Healing and Inclusion

[Our readings were Isaiah 65:1-9; Psalm 22:18-27; Galatians 3:23-29; and Luke 8:26-39.]

The story of the Gerasene demoniac we hear today in the Gospel of Luke probably seemed pretty humorous to the Christians of the First Century—who had a Jewish background—who first heard it.

You have to admit that the story is rather strange. You have a naked crazy man, talking demons, pigs charging off cliffs, tombs, chains, unhappy townspeople. All this on the wrong side of the Sea of Galilee in Gentile territory!

This made a good story: how un-kosher, unlucky and just plain strange those gentiles were and best of all, those unclean pigs came to a well-deserved end, unless you were a pig.

But this story has layers upon layers to it, rich with meaning. And the greatest meaning is that Jesus has power. He has just calmed the sea to get to where this story takes place and we will see even more.

First, the man. We never learn his name. All we know is that he lives naked in the tombs, chained, shunned by family, friends and neighbors. He is tormented by a host of demons.

(In fact the demons are called “Legion.” The hearers of this Gospel would instantly catch the reference to the Roman legions that occupied their land—the most powerful force of oppression of their day. But they are no match for the power of Jesus. At his command, they jump into the pigs and head to a watery death.)

We don’t really do demons very well in the 21st Century. What the people of the First Century attributed to demons, we now see as a form of illness. We have clearly progressed over the past 2,000 years. Or have we?

Instead of being possessed by demons, we might well say that this man was manic-depressive, or bipolar and possibly schizophrenic. He was excluded from his society. Thankfully, we don’t do that today. Or do we?

Today, if you visit mental health facilities or the streets of many of our cities where people live in cardboard boxes you might wonder if we have advanced that far after all. In many ways, we still exclude those who suffer from diseases of the mind, even when people successfully manage their conditions. Maybe we haven’t changed that much after all.

The ultimate point of the story is that Jesus has power to heal and restore those who have been excluded, like this man. When the townspeople arrive, the man who had been a naked, tormented outcast is now clothed and in his right mind.

We don’t know how well he was welcomed back into his community. We do know that Jesus told him to remain in his community and “declare how much God has done for you.” And he did.

We humans are very good at drawing lines and excluding. We do that all the time and it may be that the churches in Galatia to whom St. Paul wrote did that, too. So when we hear the powerful words of St. Paul: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus,” they suggest that the Galatians were separating and excluding Jew from Gentile, slave from free, men from women.

Those were hard words to First Century Jews steeped in a worldview that drew lines between themselves and outsiders—Gentiles. A common Jewish prayer of the day was: “Thank you, Lord, for not making me a foreigner, a slave, or a woman.” I suggest that was a prayer for Jewish men only and Paul plays off against that in his words.

While we are not all the same, no group must claim superiority over another, nor must we exclude one another. Our human distinctions are irrelevant to God: male or female; rich or poor; young or old; married or single; educated or unschooled; black, white, brown, red, or yellow; white-collar or blue collar worker; gay or straight. None of these things which often are so crucial to us matter in the slightest to God. These differences, so profound to us, are nothing compared to the power of Christ to reconcile all things.

Where is the church that truly lives out this vision? Do we truly treat everyone as one, not just in this building, but in all our lives? G.K. Chesterton wrote that Christianity “has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” When will we try it?

The familiar words of the old African American spiritual are “We shall overcome someday.” Why not today? Why can’t we bring the Kingdom of God into being today? In the midst of the battles about immigration: “There is neither native born nor illegal immigrant.” In the midst of our bad economic times, where income inequality is greater than ever: “There is neither monied nor working class nor power.” In the midst of our society still often polarized by race: “There are neither people of color nor people of no color.”

For we are all one in Christ! Christ alone matters. Christ is our unity; Christ is our focus; Christ is the beginning and the end; Christ is the cause for which we live; and Christ is whom nothing can separate us, not even death!

Never forget that Jesus’ ministry was mainly to the poor and excluded, like the Gerasene demoniac, not to the wealthy and comfortable. May we never forget that!