Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – Year C (Luke 8:26-39)

So what it is that these folks were so afraid of? You might think that having someone around who could cure demonic possession would be thought of as a good think. But for the Gerasenes, not so much.
Tallahassee, like most cities in the U. S., has its share of homeless folks. Many of these people are possessed by the “demons” of mental illness and addiction. If someone could come along and “cure” this problem, wouldn’t we all be happy about that? I would have thought the answer would be an automatic “yes” but, after paying closer attention to the Gerasenes in this reading, I am not so sure anymore.
The real “demon” in the country of the Gerasenes was a fear of change. If Jesus could, in fact, heal people like this demoniac, then the world as they understood it was being turned on its side. If Jesus were to stick around town, what other changes might he make? More importantly, what demands would these changes make on the Gerasenes understandings of themselves as individuals and as a community? What demands would these changes make on their understanding of God?
Every Sunday, we (us) gather and, among other things, pray for the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill and all in any need (them). What if God were to suddenly answer our prayer in some dramatic way and a profound and permanent change was to happen in the lives of all the “them” we pray for? If they were to become healthy, self-sufficient, contributing members of a society, is it possible that we might lose our sense of privilege and blessedness? “There but for the grace of God go I” we say to ourselves as we hand over the spare change in our pockets. “God has really blessed me” we say as we deposit our pay check in the bank. Though we intend them as expressions of gratitude, they assume that the addict is not graced and that the panhandler is not blessed. Who are we to make such an assumption, particularly in the light of the Beatitudes?

Having people like the Gerasene demoniac around keeps us comfortable in our own sense of blessedness and, dare I say it, sense of entitlement. There might even be a secret little pleasure we feel in the guilt we experience when we think we have not done enough for the “them”. Most importantly, we cherish the safety we feel in the assurance that while our lives are not perfect, we’re better off than a lot of people. Maybe those Gerasene folks were right and it is better if Jesus stays away after all.
There is security for the “us” in having a “them”. This security is made manifest in our stubborn insistence that we are in charge of our life and that our health and prosperity are the result of something that we have done or, even better, something we deserve. We are also free to ignore the demons that haunt our lives. The Geresene demoniac was utterly dependent on the mercy of God given to him through Jesus. He had no resources of his own. He was, as the evangelist tells us, naked.
The truth is, we all stand naked before God in utter dependence. We desperately need Jesus to stand in our midst and tell us the truth about ourselves. It is only when we have known at the core of our being how much God has done for us in Jesus Christ that we can become the evangelists that we are called to be in baptism. We can join this healed man in proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus has done for us.