Daily Lesson for May 11, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 8 verses 28 through 32:

28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 32 And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.

In today's Lesson two demon-possessed men meet Jesus on the side of the lake near the tombs in the place of the Gadarenes. In other Biblical traditions of this story it is not two but only one man who meets Jesus -- a man with a demon named "Legion", which was the name of a regiment of 3,000 to 6,000 men in the Roman army.

Taken together, these divergent traditions teach us something deeply true about what the story is trying to get at -- that the demons which haunt us are almost always more numerous than one, and are in fact often "legion", and their combined force occupying the soul of a person and weighing down upon a life, always has its aim to eventfully lead a person into the place of the tombs -- a place separate and isolated from the living and very, very close to death. This may be the point of deep depression, or the terror induced by post-traumatic stress, or the depths of alcoholism or drug abuse.  And just as in the story, the person with the power to help is at first seen as a threat and pushed back. This is the hostility of the demonic, with its power to drive a person to deep alienation, isolation, and eventually spiritual death.

But here is the incredible hopefulness of this story. The person, though possessed by his own demons, is also incredibly resilient. He is a survivor. And while the demons when cast out are powerful enough to drive a whole hear of swine to their death, the demon-possessed man somehow remains alive, and with the help of Jesus somehow discovers his own personhood (we might read "soul") even amidst the legion of demons intending to destroy him.

The demons are many, legion even. And their intent is to, in Jesus' words, "steal, kill and destroy."  They intend to steal a person from himself, kill his body, and destroy his soul.  And yet, so long as he's still alive, and so long as there is still someone willing to walk towards him, and to engage him, and to get him to speak, then there is still a chance that even the darkest of souls can be saved and even the nearest to death brought back from the tombs.

But first some son or daughter of God has to have the courage to go and walk towards those tombs and the frightening place of the Gadarenes.