They Begged Him to Leave Them Alone

Today the daily lectionary offered a reading from Matthew about the demons who were cast out of two dangerous men that lived in the cemetery. Apparently the demons found such behavior by Jesus to be torture and complained that he was breaking the groundrules for the inbreaking of God's new world. The villagers had restricted these afflicted men to the cemetery but Jesus liberated them from their demons so they could be amongst the living. Of course, the demons never go quietly. They wanted to escape into a herd of pigs. Jesus in effect said, "if you feel you belong amongst the pigs - have at it!" Off to the pigs they went and off a cliff into the water went the pigs. News of these events were brought to the villagers - by the pigherders. The people begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone. I wonder. If we see through the eyes of Christ and bring life to those we meet, will the consequence of our vision make others beg us to leave them alone? Could it be, that we might prefer to keep our demons in the dead places of our lives rather than risk the change that may come if we embrace new life in all our being? Do we sometimes wish Jesus would leave us alone? What a tragedy.