Luke 8:26-39
Healing of a Demon Possessed Man
Julia Stankova
June
22, 2025
So
Jesus apparently goes into a boat
and travels to the other side of the
sea of Galilee
to a place called Gerasenes.
And he comes across this guy who,
it says,
was possessed by demons, many
demons.
He walks around the cemetery naked.
It
seems like this guy has been an ongoing problem
for the little town of Gerasenes.
When it got bad, it says that they
would chain him and have to guard
him.
But at times the demons were so
bad that
they would break the chains and
he would go out into the
wilderness.
Only apparently to come back again
to the town and hang out naked
in the cemetery again.
Jesus
meets this man because
the demons in him are drawn to
Jesus
they know that Jesus has power
over them,
and he is going to expel them from
the man.
And they beg not to be put into
the abyss.
(There is not really a robust
theology about what
“the abyss” is but we all can
imagine.)
They asked to be put into the herd
of pigs instead.
And
Jesus has mercy – even on the demons,
and he puts them into the pigs,
and the pigs throw themselves off
the cliff.
The
pig farmers are not happy about this at all,
which is understandable.
And they go tattle on Jesus to everyone
else.
But even though the pigs
have met a terrible end,
it seems like a small price to
pay.
The rest of the town comes to
Jesus
and they find that the Naked
Cemetery Guy is doing great.
He is finally free.
He’s no longer possessed by demons,
he doesn’t need to be chained and
guarded,
he won’t torment the town like he had
been,
they don’t need to be afraid of
what he will do next.
He
is liberated. Gerasenes is liberated.
Some pigs don’t seem like a great
loss,
now that everyone has been freed
from these demons.
So
you think that the town would be happy.
You think they would raise Jesus
up on their
shoulders and thank the heck out
of him.
Throw him a party or something. But no.
The town looked into the face of a miracle,
the face of renewal, transformation
and they reacted with fear.
They asked Jesus to leave.
It was probably more like a demand
in the form of a request.
I
think this reaction really reflects our own tendencies.
We want miracles, we want the world to be different.
We pray for God’s will to be done.
And yet, when we come face to
face with God’s work, we react in fear.
Because miracles, transformation,
and renewal means change.
God’s will means change.
It means altering our lives.
And that is uncomfortable.
Every
week, millions of Christians have prayed
the Lord’s Prayer for over almost
two thousand years.
We pray that God’s will be done,
but
what if God’s will being done
means
that I don’t have all I have now.
What if God’s will being done
means that can’t keep a luxury that
I have,
or convenience, or a possession,
or a relationship.
Or something else that I value, or
take for granted,
or even something that I haven’t
even thought twice about,
what if it needs to be taken away
from me
in order for God’s will to be done
on earth.
Are we ready to make even the
smallest compromise?
I think we’d be surprised how few
would be willing.
I mean we’ve been talking about the need for
workforce housing in Hilton Head intensely for the last
three years,
and for a long time before that, I know.
But no one wants to make any sacrifice regarding it.
The town doesn’t want to bear any cost financially,
the citizens don’t want the housing to be built near them.
I get the feeling some people here don’t want the people
who work on this Island to actually live here with them.
We have long prayed for an end to racism in
our country. But what if that
comes with a cost
to the privilege that white people
have been
afforded over hundreds of years in
this country?
I think that’s why we’re seeing so
much resistance
to diversity, and to critical race
theory, and
other things like that, because
people have realized that
for the country and the world to
get better on this front,
that there will be a cost to our privilege.
Not our rights, but our privilege.
We’ve
traded thousands of lives and the
safety and peace of school
children in this country
because we can’t tolerate any kind
of reasonable gun control.
We
pray for peace, but won’t allow for
understanding, compromise, or
negotiations
because they’re seen as weakness.
When
we say we want God’s will to be done
The truth is, we really want everything and everyone
out there to change, but everything
in our little bubble to stay the same.
Those
people in Gerasenes probably
prayed for years that Naked
Cemetery Guy
would stop running around
tormenting the town.
But now that he’s well again, the townspeople
would actually have to deal with him.
Their relationship with him would have to change.
Maybe they were used to yelling at him,
or beating him, or making fun of him.
Maybe they blamed him for all their town’s problems.
All their meetings were probably about Naked Cemetery Guy
and what to do about Naked Cemetery Guy.
Now that he was well, things would be different.
It was easier to send Jesus away than to try and negotiate
what all that change means.
A
seminary professor said:
“As
the larger narrative of Jesus unfolds,
people’s
fear proves to be a more difficult
and
heartbreaking problem for God than the problem of evil.”
We have come to maintain a successful balance of
tolerance and management of the demonic forces in our
society.
Forces like war, violence, racism, hatred, exploitation,
contempt, greed, consumerism, isolation.
Sometimes these demons give us the ability to not
focus on our own issues and just complain about
everyone else’s problems.
And sometimes we have made silent deals
with the devil so to speak.
Sometimes we actually benefit from these demons
in some subtle and not so subtle ways.
I mean, at least the man guarding the
Naked Cemetery Guy had a good job.
Now he’s lost that.
Thanks, Jesus.
When the power of God came to
their community
it disturbed the way of life they
had come to accept.
Even when it’s for good,
power that can’t be calculated or
managed is frightening.
What will Jesus do next?
The
thing that Jesus says most to the disciples
is not peace, salvation, even
forgiveness,
it’s “don’t be afraid”.
Not just don’t be afraid of demons and evil
and sin and bad people who want to harm you.
But don’t be afraid of the power of God
and the good things.
Don’t be afraid of liberation,
don’t be afraid of transformation,
don’t be afraid of change,
don’t be afraid of sacrifice.
Take up your cross and follow.
Someone
who is very smart said:
“All
that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing.”
And
when Jesus comes up to our
shores to liberate us, we might
just be inclined
to turn away too and let the demons continue.
We might be inclined a lot of times to give into our fear
and to ask Jesus to leave and leave us the way we are.
But
Jesus did not leave Gerasene the way it was.
And the good news is that Jesus
will not leave us the way we are.
Jesus will not let this world be held captive
by those demons forever,
Even if we ourselves think that it is
the best thing to do.
Jesus intention is to free us all.
Jesus will work through our churches,
through our people,
and through other people in the world,
through our hands, and our feet, and our mouths
to engage and drive those demons out.
Jesus’s
objective is to liberate
the whole world from our demons.
To set us free to love God, and to love one another.
We might resist. We might fight and
refuse to give up our present life.
We might cling to our lives as they are.
But Jesus is not willing to give up on any of us.
Jesus will keep coming up on our shore,
encountering our demons,
and breaking us out of the chains and shackles
that hold us down.
And
one day, all of creation will be
like that man in Gerasenes:
Everyone Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed in Christ’s love,
everyone in their right minds.
Everyone able to return home
and declare how much God has done for them.
