Crazy

Advent 2025, Day 20

Luke 8:26-39; Mark 5:1-20

He’s the one they tell their kids to stay away from. “Watch out for that man. He’s crazy.”

The man himself knows this. The demons in his head torment him night and day. He’s unstable, unpredictable, and violent. He terrifies, shocks, and disgusts those who happen to meet him. He’s wrong somehow, and no one can fix him. No one can help. He has driven away anyone who ever cared for him. Beneath the raging of his mind his small voice cries out, I want it to stop; please make it stop. But it never stops. Naked and homeless, he lives among the tombs, far away from any touch or human voice or kindness. He cuts himself. He cannot stop crying.

What did the man do to become like this? What was done to him? What regrets does he carry with this torment? What shame? What anger? What rejection? Or maybe this just happened to him one day, this condition he never imagined. Now he simply is this. These demons own him. He has no other name.

Does this man living on the edge of a lake look out and see the mighty wind cease, the churning waves calm in an instant? Is he witness to this power that comes steadily toward him?

His demons see. They know, and they fear. Jesus is coming for them. So, ever at their mercy, the man throws himself down at Jesus feet.

For so long no one has understood him, accepted him, or even come near him. For so long he has loathed himself and his life. He gave up hope long ago. He waits for the tombs to swallow him.

But Jesus walks straight to the situation, right into this man’s crazy. His command and authority bring instant results. He looks at this castoff nobody and sees the one he loves. A herd of pigs is an easy price to pay for this priceless soul.

Jesus speaks, the man’s body jerks, and all at once his stormy soul is calm as that untroubled sea. He doesn’t notice the disciples staring slack-jawed at thousands of squealing pigs hurling themselves into the water. He’s looking into the eyes of a man who looks right back.

Jesus comes into our crazy. He isn’t afraid of the demons that torment us. He isn’t put off by our naked shame, our violent past, all the harm we have caused ourselves and others. This is what he comes for: to pull us from our torment, to free us, to send our demons running.

The people who know this man see what happens. They watch as the one who terrified them for so long is clothed, is speaking normally, is laughing. They see their pigs floating belly-up and calculate their losses. These people know about power. They are used to authority, but they kind they know isn’t good. It’s scary, destructive, and unpredictable. They might have talked with Jesus as the healed man now does. They might have learned what happens when power comes with love. But they are seized with terror. What else could Jesus do to upend their tight-clutched control? “Please leave us alone,” they say. “Please go.”

Jesus goes, but he isn’t about to leave them alone. They are too afraid to listen to Jesus, but maybe they will listen to one of their own.

“Let me come with you,” the healed man begs.

Jesus shakes his head and points at the people watching from a safe distance away. “They need me. And you can show them.”

He must look a little desperate. Me? Stay in this place? Among these demons? With the people who hated and feared me?’

“Tell them what I have done for you. Show them the way.”

Sometimes following Jesus means going back home. It means watching everyone else sail away and standing there alone, wondering what comes next. Then you follow that well-known path back among the people who gawk at you in suspicion. You go back into the place of your death, and you open your heart to those who have seen your deepest shame.

Jesus knows that man has everything he needs. He has been through death and found life.

A people living in great darkness also live in great fear. But sometimes all it takes is one healed crazy man who stays. A man who continues to live with the people who have seen his nakedness and his shame, who know all his secrets. People he has hurt and who have hurt him. He stays among them and lets them see his healed mind, his wholeness, and he doesn’t stop talking about Jesus.