Does Legion Have Hold of Us? - Luke 8:26-39

The Shining, The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, Fallen, Paranormal Activity—five of the top twenty movies concerning demon possession and exorcism according to About.com.  How many of you have braved watching one or more of these films?  How many of you wouldn’t even consider watching one of these or anything like them?  The idea of considering demons and possessions intrigues some of us, repulses others of us, while others either secretly cower at the idea that demons may be real and others dismiss any thought of supernatural forces altogether.

For those of us who avoid those movies at all cost, and wouldn’t think of picking up a Stephen King or any other novel that might contain the idea of possession, our Scripture lesson this morning may be the most familiar story of possession that we have.

Jesus had been travelling through Galilee.  He had been performing healings, forgiving sins, and teaching those who gathered around him.  Then the Scriptures tell us that he and the disciples got into a boat and began sailing across the Sea of Galilee.  This is the trip in which the storm came up and tossed the boat around, Jesus calmed the storm.  When they arrived on the other side of the sea to continue their journey, the found themselves in the land of the Gerasenes.  This was Greek territory, meaning that the folks that Jesus and the disciples would encounter would not be Jews, they would be Gentiles.  The first person that Jesus encounters on his arrival in the region is a man who used to live in the city.  However, the man had been cast out of town.  We read that the man refused to wear clothes and he lived among the tombs.  We also learn that he became so violent, putting himself, and most likely others, in danger, that he was frequently chained up.  Unfortunately, though, we read that despite being chained and shackled, he would break those bonds and run off into the wilderness.

Jesus gets out of the boat, and the man comes running up to Him.  Maybe there was enough of this man still left to know that if anyone could help him free him it was Jesus, and so the man throws himself at the feet, and mercy, of Jesus.  Jesus, recognizing that this man was not crazy, but possessed, commanded the demon within the man to come out. At the same time, the demons that had taken hold of this man decide they need to confront Jesus…the act, not as if the man had flung himself at Jesus, but as if Jesus had sought them out, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

Jesus, calmly and forcefully, calls into this man’s innermost being, and confronts the demon who is confronting him.  “What is your name?”, Jesus challenges the demon.

“I am Legion, responds the man with the voice of the demon—we are many,” and they begin begging Jesus to let them entire a heard of pigs nearby, rather than simply being cast out of the man into nothingness, or worse yet, be utterly destroyed.  Jesus had no qualms about sending the demons into the pigs, because for the Jews, the pigs were dirty, filthy, and of no value.  Then the pigs, driven mad by the demons, ran into the lake and drowned.  When those caring for the pigs reported what had happened, people came rushing to see, finding the man who had been possessed, no longer enslaved by the demons.

We do not know how the man from the Gerasenes came to be possessed by all those demons.  Did he make one of those infamous “deals with the devil”?  Did they sneak up on him and jump on him when he wasn’t looking?  Did someone cast some curse upon him, leaving him filled with demons?  We don’t know and probably never will know.  However, I would suggest to you that very often we find that Legion has a hold of us, and we have given him reign voluntarily.

“Now wait a minute, Preacher, I don’t have any demons living in me.”

We may not have any demons living in us, but how many of us live with demons?  Stop looking at your spouse or children, I’m not talking about them.  Yet, while we may not have the body-levitating, head-spinning kind of demons in us, how many of us struggle with those things that possess us and control us?  How many of us live in situations where our decisions or actions cause other people to flee where we are or we find ourselves separated from those around us?

Maybe it is alcohol, drugs, or tobacco.  Do we find ourselves in a situation where we “just have to have a drink” or “a hit or a pill” or “a smoke”?  Do the cravings go so deep that we talk about being able to do without it, but any attempt has failed, or we don’t even try, maybe even saying, “it’s just not a good time in my life right now”?  If so, Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is anger, bitterness, or vengefulness.  Do we walk around angry all the time?  Does our blood seem to be set on low boil?  Are there things that have happened to us, people who have wronged us, and every time we think of them, it is almost like we have bile sitting in our mouths?  Are we consumed with getting even with whoever wronged us?  Do we constantly watch until we see them “get theirs” or when something happens in their lives we think, “that’s what they deserve”?  Do we avoid being polite or civil or refuse to speak?  If so, Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is greed, envy, or jealousy.  Do we think we need more and more?  Do we try to see how much we can accumulate?  Do we grow worried if we think someone else has more than we do?  Do we see what others have and resent them, thinking we deserve it more?  Do we notice the gifts and abilities that someone else had, and wish that we could do that so much so we discount our own gifts and abilities?  Do we spend our time trying to “keep up with the Jones?”  If so, Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is fear, worry, or anxiety?  Do we live in a constant stay of fear about what might happen?  Do we go through all the “what ifs,” to the point that we can’t make any decisions?  Does uncertainty make us cower and leave us unwilling to take a chance on anything?  If so, Legion may have gotten hold of us.

There are also those things that are not necessarily bad things, but that Legion may use to possess us by making them the most important things in our lives.

Maybe it is technology?  Do we panic if we leave our cellphones at home?  Do we feel like we are lost without the internet?  Are we the kind of person that has to check their email or text messages every five minutes?  Are we unable to ignore that phone vibrating even when we are in the midst of an activity or conversation? Has “screen time” replaced human and world contact?  Technology is not a bad thing, but if we “can’t live without it” then Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is sports or recreation.  They are good things, but do they control our lives?  Do they become the most important thing in our lives so that time with family and time with God, become secondary?  If there is not a tournament, then we might be in church.  If we don’t have to practice, we might make that family gathering.  Does time on the greens or time watching the waves dominate all our thoughts, desires, and if possible, time?  If so, then Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is sex.  Have we taken the gift that God bestowed upon husband and wife that they might be joined as one flesh and made it something we just have to have to feel good?  Do we look for “no strings attached one night stands” or “friends with benefits”?  Do we find ourselves drawn to websites or movies that featured the flesh of someone who is not our spouse on display?  Do we given in to tugs of our flesh to “hook up” with just anyone?  While it is a gift from God, if we let it control our thoughts and actions, then Legion may have gotten hold of us.

Maybe it is politics.  Do we find ourselves closed off to hearing what someone else may have to say?  Do viewpoints different from our own throw us into a mental or physical tizzy?  Do we listen to what folks on our side of the party line have to say regardless of how it may interact with God’s Word?  If so, then Legion may have gotten hold of us.

We could go on and on with our watches, our stomachs, our jobs, and the list could go on and on and on as we uncover so many different things that become the controlling aspects of our lives for his name is Legion, and he is many.

Is there something or someone that has taken hold of our lives, or that we have given control of our lives over to that is not God?  If so, then we have involuntarily, or voluntarily become possessed. 

The Good News is, my brothers and sisters, that the boat containing our salvation has landed on the shore of our lives.  Our Savior has come to free us.  Through the cross and the shedding of his blood—through His death and resurrection, Jesus has broken the stranglehold that Satan and His demons held over our lives.  We do not have to be possessed, we can be granted freedom—all we have to do is throw ourselves at His feet and ask for that freedom and He will grant it.  Jesus will give us the grace and strength to make Him Lord and Savior of our lives—He will free us from those things that bind us and make us whole.

It may cost us—those swine that went plunging into the sea were the livelihood of the people of the Gerasenes.  It may cause former friends, coworkers, neighbors, or other family members to question us or even treat us harshly, especially if they benefited from our possession.

Yet, despite whatever cost there may be, the blood of Christ is far more valuable and far more powerful…and when He frees us, we are truly free…and Legion loses his hold on us.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.