This morning I read the following story:
“They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!’ For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
“Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’
“‘Legion,’ he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
“A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
“When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
“The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him,” (Luke 8:26-39).
I’ve read this story many times before, but (as is often the case with scripture) I saw something new this time, something I have never noticed before. Verse 29: “…Many times [the demon] had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places,” (italics added).
I don’t want to be guilty of making too much of a single sentence, but this seems significant to me. Significant because this is so often the nature of what Satan does, what sin does. Sin is a dividing force. It destroys relationship. It drives us all into solitary places.
I don’t believe in right and wrong in the traditional sense. I don’t believe there are abstract concepts of good and evil that somehow influence the universe. I believe there are things that draw me to God (who is good, who is right) and things that separate me from him. These things (activities, attitudes, actions) are “wrong” or “evil” because they separate me from what is good.
God wants one thing from us, and in that sense His desire for us is pure—he only wants real relationship. Real relationship requires devotion and sacrifice, and so other things come into play, but really he only wants this one thing. Relationship. So Satan’s goal is similarly simple: stop relationship. Drive them into solitary places.
Sin isolates. It separates. We have to hide it, to deny it, to distance ourselves from others and from God because we are ashamed, or because we don’t what to be found out or because we want to keep on doing what we know is wrong. Or maybe for all these reasons.
The opposite, then, is union, but this requires us to bring our sin out into the light, to show it for what it is, to fess up, to own it. Only then can we move past it because only then can the hurdles it has created to relationship be overcome. Only then can intimacy with God and with others be achieved.
