipate that you would ask some of the same questions that come to my mind - that I won’t be able to answer in the time we have today:

Literal Demons or Mental Illness?

Why "Legion"?

Why Were the Pigs Drowned?

Why Were the Townspeople Afraid?

Why Wouldn't Jesus Let Him Follow?

What is "the Abyss"?

There is a lot going on.

Jesus and his disciples had just crossed the Sea of Galilee (Luke 8:22-25).

It is about 12 km from East to West and 20 km North to South - not a massive lake - but on a Cape Town scale… About the size of Table Bay.

From one side to the other - about 13km - a little bit further than the swim from Blouberg to Robben island. Not a huge sea - and actually a beautiful fresh water lake.

As they cross the Sea of Galilee a violent storm erupts. While the disciples panic, Jesus sleeps.

They wake him in terror, and with a simple command, he rebukes the wind and the raging waters. The storm ceases instantly, leaving the disciples in awe and asking:

Luke 8:25 NRSV

25 … “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

It is directly after this that they encounter a man possessed by a legion of demons.

From storm to calm - and again to a storm.

But not a storm on the lake that threatened to sink the boat - a human storm.

What is your name?

Luke 8:30 NRSV

30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.

He is depicted as in a state of extreme suffering and social alienation.

Possessed by demons for a long time.

Homeless, living among the tombs instead of in a house.

Naked, having worn no clothes for a long time.

Uncontrollably strong, breaking chains and shackles used to restrain him.

Isolated, driven by the demon into deserted places.

No human dignity

No community,

No self-control.

His whole being consumed not by who he is created to be - who his parents said he should be - but rather by his affliction.

What is your name?

Legion.

His afflictions completely overwhelmed his identity as a human being. He lived like an animal.

His name: Legion.

Who, or What names you?

Depression. Anxiety. Wealth. Loneliness. Grief. Failure. Success. Addiction. Chronic Pain. Guilt. Shame. Caregiver. Outcast. Burnout. Victim. Perfectionist. Leader. Provider. The Strong One. Parent. High-Achiever. The Good One.

Sickness…

All the names that make you - your afflictions.

Maybe all of these things are like a legion.

Luke 8:30 NRSV

30 … “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.

No control of himself, no community, no identity.

Frazzled.

Often as we get to this point in a gospel story I’ll ask you - can’t you identify with this guy?

Naked, living in a cave among the tombs? Chained up?

Well that is a bit extreme.

I don’t think he is just at the end of his rope as we sometimes feel - but I think we need to try and understand his experience and learn from it.

How frazzled are you?

The thing is - I could ask you to rate your

Physical Health: X/10 ++Financial Health: X/10 ++Relationship Health: X/10 ++Mental Health: X/10

But - what about your mental health?

Anybody got a 10/10 for all 3?

If legion is getting a score of 1/10 and lets say Rev Gus is on a 7/10 - where would you be?

(I’m not sure I’d be a 7/10 :)

I don’t know how he ended up where he is.

Demons?

And that comes to the question - Demons or Illness?

Time won’t give me a chance to answer this question:

Literal Demons or Mental Illness?

But I can just touch on it.

I’ve been called out to someone who people thought was posessed by demons. And I would have agreed with them - having heard what they described.

But then - after some conversation about his circumstances - his medications - we figured that the medications he had been prescribed were causing psychosis.

Now - if we had just said - Oh there is a demon and prayed - because his behaviour was so scary - we would have caused him more harm - and we would have been disapointed in the power of our prayers.

I believe that in the time of Jesus - evil spirits - were the only way for people to understand mental anguish or illness.

If you think how little we understand about Psychiatry and brain function in this day and age - how much less in the time of Jesus.

To try and figure out whether an illness - mental or otherwise - is spiritual / chemical / psychological etc. is to try and separate that which can not be separated.

Our bodies are always all of the above. Inseparably Spiritual and Physical - it is all, always connected.

First - It is all of the above and beyond my understanding.

Second - Please be careful of this tendency to try and explain disease - especially psychological disease in spriitual terms.

If someone is down in the dumps and depressed - please don’t tell them to pray it away. Pray and visit the Psychiatrist. Pray and visit the Psychologist. Pray and visit the doctor. Pray and take your medicine.

Legion

Back to our friend living in the tombs.

And if we play detective - we realise that he is someone important.

Someone guarded him.

Hid him.

Protected him.

Loved him.

The restraints - and attempts to keep him safe and isolated among the tombs were probably not an attempt to punish him.

But maybe an attempt to hide the family’s shame at their struggle.

Or maybe - if they could afford a guard - and chains - and hadn’t given up on him - he could have been part of a royal household.

Someone significant to the community.

Maybe - maybe he wasn’t always like this.

Maybe Roman occupation and the death of many friends in war and senseless violence had driven him over the edge.

The evil spirits in the man recognise who they are up against:

Luke 8:28 NRSV

28 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”—

Luke 8:31 is a bit confusing:

Luke 8:31 NRSV

31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Mark’s account of the same event is a bit different - in Mark’s account the man doesn’t call himself Legion - the demons call themselves Legion - in Matthew it seems that there are two demon possessed men.

We’re hearing the story in the different gospels in the different ways in which it is told - not so that we would be confused.

Not so that we’d get hung up on the details - but so that in the blurring of the details we’d get the bigger picture.

We have so many words for it:

Issues.

Baggage.

Wounds.

Demons.

Troubles.

And when we deal with our issues - and we’re not sure in this case whether the demons are speaking or the man is speaking…

They beg to be allowed to roam in the wilderness rather than be thrown into the abyss.

Its like you quite smoking but you keep a pack in your office drawer for just in case.

Or maybe your own identity as a person has become so connected to your demons that you don’t know who you are if you are not anxious. If you are not drinking. If you are not angry. If you’re not resentful…

So we hold on to our baggage… etc.

We throw it away - but within distance…

Well anyway - you can buy pigs online if you like.

And eventually the demons ask if they can be thrown into the pigs…

And Jesus obliges.

Luke 8:32–33 NRSV

32 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. 33 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.

This is the stuff of a horror movie.

You can imagine the noise. The chaos.

The smell.

(Tissot - 1890) All at once - a dramatic expression of what was going on inside of the man - how his body and mind were tormented by a Legion of unclean demons.

And one of those questions - why the pigs?

My answer - I’m really not sure - but I think it is a helpful outward sign of what was happening spiritually / psychologically / physically (You can’t separate them).

And for Jewish readers - with pigs being considered so unclean and despised - perhaps even more helpful.

And I need us all to suspend our care for the pigs for this moment, as cute as they are.

Instead - we are invited to imagine this flood and crash and cry - and even the violence - of all that would destroy us.

That would rob us of our lives.

All of this - being drawn out / thrown out / cast out …

And in the bodies of pigs - that are not able to fight for their lives - and be restrained by chains - throwing themselves into the lake to drown.

Just as all that luggage / baggage / issues / etc. threatens to drown us. But we spend our lives fighting to stay above water while we hold on to it.

Clothed and in his Right Mind

Luke 8:35 NRSV

35 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.

C6 Basilicca - Mosaic in Italy.

This kind of power scares us.

Just as it scared the people who saw it.

They asked Jesus to leave - and Jesus did leave - the healed man asked to follow Jesus - but Jesus wouldn’t let him.

Luke 8:39 NRSV

39 “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.

They got back into the boat.

The sea was calm - the man was calmed - the drama of the moment complete.

Just as Jesus had stilled the wild ocean - he had stilled the demon posessed man.

Previously defined by all the demons that oppressed him - that constantly tried to drive him to destruction.

Now free - chilling at the feet of Jesus.

Luke 8:39 NRSV

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