We are Legion

My father has seen Jesus more than anyone I know. Recently, he told a story about meeting and chatting with a recently paroled convict who was washing up in a restaurant bathroom. As my dad returned to his table to join my stepmother and sister, he announced, "I wonder if I have just seen Jesus." This garnered suspiciously little response.

Maybe you would have had follow up questions if someone you know saw Jesus. Not us. This happens all the time. He sees the face of Jesus in all of us, but he especially sees Jesus in the faces of those for whom life has been particularly tough.

Once, I maybe saw Jesus laying on the sidewalk, flat on his back, eyes wide. “Are you okay?” I asked. “No!” He said. “Should I call 911?” “Yes,” he said. I started to dial.

He was bald. His teeth were yellow and crooked. A prominent front tooth was missing. His pants were secured below his hips with a belt. “I’m diabetic,” he said. I noticed that he was wearing a hospital bracelet, and I used the information on it to answer the dispatcher’s questions.

“Is he combative? Does he have a weapon?” These questions embarrassed me. “No, it’s nothing like that!” I said, while mentally noting a small knife poking out of his pocket. “He’s sick. He’s wearing a hospital bracelet.” He’s probably Jesus.

“You have beautiful toes,” he said to my friend. She moved them a bit further from his face. “I want to suck your toes. Do you want me to suck your toes? You have a beautiful body.”

OK, that does not sound like Jesus.

I put my phone behind my back to keep the 911 operator from hearing me, and I stage whispered, “You need to stop saying that stuff.”

“I like her body!” Vigor has returned to his voice. “You can’t make me not like her body!”

Jesus never talks like this to my dad.

There’s a story in the Bible about a time (actual) Jesus encountered a man who was possessed. He was naked, isolated, hurting himself and hurting others. Jesus recognized this behavior as not of the man, but of the influence of evil on the man. He asked the evil spirit to identify themself and they said: We are legion.

My guy on the sidewalk actually sounds a bit more like that possessed guy than Jesus. He was, thank god, not naked, but he was isolated, hurting himself and hurting others.

What if this behavior was not of the man, but of the influence of evil on the man? What legion of evils might have brought this man to where he is now? racism? capitalism? indifference? selfishness?

What keeps us, non-evil people, from exorcising these demons by building cities with enough housing for all our neighbors, feeding and providing healthcare for everyone, creating safe and sustainable communities?

What makes us, good people, behave in a way that contributes even a little bit to the suffering of others or to the destruction of our world?

Literally, what possesses us to continue to live the destructive American lifestyle?

Could it be that our behavior, too, is not from us but from the influence of evil?

Maybe it’s evil working to convince us that the problems of the world are too big for one person to make a difference. Or evil that convinces us that we cannot keep our families safe and fed without participating in a capitalist system that privileges the very wealthy and is indifferent to everyone else. Maybe it’s evil that shows up as greed, power, fear, nihilism.

My dad points out that it doesn’t matter if the Jesuses he meets are actually Jesus. What matters is the way we treat our most vulnerable neighbors.

In the same way, it doesn’t matter if we are literally possessed by the devil.

We are living in a way that hurts people and is ultimately destructive to community and to the planet.

Our demons are legion.