This week I was sitting at my desk, warm tea in hand, enjoying having a little down time to look over the gospel reading for this week. It was one of those brief moments of peace that God grants you every once and a while. It was a glimpse at the good life.
But, as often happens, God disrupted that sense of peace with something troubling as I read the story over and over. Listen, the story should have made me happy. Jesus shows up and frees a man of an evil which is beyond this man ability to control. I should have spilled my tea in excitement. But, for some inexplicable reason this story of this man, inflicted with an unclean spirit, made me set down my tea and put my head in my hands. Reading the story, I suddenly started to feel a great sadness.
The sadness started when it occurred to me that this guy does not actually get a story. Not one that is his own anyway. He is given no name. He gets to say no words of his own; the unclean spirit speaks for him. We do not even get to glimpse him running off, telling others about the wonderful things that Jesus has done as others who are healed get to do later on in the Bible. The story is all about the unclean spirit, and not the man. The man seemingly is not there. He is not in control of the story. He is no one. And, that makes me sad.
A few years ago, a man died out in the woods, presumably because of drug use. He was missing for a while and people searched for him. But, his family despaired when the search was called off; as if their son and brother was unimportant; as if he was no longer worth finding.
When he was randomly found by someone in the woods, word quickly spread, as did the reason for his death. “It was drugs,” was the conclusion that spread. And, yes, it was these drugs that had taken control of his life, but he was so much more than the drugs.
“He was the kindest, sweetest man,” a family member pleaded others to remember. “He was the best uncle to his nieces and nephews,” she wanted people to remember.
She despaired because she feared that a just few months of being tortured by “unclean spirits” would define this loving brother who lived a full, good life previous to the substances. She feared that the “real” man would disappear, and she had little control over preventing it from happening.
The sad truth is that we are not in control. I realize it each time that I eat that first potato chip. “Just one” I say. A quarter of the bag later I come to the crashing realization that I am not in control. The unclean chip spirit has somehow taken over my life! That is the truth. As we Lutherans reminds ourselves, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Hopefully, the day will not come where people are staring down into my coffin saying, “Hey, that’s the potato chip guy. He should have just eaten one.”
But, I am not in control of that. We are not in control. It is as if there are other forces in this world that have a stronger influence on us than our conscious minds are able to handle.
Some of us struggle with the unclean spirits of vices like addicting potato chips, or worse. Some of us struggle with the unclean spirits of world powers waging war with no way to stop the violence from encroaching closer on us and our families. Some of us struggle with unclean spirits infecting others around us, those close to us who hurt us, and we have no way of stopping the hurt because we are not the ones causing it. We are not in control.
Seeming to take control, Jesus confronts the unclean spirit and the unclean spirit spits back, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” It is as if Jesus is encroaching on someone else’s territory. In fact, the Greek leads us into the idea that the unclean spirits get to control the land, while Jesus is supposed to stay in his place in the skies. “What’s with us and you?” the unclean spirit asks? In other words, “Stay in your lane Jesus. Keep to your heavenly things and leave us alone. We don’t mix heaven and earth. You are not in control here.”
And, I have to admit that sometimes it feels like that. Sometimes, the unclean spirits of the world become so powerful and all pervasive that it feels like they have complete control. Ask a legal immigrant who has had their green card held by an exploitive employer, who will not release the green card until they have done unspeakable services for the employer; ask them who is in control. Ask the woman who is stuck in an abusive relationship, with no control of the money or even the keys to the car; ask so she has no escape; ask her who is in control. Sometimes, it feels like the unclean spirits are fully in control of the land.
In the gospel story, the unclean spirit presents itself as being in control. The unclean spirit knows who Jesus is. The unclean spirit mocks Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
And, in a move that proves that Jesus does more than just talk about the power of God like most teachers of the faith, but is the power of God in heaven and on earth, Jesus responds by driving the unclean spirit out. Jesus says:
“Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit,
convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all
amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with
authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
And, I think that it is this part of the story that I need to read again and again. Because, the unclean spirits of the world seem so powerful, but for Jesus they are nothing more than a voice to be waved away.
Maybe, the unclean spirit was never more than a wisp of hot air to begin with. Maybe, the unclean spirits of this world are just a bunch of convincing bluster that simply needs Jesus to wave them away.
Maybe, that is the point. Maybe, we need Jesus to wave them away.
It seems to me that we despair because either we cannot, or we believe that we cannot be rid of them. Either way, we truly need Jesus to wave them away. We trust that Jesus is the power of the heavens come down to the earth to cast away all that is unclean and evil within our lives.
This demonstration of Jesus is more than a flex to prove how great he is, it is a promise. It is a promise that he sees our unclean spirits. It is a promise that we are more than a passing character in a story, rather we are someone worth seeing and freeing. It is a promise that this world does not end with the victory of unclean spirits over our lives, rather it ends in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ who has the power to see and hear our unclean spirits, who will free us of those spirits, who will free us from powerlessness, who will cleanse us of our sin, and who will never allow us to be forgotten.
Is there anything wrong with reading the same Bible story again and again? Is there anything wrong with reading it so often that it penetrates your very being? Is there anything wrong with allowing a Bible story to take over the stories within your mind? I hope not, because I would rather have the story of Jesus freeing us reside minute by minute in my mind than a story than tries to convince me that the unclean spirits win. I would rather that Jesus’ story have authority over my entire being, just as Jesus Christ has authority over the heavens and the earth.
“Be silent and come out,” I will hear Jesus say whenever another story tries to take over my life. “Be silent and come out,” I will remember Jesus saying whenever someone comes to me, out of control and desperately needing to be free. “Be silent and come out,” I hope you hear Jesus say to your unclean spirits today, so that you too may be truly free.
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