SUNDAY, JANUARY 21 - I SEE YOU
January 21, 2024
Deborah Laforet
I See You
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
This is an unusual story. It’s either a story on which preachers love to preach or they
avoid it altogether. It’s a healing story, but also one that includes pigs drowning in the sea, for no
fault of their own. Whenever this story comes up, I struggle to understand what we are to learn
from it in today’s world. A story about demons and possession is mostly foreign to us, but I
think a story about a mental illness can be very relevant.
Have you heard of Dissociative Identity Disorder? It’s a fairly new diagnosis that used to
be understood as multiple personalities. It’s found in people who survive trauma, usually trauma
from childhood. In a way, they fracture. Instead of growing up as whole, their emotions, their
mental processes, their physical reactions, split into parts. It’s not easy to explain and you can
explore more on your own. Basically, a survivor might have parts that protect them when
needed; they might have child-like parts that are stuck in the trauma of the past; they might have
violent parts that keep others away; they might have parts that have shut down. At different
points in a survivor’s day, different parts take the wheel, so to say, keeping this person safe, or
that’s what the parts think they are doing, but being fractured in this way, may be keeping the
survivor from healing and living a life that is enriching and beneficial to the survivor. So how
might this way of being tie into our story?
Jesus and his disciples have just come through a storm on the Sea of Galilee. It’s a storm
that, when the disciples were panicking and thinking they were all going to die, Jesus calmed the
storm with just his words. After the storm, they land on the opposite shore. It’s probably an
unplanned stop; maybe the storm pushed them to this shore.
We immediately read that an unclean man from “the tombs” approaches them. This is a
place of burials, possibly a graveyard of some kind. This man lives there, on his own, and
probably surviving any way he can. We are told that "he had often been restrained with shackles
and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one
had the strength to subdue him,” but we aren’t told why they needed to subdue him. So this is
where he lived, “among the tombs and on the mountains” where “he was always howling and
bruising himself with stones.”
In this story, we don’t have any clues to the history of this person, but with what we know
about mental health today, I think it’s our responsibility to think about the why, to think about
this man’s circumstances, and to wonder why he was living like this. In the gospels, people are
defined as having demons or being possessed by evil spirits. This may have been one way of
describing people with cognitive disabilities, mental illnesses, or those who were traumatized
and expressing themselves in ways that were hurtful to themselves and others. In those days, and
even for some these days, a rational explanation may have been that people were susceptible to
evil spirits inhabiting them, taking over their bodies.
In the passage Terry read for us, Jesus sees this man and says, “Come out of the man, you
unclean spirit!” Interestingly, the spirit does not immediately leave as happens in other healing
stories. This spirit has a conversation with Jesus. It says, ““What have you to do with me, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God? I urge you by God, do not torment me.” Then Jesus asks, “What is
your name?” and the Spirit responds with, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
For we are many. Maybe this person was fractured into many parts and these parts spoke
to Jesus. What have you to do with me? Do not torment me. We are many.
Two thousand years ago, there was a different level of understanding around mental
health and there may have been limitations on how it was treated. Nowadays, mental illnesses
are still a mystery and we are still learning so much. In stories like these, we can use what we
know now to try and see the characters in a different way. I’m going to use a little of what I
know about dissociative identity disorders to try and reimagine our story.
Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus and his disciples arrive on the shores of this region,
having been blown there by a storm. They encounter this man, who is dirty, bruised, living on
his own among graves, and howling day and night. He is probably quite scary. This man
approaches Jesus and possibly threatens him or is aggressive in some way towards him,
protecting his territory, his home. At first, the disciples try to protect Jesus, but Jesus shushes
them, as he often does in the gospels, and invites the man forward. Jesus then looks at the man,
and asks his name. When was the last time someone asked for his name? Jesus sees him as a
person, a person with a name, a person with an identity, a person with a story. For the first time
in a very long time, someone is looking beyond the filth and beyond the behaviour. This man, on
his own among the dead, feels like he is being truly seen, which probably petrifies him at first.
I imagine Jesus saying to this man, “I see you. You do not deserve to be living among the
dead, isolated and surviving on your own. You are worthy of care and respect. I’m so sorry that
you are here and that you have been treated with such disregard. I see your pain. I see the you
beyond the pain. You are a child of God, a gift from God, and I love you.”
What if this man, who called himself Legion, had this dissociative identity disorder?
What if he had experienced such trauma in his life that in order to survive it, he had to split into
parts - parts that never healed, parts that protected him, parts that kept people away, parts that
helped numb the pain. No one understood him. They saw him as violent. They saw him as a
nuisance. They restrained him and and cuffed him. When that didn’t work, they turned their
backs on him. They cast him out. They were at a loss so decided the best way to deal with him
was to not deal with him. This happens today, by the way, all the time. Many people on the
streets have been cast out or people have given up on them.
Jesus then says to this man, “I see you.” This man, broken into parts, suddenly becomes
aware of something new, maybe all the parts finally feel heard, feel validated, and feel release
from their pain. There are no evil spirits in this man. Instead, Jesus has healed him by seeing
him and by telling him that he is valued and loved. That’s powerful stuff. And we know Jesus
was powerful. In the story previous to this one, he had just calmed a storm with his words!
Jesus had miraculous healing powers, and this man was fortunate to have Jesus come to this
shore, fortunate to have Jesus heal him that day, and make him whole again.
Naturally, this man bows before Jesus and begs him to let him follow him, but Jesus
refuses. He knows this man has other work to do. Jesus tells this man to go to his people and
tell them what the Lord has done for him. We are told that the man went into the Decapolis and
showed what Jesus had done and everyone was amazed. It doesn’t say he told them what Jesus
had done; it says he showed them. Maybe he, in turn, did for others what Jesus had done for
him. Maybe he took the time to see others, beyond the surface and beyond what most people
take time to see. Maybe he simply asked them their name. Maybe he told them they were
worthy of love. Maybe he was able to bring healing to others who had been restrained and
shackled, and kicked out of their homes and communities. Maybe he brought healing to others
as Jesus had brought it to him. Maybe that’s why people were amazed.
Isn’t that what it’s all about. We find healing and we then use this gift to bring healing to
others. I think this was Jesus’ ministry. He saw people who needed healing, and healed them,
and not just those who had physical disabilities or those who were ill, but also others that were
hurting inside, those people who were angry and bitter all the time, those people who were
anxious and depressed, those people who were lonely and cast out. People then were like people
today. Every one of us is hurting. Every one of us has some kind of pain. Maybe not all the
time, but the need for healing, the need to feel valued and loved is universal.
Maybe this is the good news, this is the gospel, this is what we are to share with others.
Not just that Jesus is Lord, and we are saved by the actions of Jesus, but that we can be healed by
the Sacred, that we are seen by the Holy, that we are loved by the Divine, and that we can live
like Jesus did by healing people and bringing wholeness to this fractured world. May it be so
and thanks be to God. Amen.
Mark 5:1-20
(Introduce yourself.)
Mark’s gospel is a fast-paced gospel where we focus more on the actions of Jesus
than on his words. Chapter four of this gospel is an exception. In this chapter,
Jesus shares parables with a large crowd. He mentions listening or hearing a dozen
times. It’s a long passage, so I invite you to lean in and listen to each instance
when Jesus says “Listen” or “Hear”. I’m reading the first 25 verses of chapter
four, and verses 33 and 34.
5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 And
when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an
unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him
any more, even with a chain, 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and
chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and
no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on
the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he
saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him, 7 and he shouted at
the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High
God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he had said to him, “Come
out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 He begged him earnestly
not to send them out of the region. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of
swine was feeding, 12 and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine;
let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came
out and entered the swine, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, stampeded
down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people
came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the
man possessed by demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man
who had had the legion, and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen what
had happened to the man possessed by demons and to the swine reported it.
17 Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. 18 As he was
getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that
he might be with him. 19 But Jesus refused and said to him, “Go home to your own
people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has
shown you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how
much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.
May God grant us understanding of our sacred text. Amen.