The story of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac in Luke 8:26-39 could be read as just another miraculous healing.  A man is set free from all that has imprisoned him: physically, socially and psychologically.    

But healing miracles are never just about the person being healed they are metaphors for some larger social ill in need of healing.   

The miracle takes place in Gerasa, the site of a massacre of Hebrews resisting Roman rule.  The demon calls itself Legion, the term for a garrison of 5-6,000 occupying forces. Even the pigs echo the symbol of the infamous 10th fretensis legion. All of these references would be familiar to those who witnessed the healing. 

Isaiah 65:1-9, reminds us that Jesus is entering a dangerous and prohibited place, that dealing with swine and entering tombs is forbidden.  The story assures us that there is no human condition so abject and abominable that God cannot enter, bringing healing and redemption.   

But just as the people of God in Isaiah have rejected God’s “outstretched hands” and turned instead to other powers, so the crowd in Luke reject Jesus.  They are “seized with fear”.  They understand that Jesus’s actions are about more than the healing of one the man; they are a challenge to all the forces that constrain and exclude God’s children.   

They are a challenge to us too: can we see what binds us? do we believe that God’s power is greater than the forces at work in oppression and injustice? do we have the courage to challenge them? do we want ourselves, and all God’s, children to be free? 

Some major roof maintenance started this week. The old roof is being re-covered but with new upstands and skylights ( to replace the existing, many of which are broken). The new ones are triple glazed, improving heat performance.