Getting Rid Of The Demons Within

The story of Jesus and his disciples meeting a demented man along the shore of the Gerasenes (Mark 5) gives the haunting picture of a person who is out of control. "No one could bind him any more, even with chains," Mark says. It is a picture of illness not known about in those days, and even today is something of a mystery.

But Jesus reached down into the very center of this man's deranged mind and spirit, with the power to expel the evil spirits lodged within. Here was a man who was lost to society, because he was in need of wholeness, togetherness. He was like a wheel without a hub. He had no center!

Even today, Jesus has much to do with chaotic lives. Persons who are torn with conflicting desires, and confused minds, can never have the fullness of peace which God can give.

And the world is filled with people who are like the famed character of legend who jumped upon his horse and rode off in all directions at once! We have no purpose, because we have no one consuming goal.

One woman, after hearing William James lecture on pragmatism repeated lovingly, "Ah, fragmentism, what a beautiful word!" But fragmentism is not a beautiful word! And yet, into fragmented lives, Jesus can come to give the command, "Come out of this person, you unclean spirit."

How this strange pathetic man of the Gerasenes resembles me. "What is your name?" Jesus asked. And the reply was,, "My name is Legion, for we are many." Ah yes, there seem to be hundreds of persons within us, pulling in opposite directions; thousands of clamoring voices in the town meeting of our minds. And there is no one strong chairperson to sound the gavel and bring a cluttered mind into order.

The reality of Christian conversion comes when that oneness of life takes place, and the end of the civil war is reached. When Jesus comes, the storm disappears, and I can find my wholeness in Him.