Lessons from Legion

Fifteen minutes of watching the news will convince you that in today's world, truth and freedom have both become relative terms.  I find myself surprised over and over.  Shocked, even.  Has our world really gone so far away from what is right? 

But then this morning I was reading in Luke 8, and I realized that things haven't changed all that much.  I was reading the account of Jesus' encounter with the demon possessed man, where the demons identified themselves as Legion, meaning many.  Although I know this passage well, I noticed something today I really haven't noticed before.  In verses 34-39, after the man has been released from bondage, Scripture describes the reaction of the people in the area.  Verse 35 says, "Then the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid."

What?  He was dressed, in his right mind, and the people were afraid??  Were they not afraid when  he was naked and demon possessed; screaming and ranting insanity?  They were okay with him when he was crazy but afraid of him when he was in his right mind?  That doesn't even make sense.  I used to work in a psychiatric hospital.  I have seen people who are not "in their right mind".  I have seen people completely out of their minds, out of control.  It is a scary sight.  It is enough to make someone afraid.  But someone calm, rational, acting appropriately is certainly not a frightening thing. 

The account goes on to say in verse 37, "Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes  asked Him (Jesus) to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned." 

Here is where the connection comes in.  The Truth has always been frightening and offensive to the world.  People who are of the world would rather be in bondage, living in insanity, than be confronted by the Truth of God.  Satan has so blinded them that they believe their insanity and bondage is really truth and freedom.  The call of Jesus doesn't make sense to a lost world, outside the intervention of the Holy Spirit...

"And He said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.' " Luke 9:23-24