Perspective: Afraid of Jesus

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Afraid of Jesus

Listen!  I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.

Revelation 3:20 (NRSV)

Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide

From "Demons" by Imagine Dragons

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day, after Jesus sails across the Sea of Galilee with the Disciples, He is met by two men who are possessed by demons.  Matthew tells us that these men have become so violent that people have been avoiding the roads they stalk.  Aware of exactly who Jesus is, the demons become afraid and cry out, "What are you going to do with us, Son of God?  Have you come to torture us before the time of judgment?"  Seeing a herd of pigs in the distance, they start bargaining with Him, saying, "If you throw us out, send us into the herd of pigs."¹

Jesus grants the demons their request.  Commanding them to "go away," He casts them out of their two hosts and into the pigs, and then the possessed pigs run off a cliff and drown themselves in the sea.  The pig herders run into town and tell the townspeople what Jesus has done, and the townspeople confront Jesus and beg Him to leave.²

It appears that everyone is afraid of Jesus in this story.  The demons possessing the two men know that Jesus is the Son of God, so they are afraid of what He has the power to do to them.  The townspeople know that His exorcising the demons from the two men has cost the town a herd of pigs, so they are afraid of the additional havoc He might wreak in the area.  Jesus has saved two men from the demons tormenting them, and He has made it safe for people to travel throughout the area once again.  One would think that the townspeople would be grateful to Jesus, but they apparently find Him even more problematic than the violent demoniacs.

I think that this strange story presents us with a number of questions.

The townspeople presumably want Jesus to leave their area because His casting the demons out of the two men came at a great cost to the town, specifically a herd of pigs.  It appears that they would have put up with the violent demons in their midst as long as their economy remained intact.

What kind of violence are we willing to tolerate so that we may maintain our standard of living?  Consider all of the goods we enjoy every day that are manufactured in places with immoral labor practices or contain ingredients or components that are sourced unethically.  Consider how many people have died during this pandemic because people refuse to change their plans or allow themselves to be inconvenienced.  Loving our neighbors as Jesus taught us, be they across the globe or down the street, is not always easy, and it is not always economically advantageous.

What kind of insidious, invisible forces are we harboring in our lives and in our society?  In the past year, we have seen a number of "demons" at work in our midst.  The racism that is always lurking about in our society has once again been brought into the light.  Selfishness has continued to run rampant at a time when we all need to make sacrifices to keep ourselves and one another safe.  People have become possessed by their own delusions, embracing fictions when they don't like the facts they're presented.

Might we, like the townspeople in the story, be afraid of Jesus?  Though we want Him to save us, might we still be keeping Him at a distance, afraid of what He might do if we truly opened our hearts and our lives to Him?

 

May we have the courage to confront our demons and the courage to welcome the light of Christ into the dark corners of our lives.

Notes:

1. Matthew 8:28-31 (CEB)
2. Matthew 8:32-34 (CEB)

The Gadarene Demoniacs is an engraving made by Léonard Gaultier in the late 1500s.