Fear

 September 18, 2021

Fear is a great motivator, as any tyrant knows. Make people fear the loss of health, income, privileges, and they can be manipulated into almost anything. We are seeing it play out before our eyes in the public arena today. Fear of COVID 19 has led to the contraction of our economy, the erosion of our freedoms, the pitting of people against each other as hasn’t been seen in my lifetime of 72 years. 

Some fear is legitimate. I stop at red lights because I don’t want to get broadsided by a dump truck. On the other hand, I don’t avoid black cats for fear of some superstition. Mark’s gospel speaks often of how fear controls our lives. In the 5th chapter, a woman is afraid when she thinks Jesus is going to berate her for touching his garment when she was in a ceremoniously unclean state. Later that same day, Jesus told grieving people not to fear death. But the strangest story of fear is in this same chapter as Jesus heals a man demon-possessed. 

In today’s world, he would probably be locked away. He lived in a graveyard, possessed such strength that even chains couldn’t hold him. He went about naked, shrieking and cutting himself with stones. People were understandably afraid of him. But when Jesus succeeded in casting out the demons, sending them into a herd of pigs which then stampeded and drowned, we are told that the people, seeing him sitting quietly in his right mind, were afraid. What was there to be afraid of?

This is a story not just about a particular crazy man, but of a crazy society. It isn’t uncommon in a school setting for example, for one child, usually female, to be picked on by the rest of the class. She is the scapegoat, the recipient of all the inner demons and evils of the rest. This child often so deeply desires companionship that she will endure the most humiliating offenses just to be a part of the group. In a perverse way, she needs the attention, and even more perversely, the group needs her. They can only function when they have this one person upon whom to cast their collective sins. 

Here, the demoniac is chained by the demons, shamed by his nakedness, seeks his own execution by stoning (a ritual form of execution in that culture), and lives in the tombs as one already dead. The thousands of demons inhabiting this unfortunate soul were once in the people of the area. Like the bully classmates, they projected their ire and dysfunction upon him. Jesus sent the demons, not back into the townspeople, but into the pigs who then drowned, just as Scripture says, our “sins he has cast into the deepest sea.”

The people were afraid, begging Jesus to leave, because he had upset the carefully laid social, psychological, and spiritual balance their dysfunction had created. Without the madman, who would take the blame for their sins? They would have to look into the mirror, which is always a scary proposition. Instead, they begged Jesus to leave; they would find another scapegoat, and all would return to normal. 

It happens over and over. The alcoholic sobers up, and the family falls apart. They need him to keep drinking so they can continue to be the aggrieved spouse and children. If he cleans up his act, there is no dark backdrop against which to live their lives. The family dynamic has been blown apart; they are afraid, and ask Jesus and his healing to leave.

The Gadarene community needed the Gadarene demoniac in order for them to function. In truth, they were as sick as he. Our society is as sick as the demoniacs we excoriate. We can kill the Saddam Husseins and convict the Derek Chauvins, but we need them and their ilk, so when Jesus comes along with healing power, we are afraid…afraid that our own demons will be exposed, afraid to let go of the sick treadmill we’re on. So we ask Jesus to leave; maybe not in so many words, but at the very least, we desire to put him on a leash or in a box where he cannot mess things up. 

Yes, fear is a great motivator, and we have lots of it because we prefer a familiar bondage to a foreign deliverance. We cannot solve the problem ourselves, but pride and the pursuit of power keeps us from receiving the solution God offers. May he have mercy on us all!