Daily Lesson for June 4, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 8 verse 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 . . ."

In Matthew's version of this story it is two demon-possessed men living amidst the tombs whom Jesus meets as he comes ashore out of the boat to the country of the Gadarenes. In the book of Mark it is only one man. In the book of Luke it is only one man, but when asked his name the man says his name is "Legion" - a Roman military word which is a singular word for a large and plural force. This simplest answer is to say one or more of the Gospel writers was being creative when he wrote this story. But that misses the larger and more important point being made by all these stories; this man is not able to distinguish himself from the demons that are inside him. For as he says in one of the versions, "My (singular) name is Legion (singular word for a plural body) for we (plural) are many."

It is my experience that those who struggle with demons must find a way to separate themselves from the demons inside. They have to find their own personhood separate and distinct from the person the demons have turned them into. They have to again find their own name, which is not "Legion" but is complete and whole in its singular being. They have to find themselves.

Many years ago I knew a woman who had struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other ailments. These cost her her multiple jobs, her first marriage, and custody of her children. One day she was ready to end it all and decided to take her own life. She told me that that day she kept hearing voices in her head. She said they kept saying, "Her, her, her," as if they were pointing their fingers at her and laying charges condemnation. The voices were shaming her. Then, just as she was about to take a bunch of pills to stop the voices she picked up the phone and called her mother. "I don't want to die," she said. "I want to live."

She found her own voice - her singular "I" apart from the chorus of demons inside her. And finding "I" was the beginning of the process towards casting the demons out altogether. It still is - it is the beginning of turning away from the tomb and walking back towards life.

"I don't want to die; I want to live."