Have you been confronted, when strolling down the street, by someone in dishevelled clothing with wild hair fixing you with a mad gaze? What was your reaction: fear because you don’t know what they might do or how they might behave? Are they mad or high on drugs? What is possessing them?
Alternatively you might be seized by waves of sympathy for someone gripped by something holding them back from being truly free in life. Perhaps you could ask if they are that much different from the other people you are walking past or yourself for that matter. Don’t most of us feel there is something possessing us or holding us back from achieving our full potential. Maybe it was something that happened in our past that is still disturbing us. Or perhaps it is something to do with our community or the society at large that is holding us back?
Look at Luke 8:26-39, a miracle story that is not just about a personal exorcism but also about God’s ability to address the disordered powers that afflict communities. When asked his name the possessed man says Legion - a reference to the Roman military.
This reminds me of the ABC Q & A session that was held a few years ago during the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. The host asked the panel, as the last question, which “dangerous idea” has the greatest potential to change the world for the better?
Peter Hitchens' response was …
The most dangerous idea in human history and philosophy remains the belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and rose from the dead, and that is the most dangerous idea you will ever encounter.
“Why is it dangerous? He replied
It alters the whole of human behaviour and all our responsibilities. It turns the universe from a meaningless chaos into a designed place in which there is justice and there is hope and therefore we all have a duty to discover the nature of that justice and work towards that hope. It alters us all. If we reject it, it alters us as well. It is incredibly dangerous: it is why so many people will turn against it.
What hinders us from telling others the good news that the power of God working through Jesus can defeat and reorder the destructive chaos in our lives and those of others or indeed in our societies? As Jesus set the man free he can do the same for us and our world: we can discover God’s saving power in the person and work of Jesus and share that marvellous news with others.
As the hymn writer Carolyn Gillette has put it
The demons cried to Jesus, "Just send us to those swine!"
Yet soon those pigs stampeded right down a steep incline.
For things that bring destruction will one day fall away;
And God is surely bringing a new and joyful day.