Scripture: Luke 8:26-39; 1 Kings 19:1-4
Because Scripture deliberately leaves demons under-defined, Christians should neither dismiss nor inflate evil spirits into an equal cosmic combatant, but rest in the truth that Christ has already conquered them through humility and the cross, freeing us from self-absorbed fear to serve our neighbors.
Illustrations: church-lady-snl, paradise-lost, exorcist-horror-films, south-park-movie, greek-daemon-etymology, satan-accuser-etymology, hell-norse-vs-biblical, scylla-charybdis, aristotle-golden-mean, roman-legion-brigade, screwtape-letters, chrysostom-easter-sermon
June 22, 2025
Legion
1 Kings 19:1-4
Luke 8:26-39
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” - 1 Kings 19:1-4
Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. - Luke 8:26-39
What do we talk about when we talk about demons? Depending on your own personal background, you may have a different understanding of the term. And like a lot of powerful images within the Christian faith, Scripture unfortunately does not give direct clarity about demons: what they are, who they are, where they are. Because of this, the language of demons has become ripe for literary and cinematic creativity.
On the old SNL sketch, the Church Lady, Dana Carvey was able to poke fun at the hypocrisy of some public Christians, as well as punctuate any joke with the question, “Could it be Satan?”
Beyond sketch comedy, if there were clear language about demons, we wouldn’t have Milton’s Paradise Lost, and English majors everywhere like me would mourn. We wouldn’t have the Exorcist. We wouldn’t have the South Park movie. Demon possession horror movies continue to be made every year and folks who have nothing to do with Christianity are compelled to see them.
Humans have filled in the gaps of biblical revelation. Not that it is all true, but it is interesting and compelling. But the challenge is when we think about it on our own: do we believe in what has been filled in by humans, or do we believe what has been revealed in the Scriptures through grace, through the Holy Spirit.
It’s important to remember that when we talk about these concepts that are filled with so much cultural meaning, that we talk about the source language of the Bible. The word Daemon in Greek does not correspond directly to the word demon in English. It means more generally a divine power or spirit. An inferior being but not a powerful one. There is no negative or wicked connatation to the term. Shatan in Hebrew, means the accuser. It could be negative. No one really likes to be accused of things. But it isn’t inherently wicked.
This happens with other words in the Bible. The New Testament never talks about hell. Instead, the Bible talks of Gehenna and Hades and Tartarus. Hell is a term that comes from later Norse mythology. But some translations of the Bible translate Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus, all as hell, which makes it seem like a much more structured system than it is. Now, when I preach about hell or I talk about demons, I’m trying to complexify it, not dismiss it. Complexifying something is not about ignoring it or dismissing it, but acknowleding we can’t take it for granted and the meaning is deeper than the surface. We can’t take our understanding of demons for granted, because so much of our understanding of demons comes from movies and books and poems and art. It doesn’t come from the Bible. And we have to realize that we all have blinders on.
Some of us come from traditions that talk about supernatural creatures all the time. For others, it’s completely avoided and you may have never heard a sermon about demons. The thing is, when we read the gospels, there are spirits. There are evil spirits involved in the world. And how do we make sense of them? And we have these twin temptations in both directions. In the ancient world, they talk about the Scylla and Charybdis, like in the Odyssey. Scylla, who’s the monster with the leg of wolves that eats sailors who go by and Charybdis, the big whirlpools that smash ships that go by. So we have to go right in the middle. The golden mean, as Aristotle would say.
The twin temptations for modern Christians are leaning too far into the importance of supernatural creatures and thus creating a Manicheanism, where good and evil are equal combatants versus leaning too far in the other direction, where there is no supernatural and all phenomomena can be explained through sufficient reason.
When we read the gospel for today, there are demons. Not just demons, a legion of them. is a Roman military term for a unit of the Roman army. A legion was about 6,000 soldiers, which means the closest modern equivalency in the US. Army would be a brigade, which is about 5,200 soldiers. That’s a lot. It’s a lot of soldiers. It’s a lot of evil spirits possessing one person. The spirit aspect is important because we can’t even come close to talking about demons if we don’t have some concept of immaterial reality, of a reality that doesn’t have mass or volume.
That could be 6,000 in the same place or 10,000 or 10 million or 10 billion, the more immaterial creatures present do not displace the others. However many there were, it seems like a bad situation that Jesus is walking into in Gerosene, on the other side of the side of the Sea of Galilee. It is a bad situation.
And Jesus casts them out. The demons recognize Jesus. They acknowledge his power. They ask him not to send them into the abyss, another term of the afterlife unexplained and usually translated as hell. So Jesus sends them into a bunch of pigs that go down into the lake and die.
It is quite a strange situation that seems like it would be outrageous if it weren’t true. Like, how would someone think of it? There’s a legion of demons and Jesus has power over them, over even a legion of demons, over even the prince of demons. They cannot withstand him. And so we need not be afraid.
My favorite modern account of Demons comes from C.S. Lewis’s novel, The Screwtape Letters, which is the series of letters from one demon to his younger nephew demon, giving advice on how to tempt people. In a way, it’s a very funny book. and the demons come off as laughable. And I think that that’s the best posture we can take. Scripture describes evil spirits. They exist in some capacity. There are spirits of an immaterial nature that are present in our world. Yes, they’re trying to tempt us and others, offering challenges in this world, but our faith is not found in this climactic battle between good and evil. The battle is over. Even in the book of Revelation, the battle is an afterthought. God isn’t preparing an army of angels and saints for armed combat with the evil one. The evil one was defeated, not by combat, but through death on a cross.
As the early church father, John Chrysostom said at his Easter sermon.
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
Humility defeated the demons. Sacrifice defeated the demons. I think if God thought it was important for us to have a well developed system of understanding demons and angels throughout the history of the world, then scripture would be more clear on the subject. But it’s not.
Scripture is clear about what matters and what matters to save us. And that is the power of Jesus Christ over all creation and all spirits. The power of the God revealed as love over all spirits. The power of Christ’s mercy over our own sins. The power offered to us when we commit to Jesus and walk the path of holiness.
So let the demons come. Let the spirits come. Christ is Lord over all. Let us give ourselves to Christ. Let us give ourselves to our Savior. Let us give ourselves to someone beyond ourselves. And if we feel challenged or tempted, and this is my pastoral advice to anyone who feels tempted by a spirit or other things or possessed is like, do something for others. Get out of your head. The devil wants us stuck in our own head. This is what C.S. Lewis points out, people stuck in their head are the people most ripe for temptation, or people full of themselves, whether they’re full of themselves in their faith, or full of themselves in other things. Serve your neighbors. Give in a concrete way, even if it wasn’t the plan. Because Christ has already won the victory. Christ cast out a legion, 6,000 demons possessing one person. Christ will cast out whatever spirit is going on in your life, in the life of the ones you love. It is not an equal battle. Jesus is Lord. Let us be at peace in that.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.