What is your name?

This week is a fun one, cause we get to talk about lots of exciting things and weird, strange, and bizarre words, like the word, “demon.” Now when I think of demon, there are several things to come to mind, most of which look something like Gollham does in the Lord of the Rings movie. I think of little wiry creatures running around and waiting to attack you or something. But that’s not really the kind of demons we’re talking about today.

Read with me in your Bibles from the gospel according to Mark, chapter 5, 1-20.

So this story takes place right after Jesus has decided to leave Galilee, and take his disciples across the Sea of Galilee into the region of the Gerasenes, which was a predominantly Gentile region. If you remember a while back when I talked about fear, this happens right after that story.

Jesus is getting out of the boat with his disciples, and a man has been running towards him and falls at his feet. The man, according to the story, was possessed with demons, and he had been accused of gashing himself and impossible to contain. Now, I don’t really know what it means by “demon-possessed.” A whole bunch of people have taken a whole lot of time to argue what this phrase means exactly, and have come to no absolute confusion. However, this phrase itself tells us what this man was struggling with.

We often talk about the resistance from external forces in our lives, the evil things that arise and challenge us in our faiths and our relationships with God. Here, this man is struggling with something that is internal. This legion of evil forces is something that lives inside of him. He is enslaved by something inside of him.

I want you to think about this for a minute. Think about how much time we waste with selfish, internal concerns. Worry, guilt, shame, lust, envy, pride, self-deprecation…I could go on for days on that one. We all have things that control us from the inside, things that are unwarranted and unexplainable, and they live inside of us and destroy us.

Look what happens to this man, Legion, who is controlled by these internal demons. He is out of control. He has lost so much of himself that he is now even physically hurting himself. It’s easy to think that this man is crazy, which he very well could be in the story, but think of the things that we do to ourselves as a result of our demons, the evil that we have allowed to live inside of us. We beat ourselves up all the time…we tell ourselves we’re not smart enough, not pretty enough, not athletic enough, not good enough for so-and-so, we even physically abuse our bodies as a result. We alter who we are to make ourselves feel better, when in reality we are just hurting ourselves over and over again and giving the demons more control in our lives.

10"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10

Now, perhaps my favorite part of this story is how Jesus responds to this man. The man is begging Jesus to not torture him, asking him, “what do you want with me?” And Jesus, creative as always, answers, “What is your name?”

I love this. In the times of Jesus, a name was more than just something you called yourself. Your name was your history, your future, your family, and your identity. So, here, Jesus is basically asking this guy, “Who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you going? And who do you belong to?”

Whew.

This man, arguably insane, controlled completely now by his demons, is lying at Jesus’ feet, and Jesus’ response is to ask him who he is, and who he was created to be.

This is huge. Jesus commands this legion of demons (meaning at least 2,000) to exit this man’s body by the question of his identity. Put that into the context of your life. What is your name? Who are you? Where did you come from and where are you going? Most importantly, who do you belong to?

How much of our pain comes from not being able to answer this question?

In John 8, verses 31-36, Jesus tells us the importance of this answer:

31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
33They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?"
34Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35"The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

In this story, the author spends a great deal of time describing the way Jesus was teaching and speaking. It reminded me of one of the teachers that I had in Italy, Leah. Leah was my art history teacher, so she not only taught lectures, but she was the one who led us on our field trips to all of the different sites. She was phenomenal. She knew SO much about what she taught that it was absolutely impossible not to be completely enthralled with what she was saying. Sometimes, we would have class at 9 PM in a room that was over 100 degrees and she would even have the frat boys in our class completely engaged in conversations about the meaning of a painting. It was fascinating. And it was all because she was so confident, passionate, and knowledgeable.

Some of you are probably thinking of great teachers that you have had in the past. Maybe you’re thinking that about me…ha. Leah was affective in her teachings because of what she knew, and how she conveyed that.

Jesus did that and more. The scriptures talk about the authority with which Jesus taught. He commanded the attention of his audiences, because he offered a message that was completely different from everyone else, mostly because of the way he was saying it. He spoke with ownership of what he was saying, confident and passionate and knowledgeable. And he transformed the world with this method.

What would happen if we lived confidently, passionately, and knowledgeably about who we are?

We would transform the world, just as Jesus did.

When Jesus was on Earth, he had a vision. A mission statement, if you will. He imagined what it would be like for the realm of God to break into the world. What it would be like if Heaven came to earth. Sound familiar? Ha.

Jesus revolved his entire life around achieving this goal. He knew who he was, where he was from, where he was going, and who he belonged to.

I want to be clear, here, because I don’t want you to think that you need to know what you’re doing for the rest of your life (Lord knows I don’t), or your entire family history.

Who are you? What gifts were you given, and what do you struggle with? What are your demons?

Where did you come from? What parts of your past are your demons, holding you back from being who you were created to be?

Where are you going? What is your vision? What are you going to live for passionately, knowledgeably, and confidently?

Whose are you? YOU ARE GOD’S CHILD! You were created to serve and glorify him!

Ask yourself these questions. This is how Jesus responded to demons, or internal evils. How will you respond? What does that look like? What do you think will happen if and when you respond like Jesus did? What will other people’s reactions be?

As you go into your small groups, I want you to discuss the specific demons that we struggle with and specific ways that we can confront our demons. Then, discuss how confronting these demons will help us live out our vision. If you want to use HPUMC youth’s mission statement as a vision, go for it.

What is your name?

Let’s pray.