Jesus
Overcomes Legion’s Power
Epiphany + 3 – January 26, 2020
Geresene Demoniac
“John” – Vietnam vet; obviously living in
graveyard of the past, haunted by old experiences and guilt (He was never really clear
about what he felt guilty for/about)
· Would come to church – and people could tell he was
troubled, that something wasn’t quite right
· Nervous, not knowing how to interact or respond,
fearful about what he might do (though he never was violent or angry or
particularly loud)
· Just uncomfortable
Jesus comes with disruptive power and people
reject him
· Jesus steps off the boat, after coming across the sea
from the other side (Galilee) – after parables of last week
o Skipped over the stilling of the storm, where the
disciples were afraid and in awe and wondering “who is this?!”
· Jesus immediately confronted by this man with an
unclean spirit
o Separated from community – living among the tombs, not
able to be restrained, no matter what they’ve tried (and now it seems they’ve
given up); howling day and night, hurting himself
· Comes to Jesus and challenges him – identifying self
as Legion – “for we are many” (Legion as Roman unit of 6000 soldiers) – begs to
be sent into the nearby pigs
o Pigs go off the cliff and drown – and of course the
men tending the pigs go and tell about it everywhere
· People come out to see what has happened
· With all of their history with this man, and with the
way everyone else so far in this story has responded to the healing and
teaching of Jesus, you’d expect that they’d ask him to stay, bring more of their
people in need to him to be healed
o Esp. when they see the man sitting there, clothed, in
his right mind
· Instead, they are afraid! Beg Jesus to leave their
neighborhood!!
We too can reject the disruptive power of Jesus
· You would think that we would always welcome it – but
sometimes Jesus comes in and overthrows the powers of evil that we have become
so accustomed to
o Not that we necessarily welcome those unclean spirits
– but like the people in the gospel, maybe have given up trying to restrain those
powers ourselves, willing to let them howl about in the graveyards of our
lives/society so long as they keep a reasonable distance from our everyday
lives; kind of tune them out in the background…
· Not talking about literal unclean spirits – but the powers
and forces of evil that are at work in the world around us
· and then Jesus comes and turns those systems upside
down; calls us as his followers to live another way – and that can just
distress us so much we’d kind of like to ask him to go away
o Racism/civil rights – of course in God’s kingdom, all
people will be treated equally – but woe to those who try to bring that about
in the present age (MLK, Jr., National Center for Civil and Human Rights in
Atlanta – the hatred and violence aimed at those who spoke out and worked and
agitated for change…)
o Sexism – ERA – the movement to have women recognized
as full human beings with full rights – and that challenge that went along with
that; In Christ, there is no male and female…
o 75th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz
tomorrow (1/27) – and still there are those who deny the holocaust; and despite "never again" - genocide still threatens
o All of the times and places and situations where
people speak up and speak out for the well-being of the vulnerable and
marginalized and oppressed in our world – and get push back
· Jesus comes to set the captives free, to usher in
God’s reign here on earth – but it is hard to live into the kind of change that
that means and requires
o Dismantling structural, systemic, built-in biases and
prejudices is hard, uncomfortable work
o And sometimes we’re tempted to just ask Jesus to move
along to the next place and leave us as we were!
Jesus Overcomes Legion’s Power
· Not sure why Jesus came over the sea to begin with
· But he comes with power even in this Gentile place,
power to overcome even a Legion’s worth of unclean spirits in this man who has
for so long been overwhelmed and overcome and held bound by Legion’s presence
in his life
· Jesus has the power to set him free from his
possession, he liberates him and restores him to his friends and his community
– sending him back to them to proclaim all that the Lord has done for him
o Planting the seeds
o Sharing the story of the One who has the power to
overcome the most powerful opposing forces and lead him into new life
Jesus comes with disruptive power and overcomes legions
· And though that doesn’t always make us comfortable
when we watch Jesus at work to set others free
· It is great, good news to know that Jesus has the
power to triumph over all of the forces and powers that want and work to keep
us bound
o To keep us living in the graveyards of the past
o That cause us to howl in pain
o And make us injure ourselves
· Jesus is able to set us free
· Even from situations and systems we’ve grown used to
· Which injure and affect us too
And then he sends us to proclaim and share all that he has done so that all may hear and experience the liberation he brings!
Thanks be to God
Amen!
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