Sermon Tone Analysis

We’re well into our series on the gospel of Luke, which we began at the beginning of the school year.

Last week Arnaud taught us from the previous text, , where Jesus calmed a storm on the sea with a single word; he proved his authority over the natural world that he had created.

That story was the first of a loose trilogy of stories showing Christ’s authority: today we’ll see the second.

Our text today picks up immediately where it left off from last week (v.

26):

26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.

For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.

This was an area which the Jews weren’t too fond of, because it was a place where Jews and Gentiles mingled together; the Jews who were there, if they were there, were probably lapsed Jews who had rejected their own religion for economic reasons (as we’ll see later).

27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.

Now, we’ve seen demons before in this gospel, in chapter 4. I won’t go back over everything I said back then, except to repeat that the Bible takes the existence of demons as a point of fact.

That’s not to say that all behavior of this sort comes from demonic activity (it could be just a profound mental disorder), but that sometimes it does: the Bible says that demons do exist, and they do things like this.

But I do want to take a second before we really get into the text to mention one aspect of this story that often troubles Christians—and that is the relationship between demonic influence or possession and mental disorders.

The reason why many people have a hard time accepting the existence of demons today is because of modern progresses in the fields of medicine and psychoanalysis.

And you can see why people would reject the idea of demons, because much of the behavior of the demon-possessed in the gospels resembles the behavior of those with certain mental health problems.

We see in v. 27:

For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.

So this man has rejected ordinary decency and hygiene; “the tombs” were caverns carved out of rocks; inside were dead men’s bones, probably those who couldn’t afford a proper burial, and almost definitely inhabited by all sorts of rodents and filth—the kind of things that would accompany an open burial site.

We see also in the parenthetical statement of v. 29 that this man displayed almost superhuman strength—just like many people who suffer from extreme bipolar episodes can rip a sink out of a wall when they’re manic.

(For many a time 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 desert.)

This man displayed an almost superhuman strength—just like many people who suffer from extreme bipolar episodes can rip a sink out of a wall when they’re manic.

These are the kinds of behaviors and characteristics that accompany many people with severe mental disorders.

So you can understand why much of the scientific community will write off the idea of demons as simply psychological problems that the ancient world misunderstood.

And, on the flip-side, many religious people look at what is commonly called mental illness and attribute all of that to demons—if you have a mental health issue, you have a demon, and need to be exorcized!

But reality is never that simple: there is very rarely only one cause of something so complex as psychotic behavior.

We cannot say that all behavior of this sort comes from demons, because there can be a multitude of reasons why troubles of this sort might manifest themselves.

However, in this passage, Luke says in no uncertain terms that this man was not suffering from a garden-variety mental disorder, but that he was indeed under demonic influence.

So that being said, let’s see how that influence manifests itself here.

V. 28:

28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

(For many a time 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 desert.)

The gospel of Mark goes a little farther in its description.

In Mark’s gospel, this man would scream, then cut himself with rocks—probably in an attempt to drive out the evil spirits in him.

So this man was

The sight of this man was entirely pitiful—in Mark’s gospel, he goes a little further in his description, saying this man would scream, and cut himself with sharp rocks.

He was naked, and on his naked body were likely dozens of bleeding cuts, infected scabs, scars and filth.

He was a terrifying, terrified sight to behold—a shadow of the human being his once was.

This is the first important thing to note here: the demon has dehumanized this man.

He has transformed him from a man into a monster.

This is what nearly always happens in the biblical stories of possession—the possessed person no longer resembles a human being, but an animal.

His will is no longer his own; he has lost nearly all volitional power; his consciousness is likely compromised.

And the demon has done this to him because the fundamental war at work here is not between this man and the demon, but between the demon and God himself.

Satan and his demons hate God above all things, but they have no power over him directly; so what do they do?

They attack him through the beings created in his image: humans.

By dehumanizing their prey, they are doing their worst: they are attempting to corrupt and wound the image of God, and thus his glory.

(Incidentally, this is why as Christians we should fight against any actions or any speech which dehumanizes any person we see: anything which degrades humans is perfectly in line with Satan’s plan.

This is why we don’t just want to give money to homeless people, but speak to them; smile at them; offer a kind word.

In many of our encounters with the homeless in our area, we’ve noticed that what they are most thankful for is not material help, but any conversation or attitude that lets them know we still know they are human.)

So Jesus has told the unclean spirit to come out of this man, and the demon has responded with a plea for Jesus not to torment it.

The demon recognizes Jesus’s power, and is afraid.

V. 30:

30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.

This is a verse that sends chills through me every time I read it.

At this time, Israel was occupied by the Romans.

In the Roman army, a legion consisted of over 6,000 soldiers.

All Jewish people at the time knew this fact, so the very word “legion” called to mind great strength in massive numbers.

Can you imagine being this man?

Filled to the brim with an untold number of invading spirits who control him?

Can you imagine being the disciples, coming off their adventure on the boat, and seeing this beast (they must have thought, Come on—what NOW?), hearing him say there were thousands of demons inside of him?

This is a terrifying sight.

Which of course means that it is the perfect time for Jesus to act.

Just the night before, he had been awakened by his terrified disciples in the middle of the storm, and had calmed the storm with a single word.

Here was something potentially even more terrifying than the storm.

So what will he do?

The demons have a new request for Jesus:

31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

“The abyss” is the demons’ way of describing hell: the final destination of Satan and his angels, where they will be judged and tormented for all time.

The fact that they don’t want to go there is profound.

I don’t know if you’ve heard things like this, but there are those who write off the fear of hell by imagining heaven as a place filled with stuffy, puritanical losers who pride themselves on not being “dirty,” whereas hell is a “fun” place filled with bons vivants and libertines who won’t conform to prissy ideas of right and wrong.

This idea, besides being silly, is woefully off the mark.

Even the demons are afraid to go there.

They want to stay as long as they possibly can on earth, for while they hate God and his image, what scares them even more than being close to him is being tormented far from his presence.

So they come up with a compromise.

V. 32:

32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these.

So he gave them permission.

This is so far from our own idea of the threat demons pose.

The demons are terrified of Jesus and the judgment he can inflict on them.

They ask him permission to go somewhere else—and not simply be cast into the abyss—like spoiled children asking their neglectful dad for just five more minutes on the playground.

And Jesus seems to play along—he gives them permission.

But in so doing, Jesus exacts swift and appropriate judgment on the demons for having so long tormented this man.

V. 33:

So he gave them permission.

33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

So they go into the pigs, like they asked.

But the pigs are so shocked by the sudden presence of all these demons that they charge into the sea and are drowned.

And though we don’t completely know the metaphysics of it, we do know that when the material dies, the spiritual leaves it—so we can safely assume that these demons no longer had any hold on the pigs, and ended up in the abyss after all.

Now we could stop there, and still have much to talk about—Jesus’s driving out this demon teaches us volumes about his power and authority.

But there’s more to the story.

V. 34:

34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.

35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind...

So the man who had been utterly dehumanized before has seen his humanity restored.

He is “sitting at the feet of Jesus,” no longer wandering in the tombs and cutting himself.

He is “clothed,” no longer naked.

He is “in his right mind,” no longer raving like a madman.