Inappropriate Fear – Luke 8:26-39

“COVID-19 fears keep millions of Americans from seeking hospital care” So reads the headline of the Star Tribune in June 2020.  The virus is to be feared, but people with serious, life threatening illnesses have not had more fear of those conditions than of covid.  Sometimes inappropriate fear can keep us from what is best for us.

Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. 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 desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

   When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “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.  (Luke 8:26-39 ESV)

Demons know who Jesus is and fear him because they know he is their true master and that their fate is in his hands.  Apparently there is an awareness that they are going to be sent to the abyss and these particular demons were concerned that Jesus might send them there immediately, so asked to be sent into the pigs instead.  This also suggests that they desire to be embodied.  We don’t know how this man had allowed them so much control over his life but they made his life a living hell.  They also gave him unusual strength so that no one could control him.  Were people afraid of him?

Jesus merely speaks a command and the demons begin trying to reason with him.  But his authority is irresistible.  We have Jesus’ authority to do the same thing.  When others see this power they may get fearful, as the people of this region of the Gerasenes did, and as the disciples did right before this when Jesus calmed the storm.  But Jesus only used his power for good and if those who witnessed it had been wise they would have begged Jesus to stay even as the demoniac did.

How have you seen Jesus’ power and what emotion has it stirred in you?  Why would the town’s people be more afraid of Jesus’ authority over the demons than the wildness of the demon-possessed man?