What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
The demons recognize and know who Jesus is more than anyone else. They are the first to call Jesus the Son of God, not the disciples. But they say this in dread fear- recognizing the power of Jesus and their helplessness before Him. “Jesus, do not torment me”- is not a phrase you could imagine any man or woman saying. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not put out.
Only the dark forces recognize the true spiritual warfare at stake for which Jesus was born to fight. They recognize the power of their enemy- Jesus. They see their end and beg for a delay to their demise.
What have you to do with me? Or in another translation of the original Greek, “Why do you not leave me alone.” What does the Son of God, pure truth, the light of the world have to do with a legion of demons inhabiting this man? What business does light have visiting the darkness?
Was it the demons alone who spoke this phrase, ‘what have you to do with me’ or did the man possessed himself ask this question, what have you to do with me Jesus because nobody else had anything to do with him. The account in this reading of this man’s isolation and suffering is staggering.
We hear: For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. It is hard to picture a more pitiful and miserable existence than this man was in. His depravity was so great that he was not even among civilization, sleeping in tombs, living among unclean pigs. Naturally he would wonder what business Jesus would have talking to him.
The business is that Jesus has come to liberate us from the darkness. What does Jesus have to do with this demon possessed man- everything. Jesus has everything to do with these demons- for he has come to vanquish them. He does not leave this poor man- separated from society, suffering with an inhabitation of thousands of demons if the name Legion is accurate. This poor man, the lowest of low- Jesus has everything to do with him. I have not come to seek the saved, but the lost.
The demons begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs on the hillside. They drove the pigs over the cliff in order to destroy them. They settled for destroying the pigs- destruction being their ultimate aim in life. As a result of this dramatic scene the villagers and herdsmen were afraid, they asked Jesus to leave. They feared Jesus when it was the demons who they should have feared.
The people feared to see the power that Jesus had healed this man- but they should have seen this as a cause for comfort and peace. The man was experiencing peace and comfort, as he sat with Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. He wanted to stay with Jesus, but was told: Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
As we appreciate how much God has done for us, as we truly recognize how helpless we are on our own, we will want to declare to the world what God has done for us.
When I was first entering seminary after I graduated from undergrad I had many opportunities to tell people what I was pursuing for my career. Often this would be one of the first time church or Christian faith was the center of the topic of conversation with some friends of my parents from my dad’s work place or riding Harley Davidson motorcycles.
“If I ever entered church, flames might spontaneously erupt.” “If I walked in the earth would tremble.” People will make jokes about how unworthy they are to actually be in a church- its not for me, I don’t belong here, I would never fit in, It would be a joke.
How I wish I would have thought more of the man possessed with demons, who said to Jesus, what have you to do with me, have you come to torment me. Well yes it is a wonder that the church doesn’t erupt in flames when I walk in too! Chief of sinners though I be, Christ laid down his life for me. The man possessed with demons had plenty of cause to question how it is that Jesus came to him- and we have plenty of cause too.
By all rights we should be just as afraid and perplexed about how vulnerable we are to the destructive agenda of the demons, with our fallen human nature, with our natural state of seeing God as our enemy who is coming to destroy us.
Yet while we were still sinners Christ died for us. And Christ has come to vanquish all of the demons from our world, be gone and trouble my own children no more! Psalm 139 puts it well:
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
God has everything to do with us. Daily he has everything to do with us. We are reminded of this in the Small Catechism of Martin Luther,the 4th petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Give us today our daily bread: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive daily bread with thanksgiving.
We often stress in the Lutheran church God’s great provision to us in the gift of salvation through Christ’s saving work on the cross. But we also see God’s provision in upholding creation and sustaining our daily lives.
What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
Daily God has everything to do with us, even unto the last day where God has everything to do with us through the cross and empty tomb and his kingdom forever. Amen.