Jesus Didn't Force the Man to Be Healed

Brad Sullivan
Proper 7, Year C
Sunday, June 23, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
1 Kings 19:1-4, 5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

 In our Kings reading today, Elijah was fleeing for his life from Ahab and Jezebel, and God met him on the mountain where he was hiding.  Before meeting with Elijah, God send a destructive wind, then an earthquake, then fire, three things with which God could destroy Ahab and Jezebel and all those who were seeking to kill Elijah.  God’s power was far greater than anything Ahab and Jezebel had, and yet we are told that God was not in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire.

Rather, after all three of these had passed, there was a sound of sheer silence, and God was in the silence.  Out of the silence, God spoke to Elijah, asked him what he was doing, and told him what to do and where to go next.  Elijah was lost, in need of reassurance and direction, and out of the silence, God gave him the reassurance and direction he needed.

We are shown through this story to seek God in the silence.  When troubles are at our door and life seems overwhelming, silence is often the last thing we want, better to distract and anesthetize ourselves with all kinds of noisy activity, and yet the silence is where we meet God.  Silence is also where we have to face the parts of ourselves which we may not want to face.

Looking at the story of the Gerasene demoniac, the gentile man who had many demons inside him, we see a story of Jesus healing a man who was afraid of being healed.  The man was living in a graveyard because the demons had forced him out there.  He could not be bound even by chains because the demons were so strong.  You’d think the man would want the demons gone, and yet, when Jesus ordered the demons to leave him, he begged Jesus not to torment him. 

Being healed is often a painful process so much so that we sometimes want to go on as we are rather than face the pain of being healed.  I’m guessing the demons were hurting the man as they were being cast out, clawing at him to stay inside of him because, as they said to Jesus, they did not want to be returned to the abyss, likely the depths of the sea, the dark place where the souls of the dead were thought to dwell.

Now, Jesus could have and by all accounts should have told the demons, I don’t negotiate with demon scum like you.  Leave the man now and return to the abyss.  Jesus could have said that and the man would have been healed, and the demons would have the punishment they deserved.  Instead, Jesus had compassion on the demons and allowed them to enter the swine. 

With that, the demons seem to have gone peacefully, Jesus’ compassion saving the man from greater torment as well.  After this, the man was healed.  Still, Jesus had compassion on the demons.  Why should he have done that?  It may have saved the man some pain, but shouldn’t the demons have been punished? 

Well, yes, they should have been, but remember we’re talking about the same Jesus who taught us to pray for and bless our enemies.  Jesus was doing exactly what he taught us to do. 

Looking again at the man in the story, he had been totally controlled by the demons, having no will of his own.  Then, Jesus comes to heal him, by offering that same force of will on the demons.  Perhaps even the man didn’t want Jesus to force and control the demons as he had been forced and controlled.  Perhaps the man didn’t want Jesus to remove the demons because he saw Jesus as one even more powerful than the demons, and he was afraid of Jesus was going to force him to do once the demons were gone.  The devils he knew were better, he thought, than this even more powerful man whom he didn’t know.  Jesus, then, allows the demons to enter the swine as they had asked, and they leave the man peacefully. 

At this point, the man understands that Jesus is one whom he can truly trust.  He healed the man, and he did it in a way totally opposite of the way the demons had harmed him.  Having been asked to stop, Jesus didn’t force the healing on the man.  Having been begged to show mercy, Jesus showed mercy even on the demons.  The man then saw Jesus as one whom he would gladly follow, wherever he led, and Jesus then showed compassion once more, this time by saying “no”. 

Rather than taking this man away from everything and everyone he knew, rather than bring the man with him back to Israel where he would be hated as a gentile, Jesus tells the man to return to his home and declare there all that God had done for him.  Return to the place that you have been driven from, return to your life, and be truly and fully healed.  Return and declare all that God has done for you, and so the man went away, joyfully telling all that Jesus had done for him.

Jesus had compassion on the man by healing him, by giving him a choice rather than forcing him, by having him return to his home to be restored to his life.  Jesus even had compassion on the demons who had been tormenting the man, and Jesus is the one whom we meet in the silence.

Are we at times afraid to meet God in the silence?  Are we afraid of facing the demons within us?  Are we afraid of what new direction God might have for us?  Do we seek God in the silence?  Do we distract ourselves from the silence with noise?  Can we face the demons within us?  Will we allow God to heal us when we do?  Healing seems painful, and yet perhaps it won’t be as painful as we imagine.  Jesus is mighty.  He is one with God who showed his power in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire.  Meeting with Jesus in the silence can be rather daunting, and yet Jesus had compassion on a legion of demons.  Will he not have compassion on us, even as we face the demons within ourselves?

In the silence, we can meet the Jesus of healing, the Jesus of compassion, the Jesus who gives us new direction in our lives, direction that leads to even greater healing.  Meeting with Jesus in the silence, we also find peace enough that we can perhaps pray for our enemies, and have compassion on those who hate us.  Meeting Jesus in the silence, we may also find peace enough to have compassion on and forgive ourselves as well. 

I’ve been told by many people here of their practice of seeking Jesus in the silence, seeking Jesus in prayer.  Can we also find peace enough in the silence to take the next step?  Can we tell others about the peace we find in meeting Jesus in the silence?  Can we declare, like the healed demoniac, all that God has done for us? 

We needn’t go to some far away land.  We needn’t go to a random street corner or to strangers.  Jesus told the man “return to your home, and declare all that God has done for you.”  Following his example, we would declare all that Jesus has done for us in our homes, among our family and friends. 

There are, after all, many among our family and friends who do not meet Jesus in the silence.  There are many who used to, but have stopped for one reason or another.  We can declare to them, with the same compassion and love which Jesus showed the Gerasene demoniac, all that Jesus has done for us.  We can help remind them of the peace which comes from meeting Jesus in the silence, of the compassion and healing which Jesus offers.  So, if you trust in Jesus’ compassion and love, if you have met Jesus in the silence, then go, return to your homes, and declare all that God has done for you.  Amen.