Our readings today are well summed up in an unrelated verse of scripture, one from Job: “the LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”1 Another thought that arises from our first reading is how difficult and, therefore, how rare it is to bear wrongs patiently. How much more difficult it is even still to, like David, see God’s will in those things that require patience and forbearance.
Let’s not forget that, despite his major failings, David is a Christ-like figure. This only shows how short we all fall when compared to the Lord. This is why the Gospel is good news!
In our Gospel, Jesus receives much the same treatment from the unclean spirits tormenting the man to the point he was forced to live in the graveyard. Graveyards in the ancient world were not inside cities, towns, and villages. Instead, they were outside due to the potential for contagion from decaying corpses.
Like David, Jesus turns the taunting, the reviling, the abuse doled by “Legion” to God’s purpose. With his demonstration of power over “Legion,” Jesus leaves the Gentile Gerasenes more than a little uneasy. In fact, in the wake of this demonstration of divine power, they want him to leave.
Their wanting him to leave isn’t so different from the ancient Israelites, who, after beholding God’s awesome power, wanted Moses to intercede for them with God instead of God dealing with them directly. We live in a time when many seek to domesticate God, reducing him to our measure. But the Gerasenes, having experienced God’s might, react in an understandable way.
Yet, the man from whom Jesus cast out the unclean spirits very much wants to go with Jesus, to remain with him. This, too, is understandable. Who wouldn’t want to be with their Savior, the one who delivers from evil and certain death?
"Jesus and the Demoniac"- Woodcutting
Rather than consenting to the man accompanying him back across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sends him on a mission, commissions him as an evangelist, urging him to tell others “all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”2
There was a man in Scotland who regularly spent all his wages on drinking, leaving his wife and children destitute. His wife had to beg to support their family. Then, one day, he went to church with his wife. What he heard caused him to repent, to change his ways, to quit drinking.
Several months later, now in his right mind like the man in our Gospel- though this guy was plagued by different spirits- on payday, his buddies urged him to go drinking with them. He informed his friends that he no longer drank and that he had had a life-changing encounter with Christ.
The man's workmates chided him, asking him if really believed all the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick and casting out demons, and if he believed Jesus turned water into wine. He replied, “I can’t speak to any of that firsthand, but if you come to my house, I can show you how he turned beer into furniture.”
Evangelization, my friends, is not apologetics. You will never argue anyone into God’s kingdom. A lot of apologetics consists of answering questions no one is asking. First and foremost, evangelizing is telling others “all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
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