My Name is Legion

Transcript, Week 6 Public Meeting

One of my most traumatic experiences of meeting someone for the first time occurred a few years ago. It started out just like any other day. But I’ll be honest, by that night I was a different person.

I can still remember the room. It was indoors, no windows, and an aircon cold enough to speed up climate change all on its own. There were also a lot of people around, more than I expected. Strangely though, they all just stood around as if waiting for something or someone, neither talking to each other nor to me. So I did my best to act like I belong. When in Rome and all that right?

That’s when the screaming started. I remember thinking, gee… that’s a lot of blood. And in that time it was as if someone had pressed play because everyone sort of leaped into action. Everyone was suddenly busy with something. Except me. I just standing there like an idiot. I didn’t know at that time just how much my life will no longer be the same.

Because that’s when I met my daughter for the first time.

It’s funny now of course. Also I think that’s probably the only time you can meet someone for the first time and it’s ok that they’re covered in blood. Although how much trauma lingers is still up for debate. Kidding.

Now, how many of us ever wonder what it would be like to meet Jesus for the first time? Would you think to expect lots of screaming and blood? Or is it going to be a lot of awkward silences? Whatever you think it’ll be like, it’s a guarantee that your life will not be the same after that.

Our passage today has us meeting Jesus for the first time through the eyes of a demon possessed man. There are 2 things in this passage for us to see. First is that meeting Jesus is confronting. Second is that keeping Jesus is costly.

Meeting Jesus is Confronting

Meeting Jesus is confronting, especially for a demon-possessed man. Look at how the man is described.

…immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 

Keep in mind that there were physicians and doctors around at that time too. So it wouldn’t be right for us to read about things like this and chalk it up to mental illness and think they just didn’t know as much as we do today. People back then can be just as sceptical as modern people so when we hear about demon possession, we must at the very least keep an open mind. We don’t know how the man became demon-possessed, but we can see what it does to a person.

First off, you lose control. Control over your own situation. You’re fighting not just against the chains holding you, you’re fighting against yourself. Look at how he’s even cutting himself in verse 5. He has no control over himself. But more importantly, you lose your identity – who you are is gone. Look how he’s been forced to live out among the tombs. This doesn’t just mean he’s homeless. He’s not just a homeless person. It means he’s as good as dead as far as everyone else is concerned.  Even homeless people wouldn’t want to be near him. And we can see how much of his own identity this man has lost in what he says to Jesus.

6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 

Anyone notice the irony here? He thinks that Jesus is going to torment him! I would have thought being locked up and forced to cut yourself again and again is torture. But here he recognizes Jesus as coming from God, but sees him as bringing pain rather than help. Why does he think that? Unless his humanity is gone and in its place something else. And we know that because Jesus reveals them.

9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

Something that struck me in this short exchange is how it switches between the singular and plural pronouns. Did you guys notice that? My name is Legion, for we are many. 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Who’s speaking – the demons or the man? You can’t tell at all and that’s the point. He’s an out-of-control person without an identity.

The result of that confrontation is the deaths of two thousand pigs. I mean just imagine the chaos, the sound of two thousand pigs trampling over each other, the smell of blood in the water. Can you see how meeting Jesus is so confronting? But that’s not all.

Keeping Jesus is costly

The second thing we see is that having Jesus around is costly.

14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 

There’s so much irony in this passage. The people saw the demon-possessed man fully recovered and were afraid. Isn’t that ironic? I would have thought demon possession is scarier. But for these guys, what scares them is not the demons, but what had happened to the demons. I suppose if even demons are scared, we should be doubly terrified. And so the people in that city were afraid of Jesus. It’s just like the previous chapter, Who is this, who commands even the wind and the sea and now even demons?

But it’s not just scary. It’s costly. Because when they realised what it cost to save the man, they begged Jesus to go. You can imagine what two thousand pigs represent in terms of the local economy. It’s not just the herdsmen who begged Jesus to go, but people in the city. Why? Because having Jesus around is costly. Losing the pigs would have hurt not just the farmers, but the entire industry. The abattoirs, butchers, supermarkets. At the very least the price of pork will now shoot up. Given the choice between saving the pigs and the man, they would have chosen the pigs no question about it. 

The Question, The Choice, The Mission

It’s easy after reading this story to go “I’m not demon-possessed and I’m definitely not someone who would turn Jesus away.” Can you picture telling yourself that?

Until you realise that God is confronting us with this passage as well. Through the eyes of the man we are meeting Jesus. When the demon-possessed man asked Jesus “what have you to do with me”, even if we’re not demon-possessed, the question is relevant to us. What has Jesus to do with me? Has He come to torment me with rules and expectations, things I must do or must not do? Or has He come to help build my life, to be a kind of santa claus? Or is it something else? And so I ask you again, what has Jesus to do with us?

At the same time, the choice the people in that town made when they begged Jesus to go, is the same choice we have to make every single day. Will we choose God over romantic love? What about the sense of belonging amongst your friends? Will you choose God over that? What would give in exchange for a crazy successful career? Will we choose God or will we beg Jesus to go because having Jesus around is too costly?

We’re not demon-possessed but Jesus confronts us anyway. We’re not pig farmers but we still have a cost to bear. And so what’s the cost? Mission.

18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

As we close, I want us to put ourselves in this man’s shoes. Imagine what kind of life you would have had. Now think about what Jesus is asking you to do. He wants you to go back to the same people who would have chosen pigs over you. People who kept you locked up. Jesus wants you to go back to your friends – what friends? Oh and by the way, Jesus is not going to be there with you. Go tell them about a Jesus who they can’t see.

How in the world are you going to manage that? Unless you know how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you. We are here at ECU because Jesus has sent us here. We’re not going to be able to tell people about God unless we ourselves know what He has done for us.

That’s Christianity. It’s not God coming to torment us with rules. It’s God sending Jesus to live and obey the rules that we can’t. He’s done it for us.