BAY OF PIGS
At one time, he may have been a good-looking man. Now, it’s hard to find anything attractive about him. His face is lined and weathered from long exposure to the elements. He is naked – his clothes turned to threadbare rags long ago. But he doesn’t hide his nakedness – clothing is the least of his concerns. He stares at the group of people on the boat through the long tangle of prematurely gray, matted hair on his face and head. His eyes are hard and cold. He has learned that there is little that he can trust in this world… either in nature… or in his fellow man.
If you followed him back into the tombs, you would find his sleeping place… the pile of old rags and boxes that, with the tombstones, provide some shelter from the wind off of the nearby lake. The odor in that place would make you gag… for the smell of mud, sweat, urine, and stale vomit there mingles with the stench of decaying food brought from the village dump. It is, quite literally, a pigsty. You see, herds of pigs graze on this hillside and wallow in the mud around the lake, adding their own unique sounds and smells to the other odors that surround this man. This is his home… the only one he knows now.
He lost his position in the village long ago. You see, his strange behavior alienated clients and co-workers. If he had a wife and family, they left long ago. Gradually, friends and neighbors turned their backs on him as well, making it very clear that he was not welcome in their homes any more. Then, the authorities of the village told him he wasn’t welcome in the town. He came to the tombs to live. No one has disturbed him since. The tombs are his world – the one piece of this earth that he can control – and the only thing in this world that has never hurt him. He’s pretty protective of it.
So, with suspicious eyes, the man watches the boat touch the shore. And, when the people begin to get out of it, he comes out from the tombs to confront them. With flashing eyes and angry gestures, he shouts at the one that he determines is their leader. As he gets closer, the odor of sweat, dirt, and urine that drifts from his body is strong enough to make all of them flinch and take a step back, but their leader does not move.
Our text says that the man was possessed by demons. Demons. That’s not a word that we use very frequently today unless we’re avid fans of Steven King. In Jesus’ day, however, demon-possession was used to describe the presence of evil in a pretty wide variety of behaviors and illnesses that people did not understand. Today, we try to find some medical or scientific explanation for extreme aberrations in someone’s behavior. But, in Jesus’ day, demons were very real. They were manifestations of evil that were hostile to humans, including the body that they lived in, and they were rebellious against God. On the other hand, demons did recognize God and the power of God… God’s power to destroy them.
We don’t know the nature of the demons that controlled this man. We only know that, from time to time, he became so violent that he was locked up… chained… and put under guard… we presume for the safety of the townspeople and, perhaps, for his own safety as well. Was he just totally unable to cope with life any more? Could he even understand this compulsion that had him in its grip? Did he know the things that he had done to hurt others and himself? Was there some point in the downward spiral of his life when he could have turned it all around? Or was he doomed from the start to end up in this pile of rocks and dirt… among dead people and pigs? And on this day, was he even conscious of these questions that we long to ask… or was he so far down that all that mattered was protecting what little he had left… and trying to find his next meal?
Most commentaries seem to agree that Jesus’ only purpose in crossing the lake and coming to this area that day was to see this man. Jesus never went into the town, even after the man had been healed. And Jesus quietly left the area when the townspeople asked him to go. But the man didn’t know that. So, why did he come out of his hiding place to confront Jesus? Was he protecting his home – that pile of dirt and rags? Or was it the demons? …the demons that controlled this man. Did the demons know that Jesus had come for them? … to put an end to their reign of terror? Were they afraid of what he might do?
What happens to the bullies in our lives when they are confronted by someone who is not afraid of them? What happens to predators when they find themselves boxed in? What happened to the outlaws in movies of the old West when the good guys came into town? Doesn’t the beginning of the end always start with some chest-beating bravado on the part of the bad guys… some denigration of the hero? Why would these demons be any different than other bullies we have known?
All of us have our demons. You have yours… and I have mine. We all have demons that push us to do things… or say things… that hurt others… and often hurt ourselves. They prey on our weaknesses… these demons. And they know just when we are most vulnerable. That’s when they come… and take over. And, when our demons have done their damage, what do we do? Do we face our demons… confront them… challenge them? Or do we creep off to some lonely place where no one can find us… and wallow in our own self-pity? Do we build walls around us to protect us from others who would challenge us? Others who might long to help us? And have you ever noticed that when someone else confronts our demons, that is when we are most likely to defend them? Make excuses for them? Or try to bluster our way out with some chest-beating bravado of our own? Don’t we issue challenges of our own… even when we know that we are in the wrong?
All of those things were present on this day with this man… our man from the tombs. His demons saw Jesus coming. They knew he was coming to confront them and they knew their days were numbered. They knew they were cornered, despite their numbers. Legion. Legion was their name. A legion of Roman soldiers was 4,000 to 6,000 men. Can you imagine living with that many demons? This legion of demons had made this man’s life miserable for years. One by one, they had taken everything that he treasured and destroyed it. They had driven his family and friends away. And, finally, the only way he could survive was to live alone… in his own little purgatory… in the only place where his demons wouldn’t hurt anyone else. And he had adjusted to this life of loneliness. In a twisted way, it was “normal” for him. The demons ruled. He just had to live alone… behind his walls… in the stench of his own life.
But someone was coming to change that…to change him…and he was afraid… afraid of the unknown. So, he let his demons take over again. And the demons, like any cornered animal, tried to make the best of a bad situation by confronting their enemy head-on. And so they screamed at him: “What do you want with me, Jesus?” Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt cornered by the truth? Have you ever felt… like the outlaws of the old West… that the only way out was to come out with your guns blazing… knowing from the beginning that the odds were against you? Have you heard yourself screaming for God to just leave you in the muck and the mire of your life? Do you understand that God cannot do that?
Jesus did not run from this ugly, twisted remnant of humanity. The horrific sight… the heinous smell… did not cause him to turn away. He did not flinch when all the man’s demons yelled at him. Instead, he ordered them to go… “This one belongs to me.” And the demons, confronted by the power of God in this isolated place, gave up without a whimper and left the man. They went into the herd of pigs grazing on the hillside… a herd that the gospel of Mark claims was 2,000 in number. This large herd of pigs, driven by the demons, then ran down the hill into the lake and drowned. When Jesus claimed this man for his own, all of his demons met their end… in the water… in the lake… the “Bay of Pigs”… dead pigs…dead demons.
Jesus came to this lonely, isolated place and found the man he was looking for. He spent all of his time that day with this one man… healing him… giving him clothes to wear… and teaching him as he taught his own disciples. That’s what the townspeople found when they came out to see what was going on. They found this man… the one who had been crazy… angry… bitter… and violent… sitting at the feet of Jesus, dressed and in his right mind. Why this man? What was so important about him? Most of the commentaries agree that he was not even a Jew, but a Gentile… an outsider…a non-believer … not a follower of Jesus. Why would Jesus care about him? And, at the end of the story, Jesus leaves the man… leaves him on the shore of the lake, telling him to go home. We never see him again. We never hear of him again. So, why did the disciples remember this story? And why did they tell this story again and again, making it a part of the record that we have of Jesus and his ministry?
I believe that the disciples told this story because this story tells us something about Jesus and, through him, tells us something about our God. Just before this text in the Bible, we learn that Jesus left crowds of people in Galilee to go on this trip… crowds of people who adored him… crowds that were so thick that his mother and brothers could not even get close to him… people who loved him and followed him everywhere. He left them all behind and traveled with his disciples across the lake to find this one man… to come to this one man where he lived… in all of his dirt… and filth… and stench… and despair. Like the story of the lost sheep, Jesus left the hundreds behind in search of the one that was missing…the one who was alone… lost… and afraid… the one who desperately needed to be found.
Are you the lost one? Are you the one whose life is controlled by demons? Have those demons hurt you… or hurt other people so much that you have isolated yourself behind the tombs… behind walls that protect others from you… and you from the world? Are you alone… even when you’re in a crowd of people? Do you feel beaten down… dragged down by life… and consumed by relentless demons that have destroyed everything that you hold dear? Are you still wallowing in the stench… and despair of your life? Do you know that Jesus is looking for you? Do you know that he has left the thousands who are singing his praises to search for you? You who curse him…yell at him…and, under the influence of your demons, swear at him more than you praise him? Do you know that the ugliness of your life will not stop him? Do you know that all the demons that possess you cannot keep him from coming to find you? No. God will find you… wherever you are… wherever you live. And God will not flinch at the stench of your life… nor will God retreat in the face of your ranting and raving. God will meet you where you live… and take the demons from your life… and put them where they can harm no one … in some “Bay of Pigs” somewhere.
Jesus left the crowds in Galilee to come to a strange place to find one lost and lonely soul. And, when he found him, Jesus exorcised his demons… gave him new clothes to wear… and taught him, as he taught his own disciples. Did you notice that we do not hear anything of the disciples after they got out of the boat that day? Jesus was so focused on the needs of this one man that his disciples were left to fend for themselves. Do you think they minded that? Or do you think that they saw, in this lost and lonely man, the lost and lonely people that they had been before Jesus found them? Each one of them had been found by Jesus… wherever they were. And each one of them knew the power that Jesus had to change a lost and lonely life into one of purpose and meaning. In this man, they saw one more example of Jesus’ power to change a life.
In our passage from Psalm 42 that John Darby read for us today, it says: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food, day and night…” Have you been in that place… the place where your tears are your food… the place where you feel so alone that you think even God has abandoned you… where you feel so isolated that even God cannot find you? But listen to what the psalmist says later on in that same psalm: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.” Don’t give up... whether it is you… or someone whom you love that struggles with a legion of demons. God can find you… can find them… wherever you are. And when God finds you… finds them… heals you… heals them… and restores you to life… or restores them to life… you, too, will again praise God. The Bible tells us that, after Jesus and his disciples left the area, this man went away, proclaiming throughout the city what Jesus had done for him. Can you picture him walking into his hometown? Can you feel the buzz of excitement as people recall the bitter and broken man who lived in the muck and mire by the tombs… and now they see before them a happy… joyful… excited… sane man who praises God with every step he takes? Of course, they will gather around to hear his story. Of course, they will learn of the One who came to save him. And they, too, want the joy and purpose in their lives that this man has in his.
I don’t know if you are the one that God is searching for today. I only know… from this story… and from the story of the lost sheep…and from the story of the lost coin… that it is God’s nature to search for those who are lost… the ones who feel isolated and alone … the ones who feel alienated from the world… the ones who hide in among the tombs… the ones so buried in the stench and debris of life that no one visits them any more. Are you one of those? Do you know someone who is? If so, there is a message of hope today. God is looking for you… for the lost ones. Come out. Come out from behind the tombs… and bring all of your demons with you. For God, alone, has the power to take those demons from your life and give you a new song. God, alone, can restore meaning and purpose to your life and give you peace. Amen. Luke 8:26-39; Psalm 42