Sent to Tell Your Story

Based on Luke 8:26-39

Have you ever been afraid of Jesus? Have you ever feared the power of God? As I thought about the Geresenes, those swine herders, what they witnessed in the healing of this man who was possessed by all those demons, I can sympathize where the fear would be a fair response. Have any of you ever witnessed an exorcism? I haven’t physically been present at one. But I remember when I was a kid we watched a video at church of what was represented as an actual exorcism. It scared me a little watching this exorcism unfold. It is disturbing to whatch what appears to be a head-to-head battle with the devil. I know there is a lot of debate about what is going on in these exorcisms. People question whether there are actual demons being cast out or if this is some kind of psychological experience. Some question if anything is going on at all, that it’s all fake. Others are convinced that there are demons, people can be possessed, and exorcisms do happen. The Roman Catholic church has liturgies in place to deal with exorcism and there are priests who believe they have been empowered by God to exorcise demons. This isn’t just something you see in the movies. It is an actual thing in the Catholic church.

I think it is appropriate to have a little fear of God’s power. Not being scared but to respect and be in awe of what God can do, that God can act in ways that are beyond our comprehension and maybe even a little unsettling. I remember reading something in the Chronicles of Narnia series where someone asks if Aslan, a lion who represents Jesus, is tame. The response was, “Tame? Not at all! But he is good.” God is not tame and mild. The power of God can be fierce and unsettling. God can act in ways we don’t understand and certainly can’t control. What we can’t control can cause us to have some anxiety about it, even a little fear. These days, heart bypass surgery is as routine as a tonsillectomy it seems. Surgeons can do amazing things to heal the sick. Still, there is a natural fear going under the knife. You are placing your life into the hands of the surgeon. You are not in control during that procedure and that can be a little scary. We fear what we do not control. It makes sense to have a little fear of God’s power because it’s a power we can’t control, although we can also take comfort that whatever God does is for the good. We can trust in how God uses God’s power. But we can sometimes feel a bit anxious about it as well.

So, I sympathize with the Geresenes. If I had witnessed this exorcism, in which a bunch of demons left that man and entered a bunch of pigs who suddenly rushed themselves over a cliff and into the sea, that would have been pretty wild. On display was a powerful example of the authority Jesus has over the power of evil. In this story, there is displayed quite a bit of fear as a response to this authority. The demons feared Jesus, afraid that he would send them to the abyss, a place where spirits were sent to be imprisoned and tortured. They beg Jesus to send them into the pigs instead. We also see fear in the Geresenes. They don’t understand this authority over evil that Jesus exercises and they aren’t sure how to make sense of it. Who is this who casts out demons? Out of fear, they ask Jesus to go away.

The only person who isn’t afraid in this story is the man who was healed. He’s not afraid of Jesus. In fact, he wants to join up and follow Jesus wherever he goes. But he doesn’t get his wish. Instead, Jesus sends him back to the city. This is one of the interesting parts of the story. The demons were afraid of Jesus, so they begged him to send them into the pigs and Jesus did what they asked. The Geresenes were afraid of Jesus and asked him to leave, and he did. The healed man, who had no fear of Jesus, asked to go with him but Jesus refused. The one person who was not afraid of Jesus is the only one who doesn’t get what he wanted. Interesting.

Jesus does give him a task. The man is given a ministry, a way to contribute to God’s work. Jesus tells him to go back to the city and tell people what Jesus has done for him. The one who is not afraid is given an assignment even as what he wants to do is denied him. This is the other thing I want us to notice about this story. There is a lot of sending happening. Jesus sends the demons into the pigs. The people send Jesus away. Jesus sends the healed man back to the city. I want us to reflect a bit on what all this sending is about, and how Jesus sends us today.

First, Jesus sends out the demons. This is how Jesus reveals his authority in this story. He has power over evil. This healing act also reveals what Jesus is about. He sets the captive free. Jesus brings healing and wholeness in the lives of the afflicted. It can be scary to witness, as it was for those Geresenes, to see such a dramatic act of casting out demons. But it is also good news, especially for those who feel tormented by inner demons, demons like addiction, or depression, or anger, or jealousy, or anxiety. This story gives us hope that Jesus can send away those inner demons that harm our quality of life, that through Jesus we can be set free from those demons and be made whole, to be like the man in this story, in our right minds, able to live in freedom. The healing will likely not be as dramatic as an exorcism, certainly not demons being relocated to animals who suddenly run off. But with Jesus there is hope for deliverance from those inner demons.

Second, the sending away of Jesus by those who were afraid. Many of us have sent someone or something away that might bring healing and wholeness to our lives, yet we were afraid, so we sent them away or turned down the method and means for healing. I’ve been known in the past to put off going to the doctor because I was afraid of what the doctor might do, i.e. give me a shot. I hate needles! Or you were afraid to go in for tests for fear of what might be found. Maybe someone has suggested you seek counseling to help you through a personal or relationship issue and you are afraid to go because of what might come up in the counseling sessions that will be too emotional or too painful to deal with. Or maybe it was the time when you were feeling convicted to respond to a nudging from the Spirit to do some kind of ministry, something outside of your comfort zone or what feels to be too demanding or too risky, so you resist that prompting, sending Jesus away. I wonder if part of that has to do with not being in control. Sometimes we are sick, or in need of guidance or help of some kind. We have to entrust ourselves to someone else, to release our control and maybe even our independence, in hopes of getting better. It can be hard to give up control. It can be scary. So, we hold on, telling ourselves we don’t need help, or we can get better on our own, or we don’t want to be a burden, or we think we can’t be helped, that we are too far gone, and we push away people who are willing and able to help us get better. You can’t help someone who is not willing to be helped. Some of that is pride but there is likely some fear as well that causes us to push away people who could help us.

Finally, Jesus sent the healed man back to the city. I wonder what thoughts were going through the man as he processed his healing and what he would do with the rest of his life. All of a sudden, all kinds of possibilities had opened up for him. He can now live his life free from those demons. He had a brand new start. Perhaps out of gratitude for what Jesus had done for him, the man wanted to stand up and be counted as one of his disciples. He was ready to go to the ends of the earth with Jesus, the one who had set him free. Maybe he wanted to learn from Jesus about how to live. Now that he had this new lease on life, maybe Jesus could help him learn how to live now that he is in his right mind. Maybe he wanted to follow Jesus because he wanted to leave that city behind. He needed closure to this painful time and one way to get that is to leave it all behind and follow Jesus wherever he was going. Who knows, maybe if he stuck around the demons might come back. He needed a clean break.

But whatever the man wanted to do and his reasons for doing so, Jesus had something else in mind for him to do. How could he refuse? Jesus had set him free. He lets go what he wants to do and consented to what Jesus was calling him to do. That’s how it is sometimes. We can be prompted by the Spirit to do things that go against what we desire. But even more, Jesus sends this man on his mission with no training. He was given no time to build up his confidence as a public speaker. He wasn’t given an opportunity to practice telling his story and getting pointers from Jesus on how to say it. No, Jesus just sends him back with the simple instruction to tell others what Jesus did for him. Jesus says to him, “Go back to the city and tell people your story.”

This is all that witnessing is, by the way. It is about telling your story, telling others how you have experienced Jesus in your life. We don’t really need training to talk about our own experiences. We can tell our story with confidence because we are the experts of our own experience. It is our story to tell. It’s hard to deny the sincerity of someone when they speak of their own experience from the heart. Of course, this man’s witness is even more powerful because people in the city knew what he was like before Jesus cast out those demons. He is bearing witness to his healing by simply walking around. The impact Jesus has made on our lives may not be as obvious. But this does not diminish the authority that comes with telling your story.

Perhaps this is the invitation for us from this story in the gospel. In different ways we are like this man whom Jesus made whole. We are the ones whom Jesus has sent with the task to tell our story, to bear witness to what Jesus has done for us. Do not be afraid to tell your story. There’s no need to send Jesus away out of fear. Jesus taught us not to worry about what we should say if someone asks or even demands an explanation for why we are followers of Jesus. The Spirit will give us the words to say at that time. The Spirit helps us speak from our experience, from our hearts. So, be open and willing to share about how you have experienced God in your life. Do not be afraid to tell your story.