Exorcising Legion

This is the prepared text of a sermon I gave at Kirkland Congregational UCC in Kirkland, Washington, on August 19, 2018.

Exorcising Legion

For Kirkland Congregational UCC

August 19, 2018

Rev. Dr. Tom Sorenson, Guest Preacher

Scripture: Mark 5:1-13

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I imagine we’ve all heard it before. It is one of the stories in the Gospels of Jesus exorcising a demon, called here an unclean spirit. This story is about the exorcism of a demon who says its name is “Legion.” Now, I know that a lot of people today struggle with the notion of demons and exorcisms, even exorcisms performed by Jesus. I’ve said many times myself that what the ancient world called demonic possession we’d call mental illness. But this morning I want to suggest a way of looking at this story of Jesus’ exorcism of the demon named Legion that doesn’t depend on our believing either in literal demons or in anyone’s ability to exorcise them. I am convinced that one of the greatest obstacles to faith among us today is our tendency to take all of the stories in the Bible literally rather than seeing those stories as parables or even myths that have deep symbolic meaning, meaning so much deeper and more powerful than their mere factual meaning. So this morning I’m going to explore with you what I think is the deep symbolic meaning of this story of Jesus exorcising the demon named Legion.

And I want to start by reviewing that story and highlighting some of its more important points. The story begins with Jesus going to “the other side of the sea.” The sea in question is the Sea of Galilee, and the “other side” is in this instance the Gentile territory on its east side. Jesus here is in Gentile not Jewish territory, which suggests right at the start that perhaps this story is going to have some theme relating to Gentiles, and indeed it does.

As soon as Jesus steps ashore a man described as “out of the tombs with an unclean spirit” meets him. Now, under the Purity Code of Leviticus that dominated Jewish thought in Jesus’ time tombs or graves were ritually unclean, so this man comes from an unclean place and is possessed by an unclean spirit. So we learn at the beginning of the story that it is about uncleanliness, meaning uncleanliness under the Purity Code that is part of the law of Moses.

Then we’re told that no one can restrain this man, not even with chains and shackles. Our text says “the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces.” This man from an unclean place and possessed by an unclean spirit is so powerful that no one can restrain or control him. He breaks free from any restraint they try to put on him.

Yet this possessed, unclean man whom no one can control knows that Jesus has power over him, or at least power over the unclean spirit that possesses him. He runs up to Jesus and bows down before him. That’s a sign of respect that acknowledges Jesus as superior to, as more powerful than, the possessed man himself. Beyond that, this possessed man recognizes Jesus’ power over him in what he says to Jesus. He says: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” (I had to look up what “adjure” means. It means to plead or entreat someone earnestly to do something you want them to do.) Clearly this man, or at least the demon speaking through him, recognizes that Jesus could “torment” him if he wanted to. We learn that Jesus holds the power here, not the possessed man or his demon.

We’re told that Jesus has already ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man, but Jesus then asks the unclean spirit a strange question. He asks: “What is your name?” Just why Jesus wants to know the demon’s name, or perhaps more correctly wants the demon to speak its name, for surely Jesus already knew it, isn’t clear. Yet the meaning of this story depends in large part on Jesus asking this question and on the answer that the demon gives to it. More about that shortly. The demon responds to Jesus question by saying “My name is Legion, for we are many.” “Legion” then begs Jesus not to sent them out of the country. They instead ask to be allowed to enter a nearby herd of pigs. Remember that this story is set in Gentile territory. There wouldn’t have been a convenient herd of pigs in Jewish territory. Jesus consents, Legion enters the pigs, who promptly run down into the Sea of Galilee and are drowned.

OK, that’s the story. But what is that deep symbolic significance I mentioned? To get at that meaning we start with the demon’s name. That name is “Legion.” Now “legion” with a lower case l is a regular word in our language, and it was one in Jesus’ world too. In our time it has come to mean just a large number of something. As an adjective it means “great in number.” A rock star’s fans are “legion,” meaning she has a lot of them, for example. In Jesus’ time, though it was a word everyone knew, it had a different meaning. It meant a large unit of the Roman army, perhaps as many as 6,000 men. Maybe you’ve heard the Roman army called the Roman legions. A comparable use in our time would be to call the US Army “the American divisions.” A legion was a large unit of the Roman army. Jesus knew that. So did the original first century audience for this story.

So this story “Legion” stands for the power of Rome, the dominant world power at the time. The demon’s name being Legion leaves no other conclusion, but there is another part of the story that also supports that reading. We’re told that the possessed man was so strong that no one could restrain him, not even with chains and shackles. He broke chains and shattered shackles. He was entirely beyond the people’s control. So I ask: What was there in that part of the world in the first century that behaved badly and was entirely beyond the people’s control? Why the Roman Empire of course. The people couldn’t control it. They couldn’t restrain it. Rome did whatever it wanted, just like the possessed man among the tombs. The unclean spirit named Legion in this story is a symbol of the Roman Empire, its power, its impurity, and its bad behavior.

And where was this powerful symbol of the Roman Empire? Inside the man. Not outside him, at least not in this story. Inside him. We are to understand I think that this man has internalized the Roman Empire. His primary problem wasn’t that Rome was out there, although that was a huge problem for the people of that time and place. His primary problem was that he was in here, inside the man. Inside his mind. Inside his heart. Jesus freed the man from Roman occupation when he exorcised the demon named Legion out of him. Then Legion did what most everyone in that time and place wanted to see Rome do. Run into the sea and drown, or at least board their ships and sail across the sea back to Rome.

In Jesus’ day Rome was making life pretty miserable for the Jewish people. They were a foreign occupying force. They imposed heavy taxes that left most everyone in poverty. They ruled the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland; the Jews couldn’t rule themselves. Rome was very much out there, in the world; and Rome being out there was a real problem for the people.

Most Jewish people in Jesus’ day longed for a Messiah, for a new Jewish king who would raise an army and drive the Romans into the sea. We confess that Jesus was and is that Jewish Messiah, but he saw things differently. It’s not that he denied that Rome out there was a big problem. He didn’t. But we see in the story of the demon named Legion that Jesus understood that the people’s bigger problem was that Rome was in here, in their minds, in their hearts. Indeed, Jesus believed that Rome being in here was how Rome continued to exist and have power out there.

The story of the demon named Legion tells us how Jesus wants us to deal with the problems of the world out there. Start in here, the story tells us. Get Rome, that is, get the world and its ways, out of your mind. Out of your heart. Our most fundamental problem isn’t that there is evil out there, though God knows there is plenty of evil out there these days. But out more fundamental problem is that the way of the world, the way of our Rome, is in here. By exorcising the internalized spirit of Rome Jesus tells us that if we want to address the evils of the world out there we need to start by addressing the evils in here, the evils of the world that we have internalized.

And I hear some of you saying: OK, you say we have internalized the ways of the world; but just what exactly does that mean? Well, it means that we have made the ways of the world our ways. It means that we tend to think and act the way the world has taught us to think and to act. I know that’s true of me—although I hope it’s less true of me than it used to be. This morning I ask you to be honest with yourselves about whether it might be true of you too.

So just what are those ways of the world that so many people have internalized? Here are a few of them: The world says violence solves problems and nonviolence doesn’t. Most Americans agree. When we see a problem the first thing we want to do is shoot it. The world strives for material wealth. It says the wealthy are the successful ones, the respected ones, the powerful ones. Most Americans agree. The world says succeed in the way it defines success—money, status, etc. Do it no matter what it takes, and most Americans agree. The world says the earth was created solely for our use, and we can do whatever we want with it regardless of the consequences. Far too many Americans agree. Perhaps you can think of other ways of the world that you or at least far too many others have internalized.

In our story this morning Jesus says that if you want to change the world start by changing yourself, with God’s help of course. Exorcise Legion. Get Rome out of your mind and out of your heart. The way you turn the world around is by turning human hearts and souls around, one person at a time, starting with yourself. If you want peace, be peaceful. If you want justice, live justly. Yes, there are problems out there—big problems. We all know that. Jesus knows that. He tells us: Deal first with they way you have internalized those problems. Exorcise Legion. Transform yourself. That’s how you transform the world. You start doing it by becoming aware of the ways in which you have internalized the ways of the world. Only when you recognize that you’ve done that can you start to transform your thinking, to transform yourself, and thus to transform the world.

It’s not easy. It takes a lot of discernment. It takes continual attention and effort. The good news is that Jesus is always there to help us. Always calling us to transformation. Always seeking to teach us God’s ways, the ways of peace through nonviolence and justice. No, it’s not easy. It is however what God calls us to do. I keep working at it. I hope that you do too. Amen.