06182022 – Luke 8.26-39

Imagine a disease “so terrifying” – a neurologic disability – that completely and totally devastates a human being.

What can start out with a simple fever and a headache, and a feeling of tiredness, can quickly morph into psychosis, paranoia, delusions, false beliefs, and hallucinations.

Now, imagine being agitated, alone, and confused. Or, what if we add another human being or human being(s) into this scenario. Father, Mother, siblings, spouses, children, relatives, neighbors…and friends…

Now let us add to this – seizures and decreased breathing.

Let us add paranoia, extreme violent behavior, and bizarre bodily movements.

Now let us throw in some impaired cognition, memory deficits, and speech problems. Things like mutism, aphasia, the inability to formulate language, or to comprehend the spoken word.

What happens when only “gibberish” comes out, drooling, excessive slurring, and objects, can no longer be named, or identified, and a person resorts to doleful sounds, howling, wailing, yowling, and guttural sounds?

This has now been diagnosed…as an anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the brain, causing swelling.

There are doctors who believe this “neurological disability” may account for a great many cases of “demonic possession” throughout recorded human history.

This inflammation of the brain, “Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis” is a neurologic disease first identified by Dr. Josep Dalmau and colleagues, at the University of Pennsylvania in the year 2007. That is right, 2007. (15 short years ago!)

Now, let us place the affected person in the first century of the Common Era.

Let us further place them in Gadara, or Gergasa, or Gennesaret, in non-Jewish or GENTILE territories, GREEK-speaking areas of Decapolis.

Let us place them somewhere in the region of the Sea of Galilee…away from family, neighbors, and villages, quite literally on the very fringes of known society.

Let us confine them, and shackle them, and leave them in chains. Let us give them little-if-anything-to-eat, out of fear of getting “too close” to them. By all means, let us keep our distance…

There will be “moments” of clarity however, of being in one’s right mind.

There will be “times” when normal understanding can and will take place. Thoughts CAN become crystal clear, normal functions MAY occur.

But there is this “KNOWING,” there is always this “NAGGING knowing” that “behavior” will sooner or later take its inevitable turn for the worse.

Utter chaos will ensue. It will happen quickly. It is just a matter of time.

Things will explode and erupt, for seemingly no apparent reason.

Anger, rage, sadness, confusion, hallucinations…all exist in real time, and with real people…and the struggles are VERY REAL. And the struggles happen and continue daily, to this very moment.

Mental illness, mental disease, mental disorders occur in all cultures, among all peoples….and in all times…the good news is that we are making progress, real progress. The better news is that there is hope.

Jesus could have gone anywhere. He could have gone to any people.

It is a curiosity in Luke’s Gospel, this is the only account of Jesus entering into foreign territory.

It is, as if, he was drawn there. As if, he was sent there, specifically, for this one man.

He goes to heal and to make him whole. He brings shalom. This one-man matters. And we must assume he is Gentile, a foreigner, a non-believer. It matters not.

Here is a man who is utterly affected. Crazy. Considered to be out of his mind. Hopeless. Beyond hope. Beyond salvation. Out-of-control. He has no name. No identity. Except for what he is held captive to. He is a breaking-chains-with-his-bare-hands-kind-of-lunatic. Living in the tombs. Desolate. Saturated in evil. Unclean. Naked and alone.

And without fear, without hesitation, Jesus comes and delivers him from every evil thing which had taken root in him.

As if, he was drawn there. Drawn to this one individual.

The next thing we know, he is in his right mind. He is clothed. He sits at the feet of Jesus and learns from him. He is at the feet of the teacher. Cognizant.

The story actually reminds me of Mary and Martha in John’s Gospel, where Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and learns from him.

And the story ends with Jesus sending him out, to go and tell others about the Good News that God has done in his life.

Wouldn’t that make him technically one of the first APOSTLES of Jesus? And he suffered from mental disease and all the stigma that went with it? Too bad, he remains, unnamed. Amen.