What is your name?

Jesus, That’s such a loaded question. We are many. Our source is confusion. We inhabit the shadow side of the soul, where screams originate and pull one into thoughtless emotion. You see us beyond the edge of division and know evidence of our movement in tortured, violent impulses that seek to inflict itself on the unwary and innocent. Hate to us is only the veneer of our energy. Instilling fear is our best defense. We rob identity and blur the lines of self. To ask our name is ludicrous.

He had barely set foot on the shore when Jesus was met by this man. Today we would see a picture of one totally sick in mind and body. Deranged as he was, he lived in the depths of a cemetery for the dead had no power over him. His nakedness kept those who would restrain him at a distance. When any dared to chain him, the restraints broke away fueled by a power that made adrenaline look tame. Unlike the townspeople who would run, Jesus asked, “What is your name?”

Though he had verbalized the question, they’d already spoken, Spirit to spirit. Falling at his feet, this otherworldly voice had begged to be left alone, for Jesus not to return upon itself the agony others knew from it. It knew he could do it, for they recognized him as, “Son of the Most High God.”

In One, Many

Language is tricky. It can read in the singular but contain a plurality. Such was in the man’s reply. “Legion.” Many conflicting voices vied for manipulation telling him what to do to the point he didn’t know who he really was. Mobbed by the trauma of his madness, he was lost to himself.

But it fit. A legion in the Roman military denoted several thousand armed soldiers and the power they wield in conquering battles. For the first century reader, the sense was of an occupying brutal force specializing in oppression. Such was that which replied to Jesus’ question.

Legion. It begs for itself, but who is talking? The man may not be able to separate himself from the illness, mental and spiritual conflicts in his mind, body and soul. Yet, in asking his name, Jesus was pushing into these places, separating his self from these other toxic, dysfunctional, unholy powers that would take over, kill and destroy him. In speaking his name and confusion, he allowed Jesus to touch his torment and begin to heal.

Negotiated Deal

Like superpowers bargaining at the tables for ceasefire, Jesus permitted these forces which controlled the man to leave under their own recognizance. They now would inhabit a herd of pigs, a fitting place for the Jews considered pigs to be unclean, untouchable. Yet, as when lethal weapons are traded on the street, in the wrong hands they can be as deadly as ever. In other words, Jesus knew the pigs would be a perfect receptacle.

Not surprisingly, the pigs madly rushed down a steep hillside into a lake where they drowned. No one else would ever have to suffer their cruelty for they could not exist without something to possess. Thus, not only was the man healed, but no others would be trapped by this evil again.

Still, Not All is Good

Word gets out from the local pig herders what has transpired. People come to see for themselves and find the man with Jesus, clean, dressed and in his right mind. You’d think this was a good thing, right?

It’s hard to understand, but sometimes when an alcoholic quits drinking, the family doesn’t like it. Probably they are not able to adjust because they don’t know the person anymore. For too long they had only known the disease and had lost the relative. Likewise, the town had only known the man as one possessed and didn’t know who this guy was anymore.

It was scary. If Jesus could make this kind of change in the likes of this guy, what might he do to them? The Legion had left one thing behind. Fear. So they asked Jesus to find his boat and leave, go into the same lake as the pigs.

Jesus understood. Yet, even as the man begged to go and become a follower of Jesus, his healer asks that he not do so. Now whole in person before God and his neighbors, he needed to be restored to the life he was meant to live. By both his daily existence and this story of liberation, he would model the transformative power Jesus can have over the forces that control and possess us in life.

Luke 8:26-39