Luke 8:26-39

DRAMATIC STORY - Once the initial shock of being accosted by a madman, Luke fills in some details about this character: he freezes the characters and action of the drama and then crawls on stage and walks over to the madman. "See him?" Luke whispers to us. "He’s really weird;-he’s demonized." Clued to Luke’s description, we now return to the action and to Jesus’ reaction to this madman.

JESUS’ ACTION IN THE STORY - The middle of the story might include Jesus’ action: the demons are granted entrance into another medium-pigs. They go crashing over the cliff and to their death, but the other "unclean" character who began the story, is changed. He is no longer the town crazy, but a sane, intelligent human being.

THE ENDING - The ending of the story might be how everyone responds to this strange interaction between Jesus and the madman. The farmers complain about their economic loss, the townspeople come for more evidence and then ask Jesus to leave their neighborhood, and finally the one who had been freed from demons wants to join Jesus and travel and tell out his story.

TRANSFORMATION - Jesus gets into the boat and this newly liberated man wants to join the team. Wants to be with him, with Jesus. But remember how the story begins? The story begins with the man’s terse, "What do you want with me?" But now the changed man’s question becomes "can I be with you?" But Jesus sends him on his way into a mission to the Decapolis.

 

Try viewing this story from the perspective of the swineherds. How would they have reacted to the strange story that involved their pigs? How about the demonized man?

Can you recall any modern day story of the disturbing Christ? Any disruptive moments, when through a chain of circumstances someone has experienced their own demons and who, with God’s help, was able to return to wholeness?

 

This is not an easy story to retell in one sense, because it raises as many questions as it answers; the drama itself is foreign, primitive to most post-modern ears. So the proclaimer will need to determine what from this story can address our lives in our time.

If I preach on this passage I would want to find some examples of a current person who suffered horribly from some oppressive spirit or system. I might use John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) as a way to enter the story.

Move to Luke’s rhetorical purpose for including the story-Christ’s ability to walk into the worst of chaotic lives and to transform them into places of peace and salvation.