Be Healed and Be a Witness
Proper 7
Fr. Tim Nunez
As many of you know, Deacon John and I are just back from a 10-day trip to the Holy Land. Our primary focus was on all of the places we went and the biblical history that had unfolded all around us and even under our feet.
We also ate different foods there. Israel has a Mediterranean diet, a lot like Greek food, and they are kosher. I knew a little about the kosher diet, no pork or shell fish, but it was quite different to be immersed in it. For example, Jews may not eat dairy products at the same meal with meat. Dairy is fine, just not with meat. So, there is a general rule in Israel. Everywhere we went there was no dairy in the evening and there was no meat at breakfast. Not only no bacon, or ham or pork sausage, of course, but there was no meat at all at breakfast. We adapted, but we missed bacon. One of our group actually texted me a picture of frying bacon the morning after we returned.
That’s just one small peek into what it is like to dive into an entirely different culture. Different food, different languages, Hebrew and Arabic, with different alphabets that were unrecognizable to us. I mean, we knew it was Hebrew and Arabic, but none of us could read either of them at all. And we were encountering other tour groups that spoke languages from all around the world: German, Spanish, and a multitude of others.
It took us a full 24 hours of travel across seven time zones to get to that different culture. Jesus radically changed cultures by sailing across the Sea of Galilee, a mere eight miles. In Jesus’s time, the western areas around the sea of Galilee were Jewish in culture and customs. But to the east was the region of the Decapolis, a group of 10 cities founded by Alexander the Great’s Macedonian empire, which were later incorporated into the Roman empire. Everything about their culture was, therefore, Greco-Roman. While there were certainly Jews that lived in and amongst them, this was not Jewish territory. It is an outpost of Europe.
They were pagan in their worship. Their food was different, as illustrated by the swine in this story. They spoke Greek in daily conversation and their official language for law and documents was Latin.
Why did Jesus go there at all? On the way, Jesus calmed a big storm that blew up on the lake, but that is another story. Why did Jesus asked them to go to the “other side”? Since this is the only story Luke gives us from this visit, it appears Jesus had an appointment!
The man met Jesus as he was stepping off the boat. Luke doesn’t tell us who this man is, whether he is a gentile or a Jew, or anything else about him except that he has multiple demons, is naked and living among the tombs. Tombs in that area are often in caves in the limestone, so perhaps you found a cave that wasn’t being used just yet. In any case, crazy naked guy is not who you want to meet when you get off the boat (or plane.) Living among the dead means he is ritually unclean and shows how his condition had robbed him of any sort of meaningful life.
There are at least two primary lessons that we need to take from this reading today. The first has to do with the nature of Jesus’s healing of this person. Here we have a rather extreme example of someone whose life has been ruined, cut off, and destroyed because of an affliction that he cannot control. It is so bad that his own name is not even relevant enough to be included in the story.
I don’t suppose many of us suffer from “demons” of that magnitude, though some of us do. We might think of this in terms of addictions, or various concerns that assault us such as financial, economic, work related or health issues. These can be so overwhelming that they start to define who we are, maybe not in our own mind but in the minds of the people around us. We don’t tend to think of those things as literally demonic, but they may very well be used by the enemy as a means of assault. Anything that disturbs our peace, heightens our stress and drives us out of our right minds can give the enemy a foothold to cause further havoc in our lives and those around us.
Further, the Decapolis’ security was maintained by the 10th Roman Legion, whose insignia was a boar. That adds a layer of further intrigue to this passage. On one level, Jesus is demonstrating his authority over the Legion and its ultimate overthrow by him, which will happen in a couple of centuries. That is a great victory and not just for political reasons. It’s a challenge to follow the One True God.
Imagine if you had to worry about dozens of gods and goddesses - which ones to appease while not offending the others. That would be about as bad as trying to appease the demands of social media and all the cultural zealots out there telling you how you should think, and ready to condemn you if you don’t get it just right. It will drive you crazy if get sucked into all of that. No wonder generalized anxiety is such a huge issue today.
We have one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That’s where you start sorting out the truth. So when circumstances that are apparently beyond your control make you feel small, make you feel weak, make you feel afraid, make you feel hopeless, remember whose you are. Legend has it that Martin Luther would, when he felt such oppressions upon him, cry “I am baptized!” as a shout at the devil, to reaffirm his identity as a beloved child of God secure in his father’s kingdom. This is a primary gift of the life of the church. We hold in community a remnant, a foretaste of the kingdom of God. Claiming God’s promises regains and maintains our focus on him and helps us take comfort in the security of our future with him.
The second lesson has to do with how the people in that region reacted to what Jesus had done. We must remember that they do not have the salvation history of Israel in their hearts and minds. They don’t know anything about the ways that God had moved in and through Israel. They knew nothing of Moses, or Joshua, or Elijah or Elisha or any of the rest.
The startling news of this crazy man being completely healed and of the demons going into the swine and diving into the sea seems very strange and dangerous. So, instead of being amazed and awed by what Jesus did and thus attracted to him, they are afraid and just want him to go away. Do you see the problem with that? Although this one man was afflicted in an acute and horrifying way, we are all afflicted in various ways. These people need Jesus as well. They just don’t know it, not yet anyway. Jesus is foreign and radical to people who don’t know him.
Jesus complies with their request that he leave, and that also creates another defining moment. The man that Jesus healed naturally wants to come with him. He wants to spend more time with Jesus and to follow him in thanksgiving for what has been done, but also because he now knows how truly special and wonderful Jesus says. He wants more of him. Who wouldn’t?
But it’s not about him. It’s about the Gospel. It’s about the mission. Instead of coming with Jesus, the man was directed to return to his home and to be a living witness to the power of God working through Christ Jesus, as a clear testament to everyone as to how much God has done for him. And so he did!
We who live and work in the church take comfort in this beautiful community. We want to live in it and enjoy its blessings. Give me more! But there is work to be done and it is most effectively done through your personal witness.
Since today is Father’s Day, I’ll close by directing these issues directly to the fathers in the room and those listening online. You have a sacred responsibility to your children, to their friends and to the other children that may come into your orbit, to be a living example of both one who contends with the stresses and challenges of life not only with your wisdom, intellect, and grit but with a full and open invitation to the Lord your God through his son Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit for direction guidance and purpose in all things. In other words, to the best of your ability, be a visible man of God. Show patience, show faithfulness, show grace, be as Jesus in strength and gentleness.
And further, do not leave it to the world, or just to the church, or even just to mom to teach the children about the truth of Jesus and what he means to them as individuals and to the world as a whole. It is a documented fact that when fathers step up in their faith, and are visible leaders of the faith in their homes, their children are much more likely by a large percentage to more fully receive their faith and to thrive in it. It is a sacred opportunity and a sacred responsibility. So when they whine and drag their feet you show leadership. It is your God-given responsibility. And when you do, you will be continuously healing, bringing Christ in healing, and providing a tremendous amount of preventive medicine to cure problems that you will hopefully never see before they pop up!
AMEN