Addressing the Powers (Expanded)

The Gerasene demoniac—this unfortunate character has assumed legendary proportions, and the legend begins right here in the story, a story recounted in both the Gospels of Mark and Luke. And it’s exactly the kind of story that a tale written for a Roman or a Gentile or a Jewish or indeed a postmodern audience would include because this tale has it all—horror and pathos, comedy and humour, politics and double entendres (double or hidden or secret meanings). This story is all that it seems and more. It is a story of intrigue—social and political intrigue—and larger than life characters and events.

The demoniac himself is unbelievable—“he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds”. This character is unrestrainable and unbelievable. As Walter Wink puts it, “it really is possible to fashion chains too powerful for anyone to break” (Unmasking the Powers p. 45).

For Rene Girard, the demoniac is a scapegoat—someone who bears the brunt of the community’s social and political dysfunction in the face any real alternatives to change their particular lot. The townsfolk allow his “escape” in order to vicariously pursue and subdue the real demons that beset their community. This outcast has survived and escaped. Somebody must be arranging and permitting it.

They must be deliberately keeping him alive, and they chain him in such a way that he can break free. This must have been acted out as a ritual many times before. “The Gerasenes and their demons have for some time settled into some sort of cyclical pathology”… In a sense they must have enjoyed and even needed this drama since [at least in the story in Mark] they beg Jesus to leave immediately and not meddle further in their affairs.

Whether the demoniac is scapegoat or not, he is metaphor—metaphor or symbol for that which cannot be talked about directly, the domination of the Roman conquerors and the suppression of the peoples over whom they reign. The person with unclean spirits, the Gerasene demoniac, calls himself “Legion”. The text glosses the name with “for many demons had entered him”. However, “legion” isn’t just about many. It’s also about kind. Legion speaks of troops of invaders and conquerors, suppressing and repressing not just individuals, but whole populations. This story is not simply a story about one person’s possession. It resonates against the background of the whole political situation, not just of the Middle East, but of the “known world” at the time. Roman legions conquered and suppressed peoples creating a “Roman peace” which was not a peace at all for those who were conquered. The Decapolis, the regions of the 10 cities, the region of Gerasa or Gadara or Gergesa depending on which ancient authorities you use, the “Decapolis knew the legions. They were not ‘mobs’… but one of the most disciplined military formations the world has ever known” (Wink p. 46). The Gerasene demoniac was symbol of the community’s oppression and scapegoat for it.

He does what they would like to do: tear apart the chains and shatter the fetters of Roman authority… “No one had the strength to subdue him.” But he had also internalised their captivity and the utter futility of resistance… Here was the perfect scapegoat, a holy fool, an escape valve, a living parable of [the community’s] discontent. Tradition rightly calls him the Gerasen demoniac, for that is precisely his function—to be the demoniac of the Gerasenes. That is why he [or the demons plead, depending on the version of the story] that his demons not be sent “out of the country” [or into the abyss]. They “belong” there. They are the spirits of the region, and the demoniac is their incarnation… He is “occupied”, just as they are… the demons “speak Latin, present themselves as a ‘legion’, and like the Romans have only one wish: to be allowed to stay in the country [or not to be sent into the abyss] (Wink pp. 46-47).

But what does Jesus do? He does precisely what the demoniac does not want, precisely what the demons do not want, precisely what the community does not want, because all of them are complicit in this pathology, this unhealthy cycle, this dysfunction. Jesus addresses the oppressive powers and evicts them.

This is not simply the story of a personal healing; it is a much bigger story than that. This is the story of the way in which the way of Christ challenges dysfunctional communities, political powers, oppressive regimes and the various pathologies which perpetuate and replicate such dysfunctional and repressive situations.

This story asks us to take seriously the socio-political implications of the Gospel; of the gift of Jesus for the world. And it asks us to take those implications seriously not simply for the first century, but for the twenty-first century—for our socio-political situation now.

Who are the powerful people or groups in our society? What do they invade and conquer? And whom do they suppress? Who are the scapegoats who stand in for the oppressions that are really at the heart of our dysfunction; and what unhealthy cycles are we drawn into and refuse to be released from? The answers will be different from those of the time of Jesus and of the writer of the Gospel of Luke; but they will be no less important for us and for our awareness of the impact of salvation or liberation in Christ for our time.

In the face of the aftermath (and perhaps the ongoing nature) of the Global Financial Crisis, as we confront human-made disasters of the proportion of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, and aware of the powerful forces at work in transnational commercial and financial dealings, we must ask questions about how the “powers that be” in our time are working—for whom, with whom and against whom? And we must ask those questions against the background of the Gospel message of God’s love and Jesus’ compassion for the afflicted.

As we prepare for this year’s federal election, we must ask questions about how the “powers that be” in our time are working—for whom, with whom and against whom? And we must ask those questions against the background of the Gospel message of God’s love and Jesus’ compassion for the afflicted.

This is because the demonic is not merely a cluster of pathological symptoms, but a radical rejection of God and a state of estrangement from God, from one’s own higher self (the imago Dei [the image of God]), and from full social being (Wink p. 59).

At the inauguration of The Uniting Church in Australia, a Statement to the Nation was issued. In part, it said:

…we affirm that the first allegiance of Christians is God, under whose judgment the policies and actions of all nations must pass. We realise that sometimes this allegiance may bring us into conflict with the rulers of our day. But our Uniting Church, as an institution within the nation, must constantly stress the universal values which must find expression in national policies if humanity is to survive.

We pledge ourselves to hope and work for a nation whose goals are not guided by self-interest alone, but by concern for the welfare of all persons everywhere — the family of the One God — the God made known in Jesus of Nazareth the One who gave His life for others.

This is the power to whom we owe our only allegiance. It is a power that does not produce dysfunction or facilitate pathological or unhealthy cycles of behaviour. It is a power that works for liberation, for salvation, for justice, for peace and for God’s good creation.

In [Jesus’] encounters with the demonic there was no protracted struggle, no violence aimed at the exorcist, no magical words, crucifixes, holy water—not even the invocation of the divine name. Jesus is totally calm, totally in control. There is no question… whether Jesus will prevail. The demons are depicted as weak fractions of power unable to tolerate the presence of divine authority. The demonic attempts to make a part the whole, and cannot withstand the power of anyone who is related to that Whole in and through and for which all things exist… What made his exorcisms so distinct, and so frightening to those in authority, was their integration into his proclamation, in word and act, of the inbreaking of “the new order” (Wink p. 58).

For if it is because of the power of God that the powers are addressed and the demons cast out, then God’s realm is surely here.

…the early church freed people from the fear of demons, not so much by grim combat… but be a triumphant satire of their impotence in the face of the risen Christ...(Wink p. 64)

The demons flee from the scapegoat into scape-pigs and rush into the chaos of the abyss, the sea, leaving Jesus to move on to the next confrontation, and the community free to face the new reality of God’s liberation in Christ.