Demons in the City

“Demons in the City” How does that title make you feel? Some Christians are quite comfortable with the idea of demons being active in the world. Some of us don’t think demons exist. Other Christians while not rejecting the idea, are decidedly uncomfortable with the idea. Some of us don’t know what to make of the Bible’s stories of exorcism and try to not think too much about it. What did you think this post would be about? It’s about the story in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus casts a lot of demons out of a person.

I’m going to suggest that we set aside, for now, the question of what “really” happened and focus on why Luke¹ tells us this story. Whether we think demon possession actually happened (and perhaps continues to happen), in the ancient world people accepted the idea of demons. Let’s think about what the original audience heard in this story.

Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he [Jesus] stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” for Jesus had commanded the unclean Spirit to come out of the man.(For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:26-39 NRSVue

To get “opposite Galilee”Jesus and the disciples had to cross the lake known as the Sea of Galilee. A windstorm puts them in danger and the frightened disciples ask Jesus to save them. Jesus stills the storm and the disciples ask, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”(Luke 8:22-25) Just after this story, they return to Galilee and Jesus heals a woman suffering from twelve years of bleeding and restores a girl who died back to life.(Luke 8:40-56). In all these stories Luke is answering the disciples’ question about who Jesus is. Luke shows the original audience and us that Jesus has authority over creation, demons, sickness, and death.

In the story of the healing of the man possessed by demons, Jesus and the disciples have crossed the lake. Consider how uncomfortable the disciples must have been. They were in a gentile area, they were in a cemetery and there was a herd of swine nearby. They were met by a demon possessed man. The man who met them was apparently dangerous, at least to himself if not others. He was kept chained and guarded and routinely escaped. And he was naked. “Uncomfortable” is probably not a strong enough word for the situation. Also notice that the author of the gospel does not call the man a “demoniac” as some commentators do. The author always calls him “a man”, they don’t lose sight of the person hood of this troubled individual. Even though he was possessed by a legion of demons, he was a human being.

When the disciples saw Jesus act to still the storm, they asked, “Who is this…?”. When the demons experience Jesus’ actions, they knew exactly who Jesus was. They recognized Jesus as the “Son of the Most High God”. The man fell down before Jesus (as does the father of the dying girl in the next story because this was what people did in the presence of royalty and God.) The demons shouted for Jesus to leave them alone. Interestingly, after Jesus had commanded the demons to leave, he still talked with them. Jesus asked their name and they replied “Legion”. As you may know a legion was a military unit of about 5600 people. Jesus had power over a very large number of demons.

In Luke’s Gospel Jesus had cast out demons before, but that was in Galilee². I suspect the original audience remembered that. Now the Jesus, Jewish Messiah, was in gentile lands and he has power and authority there also.

The demons entered the swine and the herd stampeded into the lake and drowned. There is a rich and interesting history of conflict and contempt and jokes between Romans and Jews about pork.³ Romans ate a lot of pork and over time, the rabbis made comparisons between Rome and pigs. The tenth legion of the Roman army, Legio X Fretensis took part in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and they had a boar as their emblem. It seems unlikely to me, that the original audience would not make these connections. (Remember that Luke was written between 80 and 130 CE.) This story of exorcism is a story about a human person being saved from demonic possession. It is a story claiming Jesus’s authority is not limited to Jewish territory. And on another level, it is a story about deliverance from the Roman Empire.

The demons who want to avoid being sent back into the abyss (where disobedient spirits were imprisoned⁴) end up drowning. History and Scripture often rhyme and this drowning of pigs is not unlike what happens to the Pharaoh’s army. Theologian R. Allen Culpepper writes, “The demons that wanted most to avoid being sent into the abyss have been drowned in the lake. When it gets its way, evil is always destructive and ultimately self-destructive.”⁵

Some of us may be concerned that an entire herd of swine died and that the livelihood of the swineherds was destroyed. But that isn’t mentioned as a concern in the text. It’s not the point of the story. The swineherds and local people were more frightened by the fact that the formerly demon possessed man was clothed, “in his right mind” and sitting at Jesus’ feet. Sitting at Jesus’ feet is the way the gospels speak about Jesus’ disciples. The man was in his right mind and therefore, he was a disciple.

This frightened the local people. They were probably right to be afraid. In Jewish areas, there were some accommodations made between Rome and Jews with respect to the ability for Jewish people to practice their religion. Following the Jewish Messiah was risky even with this. But to follow a Jewish Messiah in a gentile area without those protections would have been dangerous. To say “Jesus is Lord”, was to declare that Caesar was not Lord and that was a dangerous thing to say. So they asked Jesus to leave, and he did.

Luke tells us this story so that we can realize who Jesus is and how he acts in the world. This is a story about a man delivered from demon possession. It is a story about the power of Jesus over demons, and it is a story about Jesus power over the empires of the world. And we would do well to learn from Jesus and his non coercive use of power.

Once again, Jesus did not force himself on anyone. He didn’t threaten them. He didn’t punish them for asking him to leave. He just left. But not without leaving the person who may have been the first “missionary” to the gentiles behind as a witness. The formerly possessed man, not surprisingly, asked to go with Jesus. But Jesus had other plans for him. The man was to stay and “declare how much God has done for you.” And so he did.

This progression of stories – calming the sea, casting out demons, healing a chronically ill woman, and raising a girl from the dead, is so we can understand that Jesus has power and authority over creation, demons, illness, and even death.

We humans often misuse any power we have. Some might even say we always misuse power. And we tend to map our misuse onto our faith and onto Jesus. We need to be attentive to how Jesus uses his power. Jesus doesn’t coerce. Jesus doesn’t force. Jesus doesn’t use violence- even when he confronts demons and the power of evil. We cannot read, hear, and study this way of Jesus too much.

1. This story is also told in Matthew 8:28-34 and Mark 5:1-20. ↩︎
2. Luke 4: 31-37 and Luke 4:40-41. ↩︎
3. Read this very interesting article “Why Rome is Likened to a Boar”, Here is an article about the Legio X Fretensis ↩︎
4. Luke NIB p187 ↩︎
5. Luke NIB P 187 ↩︎