Preaching Paths 22 June 2025 Proper 7C

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

In Luke, Jesus travels into Gentile territory just once and liberates a man in the grip of a multitude of demonic spirits (Luke 8:26-39). Behavioral manifestations such as Luke describes still occur today; but now, they are recognized symptoms of certain types of brain inflammation. In Jesus’ day, evil spirits were thought to cause many diseases; deliverance was the cure. The spirits Jesus confronts call themselves “Legion.” Ironically, a Roman legion with a pig on its shields will later sack Gerasa. The violent destruction of a herd of pigs by the demons is disturbing; but in its narrative setting, the mad dash of the herd into the sea has two effects: first, it exposes the magnitude of the evil powers over which Jesus has command; and second, the spirits who think they have found safe haven end up, by their own choosing, being consigned to the watery deep, the very abyss they sought to avoid. The frightened townsfolk do not rejoice at the tormented man’s deliverance; they want Jesus gone.

This strange story proves to be deeply relevant to our own time. Three themes strike home. First, Jesus has compassion on us when we find ourselves in the grip of forces beyond our control. The tormented man of Gerasa is unable to give his own name; he has “become” his illness, which has stripped him (literally), taken away all volition and dignity, and consigned him to live with the dead. Addiction, illness (physical or mental), grief, family strife, and disability can isolate and utterly overwhelm us. Christians need to seek out victims of such conditions, never blaming or shaming, but showing compassion and bringing practical help, where possible, to sufferers and their families.

Second, Jesus does not let the liberated man travel with him; yet, this does not mean that Jesus doesn’t allow him to be his follower. In fact, Jesus does more: he commissions the man as his emissary, bearing witness to God’s defeat of the terrible forces that oppressed him. The man goes to the city to tell any who will listen “what Jesus had done for him” (v 39). Engaged with his community, he is restored socially, as well as mentally and physically. His testimony challenges us to face our own hidden truths, to be open to liberation, and to seek to restore others socially as well as individually.

Third, this story mirrors situations in our world where the suffering of society’s most powerless is tolerated for the sake of the “security” (read: prosperity) of a dominant class. This week, the  endless bombing and starvation of thousands of innocent women and children is being justified, once again, on grounds of an aggressor nation’s right to defend itself. Genocide continues although  it is well known that this creates terrorists who readily retrench elsewhere. And it is not only in war zones that suffering is deemed “collateral damage” in a purportedly righteous cause. The same is true when a nation denies its surplus food to hungry children and calls it “efficiency.” It happens when non-citizens—blamed for every social ill, local or national—are arrested and deported without a hearing. In Luke, a herd of stampeding pigs bears witness, as news footage does today, to the consequences of humans’ self-serving tolerance of others’ suffering. When hidden human suffering is exposed, along with the evil forces that perpetrate it (sometimes hiding behind a facade of righteous indignation), God’s reign breaks in. Jesus entrusts us, still, with his holy work of setting captives free.