Jesus and the man with demons.

Today's Gospel reading was the strange and disconcerting story of the man described as troubled with a legion of demons in Luke 8:26-39. It prompted me to look again at the work that Debbie had put in towards writing a life of Jesus in the form of a novel - done during her illness. As she put it, she wanted to get away from "men in tea-towels" saying "yea, verily" to genuine characters - inspired by how Hilary Mantel had depicted Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall.

As something different, in place of a sermon, I read out this section from what she had written. It was slightly strange reading her words to a congregation that had never known her, but I got some appreciative feedback, and it made a change from a conventional sermon.

You will spot that she weaves in another story from a different part of Luke's gospel.

Yeshua gathered himself and strode on ahead, unflinching.

In a matter of minutes, dusk had turned to darkness. Only the stars and half a moon lit the path in front of them now, a path which was taking them up the incline ahead of them towards the sound of the gulls’ shrieks and the murmuring of grazing animals. This was not the sound of sheep or goats, however. A vast herd of pigs was roaming free at the top of the incline. Some of them had wandered down among the caves and tombs which, Yeshua’s companions now realised, were round about them on every side. The swine were short, stocky, dark; they ran quickly and grunted as if about to charge their unexpected visitors. But in fact, they kept their distance.

Yeshua was again reciting Scriptures as he walked ahead; they clung to his voice as though to a lamp for their path, a light to their feet.

 

“I was revealed to those who did not ask for me;

I was found by those who did not seek me.

A people who sit among the graves

And spend their nights keeping secret vigil.

Who eat the flesh of pigs

Whose pots hold broth of impure meat.

I will not destroy them all;

I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,

And from Judah chosen people who will possess my mountains.”   (Isaiah 65)

 

As the sound of the Scriptures drew the others together, it also beamed like a torchlight through the graveyard, and it was not long before it flushed out the one Yeshua knew he had come to meet. From somewhere to the left – almost as if from deep underground – a wailing began. Then a high pitched crying, like a little girl; a man’s deep laughter; a noise of animals far more disturbing than the noise of the pigs. They braced themselves to be set upon by some sort of savage army. But in the end, it was just one man who threw himself into Yeshua’s path.

He was, indeed, a man, though at first sight he looked more like some terrible wounded beast. He was completely naked, his body a patchwork of cuts and scars where he had harmed himself with broken pots and stones. Remnants of chains hung on his wrists and ankles. His hair, like a Nazarite, had not been cut for who knows how long; thick, matted, it fell down his back in knots and tangles. He barely looked capable of emitting even one small voice, yet the whole cacophony of sound was coming from his mouth.

“What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God? Don’t torture me, I beg you!”

“Tell me who you are.”

 

Mary and the others, having shrunk back in fear, huddled closer together.

 

“Tell me who you are,” Yeshua repeated.

The man reached forward, clung to Yeshua’s robe, and opened his mouth. What came out of him was clearly like torture.

“Our name is Legion!”

“Legion!”

“Legion!”

“Legion!”

“Because we are many!”

“Don’t throw us out of him, Yeshua! Don’t let us die!” it was the little girl now, pleading. “You wouldn’t let us die!”

“Just keep us from the Abyss, that is all we ask,” sobbed the weeping man. “Give us somewhere new to go, Son of the Mighty One!”

 

The man’s whole body shook as the voices ripped through him.

 

Then the laughing man’s voice started, a chuckle at first, rising to a hysterical pitch of howling and snorting. Across the graveyard, the pigs began to echo him.

“Let us go into the pigs! Please Yeshua! They love us, listen to them!”

And now his chest was heaving as voice after voice joined in.

“To the pigs! Let us go to the pigs, oh please let us!”

 

Yeshua stood absolutely still, listening intently, fixed on hearing from his Father’s Spirit what he should do next. When he opened his mouth, it was again the words of Scripture, this time of the Prophet Jeremiah, which issued forth. He spoke directly to the possessed man with such compassion, it was as if no one else in the world existed.

 

“‘In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty,
    ‘I will break the yoke off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;
    no longer will foreigners enslave them.
⁹ Instead, they will serve the Lord their God
    and David their king,
    whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰ “‘So do not be afraid, Jacob my servant;
    do not be dismayed, Israel,’
declares the Lord.
‘I will surely save you out of a distant place,
    your descendants from the land of their exile.

Jacob will again have peace and security,

    and no one will make him afraid.
¹¹ I am with you and will save you,’
    declares the Lord.   (Jeremiah 30)

Immediately, the voices were silenced, and the man’s breathing slowed to a deep calm. Yeshua, now fully in control, straightened his back and addressed himself to the presences whom it was now time to release.

“Legion! Listen to me. You may enter the pigs, on condition that you leave this man and never return to him again. If you do, then you will not be spared the torments of the abyss. Do you understand me?”

Excited muttering. The little girl spoke for them all.  “We understand!”

“Then Be Released! Leave Him Now!”

None of those whom Yeshua had taken as companions that night would ever forget what they saw.

For Mary, of course, the presence of demons had a personal significance she would have done anything to forget. She was fighting back the memories of the night Yeshua saved her life, the night she almost died at the hands of her neighbours. Where had her demons gone, she wondered? No herd of pigs to take them away, and yet they had never troubled her again. Please God, please God, that this new Legion would not sense in her an open door. She wrapped her arms around herself and prayed.

Simon Peter, James and John had all witnessed the casting out of demons – not least in their own Synagogue, on the Sabbath when Yeshua had so enraged Jairus by releasing a young boy from whatever it was that had possessed him. But none of them had seen anything like this.

The man, unconscious but breathing, rolled on to his back and began to twitch. Every few seconds, his chest heaved and fell abruptly; and immediately after each seizure, the noise of a pig squealing carved through the night air. From out of the caves they came, one by one, shrieking and running and bucking their way back up the hill to the herd who were grazing above them. And it went on and on. How many presences came out of him?  Fifty? Sixty? At the very least. How had he survived it?

As the stampede through the graveyard went on, they became aware of voices above them, startled at first, and increasingly mounting in panic. The swineherds, settling down to doze as usual through the night shift, had been rudely awakened. Terrified pigs were running wild through the rest of the herd, kicking and biting as their bodies were taken over by who knows what. The herdsman were running for cover now, back down the hill towards Yeshua and the man from whose frail body the whole cacophony had been released. And, as they deserted their charges, with no one left to protect them, the pigs ran towards the edge of the cliff and over its sharp side into the lake. It was hard to say which was worse, the screaming, or the silence. Not a pig was left. Together, they had rushed headlong to their fate.

“What have you done?” shouted one of them at Yeshua. “Why have you let them go out of him? He held them all safe. But now . . .”

They kept on running down the path, five of them, heading towards the village.

Gradually, the silence became less terrifying. Mary unfroze herself, checking that nothing seemed to have entered or harmed her. All seemed well. The men too, who had crouched tightly together during the erupting storm, began to relax. It was James who moved first. Kneeling beside the naked man, he took off his own outer garment, lifted him gently under the shoulders and wrapped him in it. Thaddeus was next, kerchief and water bottle in hand, shakily cleaning his face with infinite gentleness and care. Yeshua sat and watched them. Eventually, the man began to stir, and his eyes opened. He looked at them as one who had been asleep for years.

“Greetings, friend” said Yeshua at last. “Do you know where you are?”

“Does he even know who he is?” Simon muttered to John. “What’s your name, son?”

It had clearly been a long time since anyone had answered.

 “Adin. My name is Adin.”

“You’re a Jew, Adin, am I right? Do you remember how you came to be here?”

Adin nodded. He looked close to tears.

“Can you tell us your story?”

He took a drink from Thaddeus’ bottle, and collected himself.

“I have been such a fool. Such a fool.

I grew up with my father and brother. I never knew my mother, she died in bringing me to birth, and my father was so grief stricken he never took another wife. It might have made him hate me, but far from it, it made me a favourite in his eyes. Not easy for Dan. My older brother.  We farmed the land just outside Tiberius. Good place; fertile, ready market in the city. It was a good life. But not enough for me.

All Dan wanted was to take on the farm from my father. Married a local girl, settled down on the estate, never expected that I would want anything different. But did I! I was desperate to get out, to see something of the world, to create my own chances, my own story. So when I came of age, I asked to see my father. I knew the farm had done well, would continue to do well. And I asked him to divide his wealth between Dan and me, to let me leave and see if I could make my own way, my own life in the city.

I could see it was a blow to him. But he didn’t try to persuade me out of it. He listened, and he nodded, and later that day, he gave me an enormous sack of gold. Far more than I expected. Then he blessed me, and told me I was free to go. He simply asked that I would come back when my fortune was made, and make him proud of me, as he had always been proud of me.

But I’m afraid I did little to make him proud.

Tiberias, Herod’s new city, was the first place I headed for. But I fell in with a crowd who persuaded me that Gerasa was the place where fortunes were to be made. Fabulous city of Roman culture, Greek philosophy. And eclectic! Even a Jew could make a fresh start there. At least, a Jew with a sackful of gold. But while ever those coins filled my pockets, I saw no need to work. How could my father have trusted such a fool! By the time I saw disaster on the horizon, it was too late to avert it.

When at last I began to look for employment, no one wanted to know. Turns out I’d made a reputation for myself as something of an idiot, though while the cash was still flowing, no one bothered to tell me that.

In the end, this was the only place I found any shelter.  Working with the swine herds. A Jewish boy feeding pigs! They loved that alright. Every day, it felt as though a little more of my soul was being hollowed out. And then, well . . .”

He stopped. Drank some water. Stared into space, as though he’d forgotten that there was anyone with him.

Mary prompted him gently.

“And that’s when the voices began?”

He nodded, his eyes still fixed straight ahead. She nodded too.

 

They were silent for a long time. At last, Adin shook his head, as one who was finally waking up from a long and tortuous nightmare. He looked long and hard at Yeshua.

“Who are you?” he said.

 

When the swineherds found them later, they were even more shaken to see Adin not only clothed and calm, but talking in his own voice, lost for so long, with the strange visitors who had upended their world so completely. Their leader lost no time in making his feelings clear.

“You’ve taken away our livelihood tonight. By morning the stench of pigs will fill the bay, and you’ll be fair game for anyone who goes in pursuit of you. And you talk to demons and command them! If you are still anywhere to be found on these beaches, the whole lot of you will be stoned. So do you hear me? Take Adin with you, and get out of here now. While you still can.”

Adin’s face lit up as he looked into Yeshua’s.

“May I come with you, Rabbi? May I be your disciple? I would follow you till the end of my days. For I was dead, but you have made me alive. I was lost, but you have found me.”

Yeshua smiled. “No, Adin. You have something much, much more important you need to do. You need to go home to the father who has never stopped longing for you and never stopped waiting for you since the day you left him. You need to go and present yourself as his servant, your head covered in ashes, your heart filled with remorse at the hurt you have done to him. You need to go and face Dan’s anger and judgment. And then, you need to start again.”

Adin looked up, tears streaming down his face.

“Come with us to the boat now. We’ll drop you off at the cove where the bay meets the road to Tiberias.”

Mary cut his wild hair with a fisherman’s knife as James and John took the oars between them. The others made sure he was decently clothed and clean, and Mary made him a pouch with enough money to buy him breakfast for his journey. “Not enough gold to tempt you in there!” she smiled. “Just enough to stop you fainting before you reach your father’s house.”

The fishermen were used to navigating by starlight. As the cove at the end of the road to Tiberias began to shimmer into view, Yeshua noticed that Adin had begun to shiver.

“Nervous?”

“What if he doesn’t want to see me, Yeshua? What if he sends me away?”

“Sends you away? A good father send his exiled child away? I don’t think so. My Father in heaven is rejoicing over your return now. And so will your earthly one.”

They pulled the boat up the sand, embraced him, and watched him walk up the beach until he disappeared on to the road.

Text (c) Debbie Peatman 2015