Galatians 2.16-20

Luke 8.26-39

Again, our Gospel this morning is of a ‘certain’ man, our English ‘everyman.’ So, this man possessed by demons is a mirror in which we might catch a reflection of ourselves. And yet, surely we are not possessed by demons!

Perhaps not; even, most likely not; and yet, in our secret heart, who do we serve: God or ‘mammon’? Whose values do we live by; whose wisdom do we trust? When we willingly receive into the gates of our eyes and ears the worldly deceptions of this age, when we willingly embrace the impure images and words of this age, who are we befriending? Friendship with the world is enmity with God (Jm 4.4). For, this world is ruled by the spirit of disobedience; and this spirit works in the children of disobedience through the carnal desires of our thoughts (Eph 2.2-3).

It is by dwelling on these carnal desires that we are enticed away from God. They work in us with the dark energy of disobedience and impel us to make them incarnate in deeds; but the fruit of these deeds is death (Jm 1.13-15); the wages of sin is death (Rm 6.23).

So, we may not be ‘possessed’ by demons, but when we indulge our carnal desires whether in thought or in deed, we are flirting with the ruler of this age, for we are walking in the spirit of disobedience, we are walking in the darkness of death.

Remember the LORD’s WORD against Israel. Beneath the surface of her outward life shaped by the Law of God, in her secret heart, Israel again and again gave herself to idolatry and fornication. ‘This people draws near to me with their lips,’ the LORD said through Isaiah, ‘but their heart is far from me!’ (Isa 29.13) Against the Pharisees and scribes, the LORD Jesus Christ says: ‘You are like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly, but inside you are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.’ (Mt 23.27). And He teaches His disciples: "It is from within, from out of the heart, that evil thoughts proceed, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, pride, foolishness.’ (Mar 7:20-23) Again, we set the words of St Macarius (4^th Cent.) before us: ‘When you hear that the LORD delivered at that time the souls from hell and darkness, and went down to hell, and did a glorious work (when you hear the Gospel of the Gerasene demoniac), do not imagine that these things are so very far from your own soul. Man is capable of admitting and receiving the evil one. Death keeps fast hold of the souls of Adam, and the thoughts of the soul lie imprisoned in the darkness. When you hear of sepulchers, do not think only of visible ones. Your own heart is a sepulcher and a tomb. When the prince of wickedness and his angels burrow there, and make paths and thoroughfares there on which the powers of Satan walk into your mind and thoughts, are you not a hell, a tomb, a sepulcher, a dead man towards God?’ (Hom 11.11, p. 85)

When, therefore we look into the mirror of this ‘certain man’ possessed by demons this morning, let’s not disregard it because we may not be ‘possessed’ of demons. Perhaps not, yet. But what spirit are we befriending when we seek out impure images and entertain impure thoughts, when we let our imagination drift away into empty fantasies, when we cede control of our hands and tongue to deeds and words that dishonor the image of God that we are, and that disregard the God who created us and destined us to attain to His likeness?

Especially we who have been baptized and born from above as children of God, should consider how this ‘certain’ man came to be possessed of demons, so that in the fear of God we might renew our resolve to be vigilant in our baptismal oath to unite ourselves to Christ and not fall prey to the ravenous lion who goes about seeking whom he might devour. The LORD says: ‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man (as at our baptism), he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds [it] swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with [him] seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last [state] of that man is worse than the first." (Luk 11:24-26)

We are drawn away from God, said St James, when we allow ourselves to be enticed by our own desires (Jm 1.13-15). Even we who are baptized, can fall prisoner to the ruler of this age if we allow ourselves to be enticed by our own desires. Our own desires become the bars of the prison cell of our own soul if we choose to indulge them or to dwell on them in our mind, and we become their slave.

Let us therefore attend closely to this morning’s Gospel story. Note that even though he was possessed by a ‘legion’ of demons, this ‘certain’ man had, from somewhere deep within himself, the power, the freedom to overpower the demons so that he could run toward Jesus who had come to him in the sacred mystery of His incarnation. He had the power, the freedom, to repent.

Note the sequence. He beheld Jesus; he couldn’t have beheld Jesus if his face was still turned ‘to the west,’ to the tombs that had become his home! ‘He beheld Jesus’ therefore tells us that he turned ‘to the East.’ Here we see the beginning of his repentance. What did he behold when he beheld Jesus? The supreme Beauty (St Kallistos Angelikoudes, Philo V, p. 165-7) whose sweetness ravishes the soul with a burning desire to be possessed of God. And, it says, he cried out with a great voice as he fell to the ground before Jesus in worship.

And what does he cry? ‘I thank Thee, O LORD, that I am not like other sinful men?’ No, he cries out ‘What have you to do with me!’ This, in fact, is remarkable. The chief character of the ruler of this age and his minions of darkness is conceit and a gloating hatred of Jesus Christ. But beholding the LORD Jesus, the man knows immediately, intuitively – he knows by faith – that he has made himself despicable to God and that he deserves no mercy! One thinks of Peter when he falls to his knees before Jesus at the great catch of fish and cries out: ‘Depart from me, LORD! I am a sinner!’ And of Isaiah when he sees the LORD high and lifted up in the Temple, and cries out: ‘Woe is me! I am undone, for I have seen the LORD of hosts!’ And of Abraham when he falls before the LORD and cries out: ‘Have pity on me who am but dust and ashes!’ Or the Psalmist when he cries out: ‘What is man that Thou art mindful of him!’

But this Jesus is not a worldly tyrant. He is the God of mercy and compassion; and He came into the world not to condemn but to save sinners, to seek out the lost, to raise them from their tombs and lead them to eternal life in His ‘marvelous’ Kingdom of Light! This Jesus is the God who, in the unfathomable abyss of His humility and compassion on the Cross, became sin for us even though He knew no sin, so that we might become in our union with Him the righteousness of God!

Dear ones: the demons’ effort to take possession of us is but a malicious aping of the Holy Spirit’s desire to take possession of us! When demons take possession of us, we become dark, confused, disordered, anxious, terrified, uneasy, afraid, hateful, angry, homicidal, and suicidal. When the Holy Spirit takes possession of us, the ‘faculties of the soul are enticed by the LORD’s supreme Beauty and ravished away to divine Beauty with love and rapture beyond this world’ (St Kallistos, Philo V 167). And so, when we see that this ‘certain’ man was found seated ‘clothed’ and in his ‘right mind,’ we know that the LORD did more than just cleanse him. The LORD took possession of him, and he was found clothed in the LORD’s own Robe of Light. His mind was possessed now by the Consolation and Joy of the Holy Spirit in the love of his heart for the only true God.

If our Gospel this morning is enticing us to run to the supreme Beauty of God to find our soul’s true consolation, we may take this as the beginning and the renewal of our repentance. Our Gospel this morning shows us how to practice this repentance. Through prayer and fasting, through unceasing remembrance of God, call on your soul’s innate power and freedom to turn to the East and with all the might you can muster, run to Jesus and away from the idols, and fall down before Him in worship, and not the ruler of this age hiding in the enticements of the flesh, the seductions of the eyes, the pride of life. If we would remain vigilant in that repentance, we can live in the real hope that the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself will take possession of us and clothe us in His Robe of Light and establish us in our right mind, the mind of faith as ‘partakers of the divine nature.’ Amen!

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