Pentecost 5 (Luke 8:26-39)

Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

Jesus is Good News. The Good News Jesus embodies is that God is real, God is personal, God is love.

The Good News is that God sets us free from whatever binds us, enslaves us and oppresses us. God does this in the active dynamic and practical personal relationship Jesus offers. Our Heavenly Father created all of us and each of us to be the forever friend of His co-eternal Son. To make that friendship real and substantial the co-eternal Son became a particular human being.

Jesus demonstrates to us and for us that God is not some abstraction. He also reminds us that there is no condemnation in God. In God there is only an infinite ocean of love. In God there is only an eternal outpouring of the waters of life.

The practical consequence of this revelation is the particular result. A basic principle of logic is that a difference that makes no difference is no difference. When we consider religion, Moses and the prophets invite us and encourage us to ask the basic question: what difference does this religion make in my life, the life of my family and of society as a whole.

Jesus made a significant difference for the man possessed by demons. Demon possession is not the same as mental illness. Any contact with the occult will result in mental breakdown. Demon possession is a rare but very real extreme case of occult activity.

It is unclear in this account why this man was possessed by demons.  Generally speaking, a demon cannot take possession of a human being apart from human choice. That is why any contact with the occult however tenuous is so dangerous.

Demons are the burnt out remnants of the angels who followed Lucifer in the war in heaven. Through pride they sought to become gods. Through despair they are now mere shadows of what they had been created to be. They exist as spirits of spite. They will not and cannot repent of their rebellion. But they vainly seek relief from their own self-imposed suffering.

Why the demons possessed the man is not explained. The result is very clear. The result is insanity, isolation and despair.  Someone who is possessed by demons is in a visible and tangible state of spiritual slavery. The end result of this spiritual slavery is death- usually by suicide.

Jesus in his pre-incarnate form saw Lucifer and the rebel angels attack the loyal angels. He saw Lucifer fall from heaven in the last battle of the great war. He saw Lucifer drag down his followers with him. And, those followers, now demons, remember the ineffable glory of the Trinity. They recognize that glory in Jesus.

The demons fear, hate and despise Jesus. They accuse him of coming into the world solely to pursue and torment them. This is the key to understanding why the demons cannot repent. They are completely  self-obsessed. From their perspective everything is only and completely about them.

Jesus recognizes their presence. They are where they ought not to be. Jesus has the authority to command them as Jesus has the authority to command all created beings and indeed nature itself. He asks them to name themselves so that they might reveal themselves. Ancient peoples believed the name of a person or a thing carries the fullness of the identity of the person or thing.

He gives them permission to enter into a herd of pigs, an unclean animal under the Law of Moses. The demonic foothold on earth ends as the pigs react to the demons by plunging to their deaths in the sea. The demons cannot be destroyed. They also cannot stay on earth. They collapse into the desolate realm of the underworld.

The man is liberated. But, his community does not rejoice. They react with fear. In that fear they make the most terrible request possible. They ask Jesus to leave.

God never imposes his love on anyone. He offers it to everyone. Jesus hears the request and respects it. Jesus does not give up on the people. He asks the man whom he has healed to stay and witness to the Good News of God.

The people are lost in their own self manufactured bad news about God. They still need to be found. They still need to be saved from their fear. Jesus assigns that task to the man he healed.In this event we see the pattern of our Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus initiated a process of new life and a new way of living. He has appointed the proclamation of the Good News to human beings.

He asks each of us to draw close to him through the Bible and the sacraments so can experience liberation from fear, pride and the will to power. He fills us with his love so we can bring the Good News of Divine love to other people who are still lost in fear.

All Jesus asks us to do is to tell other people about how much God has done for us. He does not ask us to argue belief. He asks us share our faith.

Jesus delivered the man from spiritual slavery to demons. Jesus delivers us from spiritual slavery to our own sin. In that liberation, Jesus asks us to declare how much God has done for you.