Luke 8:26-39 is the lectionary Gospel text for Pentecost II on Sunday, June 19.
Jesus went to a largely non-Jewish region. A man, marginalized by society because of his
behavior, even being shackled and chained, met Jesus there. The demons within him called Jesus out, and
after giving Jesus their name, begged Jesus not to send them back to their
confinement under God’s control. They
instead wanted to go into a herd of swine after being cast out of the man. Jesus allowed it, and they ran the herd into
the water and were drowned. Jesus
restored the man. The man could now return to his life and life in the community. It was
a great spiritual victory.
But the swineherds told the people of the city, and
they came out to find the man restored to his sanity. It scared them. They asked Jesus to leave.
Jesus took the time to engage the demoniac, to
diagnose the issue, to consider a solution and to work a care plan for the sake
of restoring the man to his life in community.
It was unsettling to some in the community, perhaps because of the cost.
We dare not disturb the status quo, even to bring
healing to individuals. People are
scared when they see things that seem to work against their limited
imaginations regarding how things work in the world, because they have bought
into those things deemed normative in how society works. Those with mental health issues need to be
shunned and marginalized, because there is “nothing we can do about them.” Those whose behaviors scare us need to be
removed from being among us because we do not understand them, nor are we
interested in getting to understand them.
That’s just the way it is and needs to be. You start finding out what the underlying
problems are, and the cost could be too great! You start restoring people to their lives and
it could make things uncomfortable or complicated or less profitable for the
rest of us. We can’t have that.
There is a cost to restoring people to Shalom in
their lives. It takes time, energy,
effort in learning new ways, and it costs money.
Sending mental healthcare practitioners on calls for disturbances with
the police, or instead of them, is much more time consuming and complicated
than using brute force and then locking up the "perpetrators" in for-profit prisons or killing
them when they respond badly. It is also more costly of money. It may mean less money for military-style equipment for those charged with protecting and serving all citizens equally. Some in communities are calling for such
measures because they value human life.
Others in communities are opposing them because they value the status
quo and are not willing to pay the cost to restore lives.
Some are more concerned with restoring people’s
lives.
Others are only concerned for the swine.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled the living of agaph in the world.
Greed, lust for power over others and desire for status above others,
along with the hatreds they produce, are directly opposed to the living of agaph in the world.
Are you more concerned about living agaph and thus restoring others’ lives because you are following Jesus, or are you more
concerned with the swine?
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