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“Damned Evil”. Mark 5 1-13 Tuesday Meditation. 6/2/20.
Trinity Church, Newport, RI
5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
This weird and wonderful story of rescue and cleansing and incorporation I share in two parts; on Friday we observe the negative though understandable reaction of the people, today we confront evil in stark and palpable form.
In verse 2 Mark propels us again into the land and dynamic of “immediately”. We can sympathize with Jesus as he seems constantly in demand with little time to rest, renew, re-create and yet Jesus models for us the importance of seizing time to spend with the Father whenever, wherever, however possible. It is this continual being in the Father’s presence that far from protecting and shielding Jesus from Kingdom Work actually attracts people with challenges and problems that need Kingdom Work. In my early days as a Christian I often heard it said that churches without any spiritual interior life tended to be evil/devil free zones; I think there’s a little truth in that and the opposite is likely too.
So the man exorcised from the Gerasene community, the man who for his safety keeps isolated “immediately” approaches Jesus. There is, as Abp. William Temple said in his magisterial study of John’s Gospel, something about holiness that should make it attractive not the opposite.
Even the most wounded, even the most hurt, even the most evil cannot resist this winsome and good holiness of Jesus. Lord, so bless us and our church communities.
The man evinces all the wretched characteristics of evil but on an exponential scale… he is isolated, he is restless, he abuses himself physically as he strains his throat and damages his body. When we see anything that divides, destroys, distracts then we know we are confronting evil and from such, as we pray daily, “Father… deliver us”. A few commentators mention that it is likely the man was stoned by the community as they tried to contain him and eventually ostracize him; if so, we see a pattern of abuse continuing as the man now bruises himself with stones; Jesus comes to break this pattern, this cycle of abuse then… and now.
Jesus, as is his custom, wants the evil to be named, articulated, encountered; here is no place for superficial realism, for comforting misnomers… “What is your name?” and the man replies with one voice though speaking for many within him, “Legion, for we are many”.
Like me, you must wonder about the colossal destruction of the swine as Jesus accedes to the request of the demons. The church for centuries has recoiled at the thought that this was an act of divine animal abuse but, in context, we know that swine are considered unclean by the Jews and so this act of demonic incarceration was the lesser of other evils. Jesus knew these demons would scavenge the land for other vulnerable souls and so it was crucial they were destroyed.
Today in our country we see forces of evil at work at so many levels – a man murdered as he pleads, “I can’t breathe”, rightful peaceful protests fanned into shock and horror as people and property are wantonly damaged, institutional racism and selfishness sometimes lying low but ready to pounce (I Peter 1:8 “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”, and Genesis 4:7 “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it”).
Anything, anyone that divides, destroys, distracts must be named; the prophet Ezekiel calls for the people of God to serve as “sentinels and watchmen” and warns that forsaking this vocation invokes blame on the people and suffering.
One of today’s Psalms in Morning Prayer (123) contained these words: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem… peace be within your walls and quietness within your towers” (vv.6-7). This we pray for our land.