Perhaps this is a good time (as any) to begin “an honest conversation” about “mental illness” and the love of God – our “Heavenly Father.”
Our “modern life” has seen “the increasing awareness” of “diseases of the mind.” Unfortunately, we still do not openly discuss them. They normally remain clinical conversations…only.
Shame, fear and guilt too often – surrounds the subject.
Today we are increasingly aware of depression, anxiety and “emotional dysfunction.”
It is all around us.
Events of the last couple of weeks have made this more than evident.
“Deep emotional struggles” are very real…and a great many people are – and have been – hurting…some… for a very long time.
There was a time in the not too distant past –
Where phobia’s and philias, depression, suicide and homicides, chemical and hormonal imbalances, sleep deprivation, anger, rage, sadness, crying, confusion, apprehension, dysfunction, hallucinations, delusions, compulsions, voices within and voices without and anxiety were all attributed to demons and to possession.
I am pretty sure that PTSD was just as real in the first century, as it is in our own, it was just otherwise understood.
Demons, demons were everywhere. Our definitions and our understandings have changed significantly.
Life as we know it – can be volatile, with unknown outcomes, perennial concern and not necessarily a constant stability. For some, this is a part of their hourly/daily routine. One never quite knows what to expect.
Today we add in – medication to the mix.
Take it or do not take it, as prescribed or as desired.
In our gospel text for today, we find “the giver of life” befriending a man who lives among the dead, in the tombs.
The scene is an “extreme account” of Jesus interacting with “the other.”
In this case, he is in a Gentile town, in a Gentile area – with a major pork industry. And, he is in the area of the tombs…an area, a town and a region – where no “good Jew” should ever find himself. And yet, Jesus is there. God cares. God loves. God is present.
I wonder – who is his mother? Who sent him to live in the tombs? Was it is his family, or was he forced out – by his entire village? Did he runaway?
Who feeds him? Do the people from the village bring him food from time to time?
Do they leave it for him – at a safe distance? Or, are there people that he “trusts” who are allowed to come near to him? Does he have any friends?
Does he have episodes of clarity?
Like so many suffering with mental disease or illness does he have periods of being balanced and functioning normally, with clear thoughts?
If so, do his friends and family interact with him during those times?
Or, did they just sit on the edge – waiting for the behavior to takes its inevitable random turns?
This gospel text does give us – a pretty clear picture of “how” mental illness was dealt with in the first century.
Perhaps a point of this text is that – even more than Twitter, Jesus changes everything.
In what is an amazing account – Jesus manages to upset a socio-economic situation, bring “outsiders” into the “inside” of communities – and gets him (pretty much) run out of town in the process.
Healers were often looked upon with fear and foreboding. If a person has the ability to cast out demons, maybe they have the ability to send them into you, as well.
So fear and wonderment is all around. Fear can drive us…so can wonderment and amazement.
From this text we can also see where the idea of chains, restraints and the tying of hands and feet could have become popularized.
We also understand people’s fears – a man who is utterly afflicted, crazy, out of his mind, breaking his fetters or his chains with a kind of super-human power and strength, a lunatic, living by the tombs, saturated in evil and stark naked to boot! Now imagine the horror of this in the first century.
And yet, he knows who Jesus is, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?” The demons one more time – know who Jesus is.
But God does not run away. He stands with the man. He is not scared or frightened. God is present and going no where. God cares. He cannot be intimidated. The man is made well.
For, Jesus loves deeply, even a gentile in a foreign land. He stands with him!
But then, God always stands with us and by us!