Possession

However, perhaps
even more important than the translation of the word is how we think of this situation in terms of ownership. It was the
man who had the demons, not the other way around. It was the man who was in
possession of the demons, not the demons who possessed the man. Although in the
case of the demoniac of Gerasenes, the man seems to have been almost completely
under the control of the demons, he was still the one who had ownership over
his body. He still was in control of an independent will, although, for so long
had he given demons reign of his actions, he had all but forgotten how to
exercise his own will. But even with this, a person will always retain his
ability to choose or not to choose, as clouded as that distinction may appear.
In some
ways, it is not unlike a chemical addiction that some people have. These
addicted ones become so dependent upon the drug that it is actually difficult
to tell whom or what is in control. Our bodies can become so addicted, that to
not have the chemical would mean death. In cases such as this, it would seem
that the drug is the one in control.
This is a
terrible situation and I am not trying to pretend that it is not sometimes
extremely difficult, but despite how it may seem, the person is still the
person. It is not the chemical that is the person. Our free and independent will
is something given to us by God and it cannot be taken away by a demon, or a
drug, or anything else. (to continue press the READ MORE button below)
Jesus Speaks to the Demons
This man met
Jesus, as Jesus and his disciples were nearing the city. Seeing the demoniac,
Jesus spoke to the demons and commanded them to leave the man alone. Jesus told
them to come out of the man.
This made
the man fall down before Jesus and exclaim in a loud voice, “What have you to
do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
It was the
demons who were speaking. As the Apostle James says, “Even the demons believe
and tremble” (2:19).
When Jesus
asked the man what his name was, the demons answered, not that man. “Legion,”
they said. The name indicated that the man had not only a single demon, but many
demons had entered the man. In fact, the man had so many demons that even
though I told you that perhaps possession is too strong of a term to describe
the reality of the situation, one can see how the word would find its way into
the story. The man seemingly was completely at the mercy of these demons, his
own will being completely suppressed by them.
But when
this legion of demons encountered Jesus, they knew that something was going to
change. When Jesus commanded them to come out of the man, they begged Jesus not
to send them to “the abyss.”
The Abyss
What we know
of this place called the abyss is actually very little. I associate it with the
location and the condition of an existence before God began his creative acts
in the first verses of the book of Genesis. In the second sentence of this
book, we learn that the condition of the earth at that time was that it was
formless and void, and there was only darkness over the face of the deep. This darkness of the deep is the abyss. This
place of deep confusion and darkness was the condition of existence before God
created light and order. What is called the deep is the state of existence
apart from the creative power and the presence of God.
In the New
Testament, we learn the most about this abyss with what is written in the book
of Revelation, although it really is not much. It is sometimes called the
“bottomless pit.” One of the verses of Revelation says that when the door was
opened to the abyss, “smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great
furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.” Other
things that emerge from the abyss when they are given permission in the end
times are a whole host of hideous and demonic beings. We read also about this
in Revelation.
In simple
terms, the abyss, the bottomless pit, and other words that we may associate
with this same place, such as hell, is
the state of existence completely apart from the presence and influence of God.
As a theological question, one may wonder that if in fact “the deep,” as it is
called in Genesis, existed before creation, and this same deep or abyss is the
dwelling place of demons; then did not demons exist before God began creation? It actually is somewhat of an important
question, because if they did exist before God began his creation, it would
make the demons creatures that also must have existed in eternity.
Where Did the Demons Come From?
But the
answer to this question of whether the demons existed at that time is “no,”
they did not exist before God began his creation. In Genesis, the deep was
merely the state of existence apart from God before God created, and that state
of existence was a void. There was nothing at all apart from God, only God
alone. At that time, the deep contained absolutely nothing.
But if this
is so, we may ask, then where did the demons come from?
When God created all that there is, this
included creating the universe of stars and planets, it included creating the
earth and all that it contains, it included creating plants and animals and men
and women, and it included creating other beings of heaven.
To some in
this creation, God endowed a special gift – a will that is free. We as people
have this gift. It gives us the freedom to make choices that have consequences
not only for today, but also for eternity. We can even choose to follow God or
not. It is a gift for us, but it is also one of extreme consequence, because
whatever we choose, it will affect us for eternity.
God also
apparently endowed these heavenly creatures with the same ability and freedom
to choose to love God. Many, it seems, chose not to love God but instead to go
their own way. In fact, it not only seems so, but the Bible also tells us that
this indeed did happen. These creatures of heaven chose to live apart from the
presence and influence of God. Since they, at the time of their rebellion,
could not conceive of existence completely apart from the influence of God,
they did not realize the horrible consequence of their choice. The place of
existence apart from the presence of God is the abyss. Imagine their horror
when they saw what existence actually was apart from absolutely any influence
of God.
It is no
wonder, in the book of Revelation, when these beings are given permission by
God to emerge from the abyss for a time, that they are eager to do so. Even
they do not want to exist in a place absolutely apart from what God has
created. With absolutely nothing of God in that place, with absolutely no
influence of God, existence is horrible beyond what anyone can imagine.
That is why even
in the very last days of the earth, the demons are still trying to do anything
that they can to avoid existing in the abyss. That is also why Satan and the
demons today are constantly trying to take the creation away from God by doing
battle with him in the lives of men and women, trying to convince us to join in
their rebellion and abandon God. Since we, as humans have been created in the
image of God, they seem to think that we hold the key to a victory that they
somehow hope to win. It will not happen.
Do Not Send Us to the Abyss!
Concerning
the demons in the case of the demoniac living among the tombs of Gerasenes, it
is no wonder that when Jesus commanded the demons to come out of the man, they
begged Jesus not to send them to the abyss. At all costs, they did not want to
go to that horrible place. There happened to be at that time, a large herd of
pigs that was feeding on the hillside. The demons they begged Jesus that
instead of sending them to the abyss, that he would allow them to enter these
pigs. For reasons that I do not know, Jesus gave them permission to do this.
The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down
the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
People
sometimes question the ethics in Jesus doing this, seeing that these pigs may
have been the livelihood of the people watching them. I have heard sermons on
this in the past, or read about it in some book, and the speaker or writer
focuses on defending the fact that Jesus did this because these pigs were
considered unclean animals and the men should not have had them in the first
place. I don’t know about any of this and frankly, it is not that important to
me. I think that spending time dealing with this question takes away from what
is truly important in the story.
What is
important is the fact that the demons dreaded going to abyss so much, that they
were willing for any other kind of existence, even entering the bodies of
swine. Why the pigs immediately ran down the bank and drown themselves in the
sea, I do not know. And what then happened to the demons, this also I do not
know. I only see that the demons were willing to do anything to avoid going to
the abyss.
If We Only Knew
The demons
knew something that we do not know. They knew the terror and the agony found in
the abyss. In some scriptures, hell is described as a fiery lake of burning
sulfur (Revelation 21:8), a furnace of fire; in that place there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).
Again, the
discussion concerning this often is whether or not these words and many others
like them in Scripture should be taken literally, that is, if they are speaking
of real fire, or if the words should be taken figuratively. To me, whether they
are literal or figurative makes not much difference. I cannot imagine an
existence as terrifying as being burned in an unquenchable fire, not even
having the relief of being able to succumb to the blaze and pass into oblivion.
If this is a literal fire or if Jesus was just trying to give us a picture of
what it is like, we should understand the terror involved.
These demons
in our story did. They would do anything to avoid going there. But unlike us,
they do not have a choice. After their rebellion against the Lordship of the
Creator God, we do not find in the teachings of Scripture that they have been
offered a second chance.
But you and
I have. For reasons that we do not know, God has offered us grace. He gives us
the opportunity for a life that is eternal, rather than the agony of a death
that also continues forever.
Frankly, it
is astounding to me that we as people can be so cavalier about the abyss. We
tell jokes about it, we tell people we are mad at to go there. Some people
speak of it as if it won’t be so terrible if they are assigned to that place
when they die here on earth. They imagine that if the people they hang out with
are going there, it cannot be so bad.
I am not a
person who uses fear to attempt to convince people to follow God. I would much
rather have people respond to God’s great love for them. But it does not do any
of us harm to consider what the demons of this story knew about the abyss.
They, who struck terror on the people of Gerasenes, were themselves absolutely terrified
by the prospect of going there.
We can have
no idea of the extent of the horror it is to exist without any influence of
God. Even in the most horrifying and dreadful situation in this present time,
God is present to some degree. I do not know what the worst personal nightmare
that you can imagine might be, but it does not even approach the terror of the
abyss. By everything within me, I urge you to respond to the grace of Jesus and
let him change your life. There is nothing on earth or even in your imagination
that you should exchange for the grace of God.
Standing before Great Powers
Now we come
to a part of the story that seems almost as strange as what had happened to the
man with the demons. When the herdsmen of the pigs saw what happened, they ran
and told everyone. The townspeople, who had previously tried to control this
demoniac, came and saw him now sitting at the feet of Jesus, fully clothed and
in his right mind.
One would
expect that the people of the town would be overjoyed about what had happened
and welcome Jesus, eager to hear what he had to say. That was not their
reaction. They instead were “seized with great fear” and begged Jesus to leave.
We may
criticize the people of the town because of their lack of reception for Jesus,
but quite frankly, we may not have been much different. None of us like to
stand before powers over which we have no control, even though that power (speaking
of Jesus), may only work for our own benefit. We may appreciate the benefit,
but we would just prefer to leave it at that.
Why was
this? It is difficult to know how people will respond when they are faced with
what they see is great power in the spiritual realms. It is a fearful thing to
suddenly realize that there are spiritual powers over which we have no control.
Most people do not want to think about such things and just go on with their
daily lives.
This is
willful ignorance, because sooner or later we will all need to confront these
spiritual realities. Jesus came to explain some of these things to us, but most
people today are like the townspeople of Gerasenes – they don’t want to think
about them. “Just let me watch TV and go fishing,” they might say.
He Comes to Us in Humility
I think that
God knows this about us. It is not his preference to confront us into
submission by great demonstrations of power. He knows that this may drive us to
submit, but this is not the relationship that he is seeking. As I said earlier,
he is seeking a relationship based on love.
Jesus
understood this about the people of Gerasenes. When the people begged him to
leave their presence, he did not rebuke them. The text tells us that the people
were already seized with great fear. He simply got back into the boat on which
he had just arrived, and returned to where he had been.
But he did
not leave the people without a testimony. The man from whom Jesus had cast the
demons wanted to remain with Jesus. In fact, he begged Jesus that he might stay
with him. But Jesus said to him, “Return to your home, and declare how much God
has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how
much Jesus had done for him.
God also
understands this about us. That is why he does not come to us with great
demonstrations of power to drive us into obedience. He comes to us quietly and
he comes to us in love. For a testimony to help us to learn about him, he came
to us as a little baby born in the most humble of circumstances. He came to us
as one of us, living the same as us and teaching us.
The people
of the Old Testament saw great demonstrations of power from God, but those
things did not make them love God. To us he has given Jesus. Jesus is our
testimony of what the face of God looks like and how the heart of God is
calling you today.
Don’t beg
him to leave, as did the townspeople of Gerasenes. Beg him instead to dwell
with you.
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