BATTERED LIVES THAT CHALLENGE – Rev. Sujith Sam Mammen, Naranganam
As a community of believers, we are in another season of lent–a time marked with prayers, reflections and self-discipline so as to bring about healing within and around us. Fasting, which forms a major means of disciplining ourselves, is described by the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery as, “a means of opening oneself to the work of God, expressing profound grief over sin and pointing to one’s ultimate dependence on God for all forms of sustenance”. Though fasting, in actuality, connotes openness to divinity and the cultivation of a culture of humility for holistic healing, on account of its widespread abuse, presently, it mostly portrays an image of hypocrisy and religious display, wherein we assert our own will above all divine plans.
Isaiah chapter 58 portrays Israel as attempting to display their devoutness to God through fasting even while they continue to oppress their neighbours. This is unacceptable to God, as they don’t really aim at God’s glory. In the same line, Jesus also exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who disfigure their faces so as to display their fasting before the people. In fact, the act of fasting is not what is condemned, rather, it is the underlying mindset-an attitude to seek self-glorification. An agreeable fast before God happens, when the chains of oppression and the yokes of injustice are removed and well-being of all is made possible. In other words, through our Lenten observations, the oppressed ought to be liberated so that they may enjoy life in its fullness. Jesus, in his Nazareth manifesto also expresses his mission as proclaiming liberty to the captives. In this background let us examine the incident of Jesus healing the ‘man of Geresa with an unclean spirit’ as elaborated in the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 5, which could be seen as a struggle against a form of oppression.
Geresa could not be precisely located today but it can be an allusion to Tiberias, a Hellenistic city ofHerod Antipas, built near a graveyard adjacent to the sea. Being a Roman territory, here Jews were forcefully ordered to stay disregarding their religious practices. This locale can be a prototype of any territory under imperial violence and oppression. Normally the people here, just as it now happens in many parts of the world such asTunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, would like to overpower the yoke of domination, rebel and give vent to their rage against the subjugating agencies. But many would not dare, on thinking about the detrimental consequences. A dominating, oppressive power on the one hand, and on the other, an unventilated rebelliousness or rage within themselves together would have battered the minds of the people of that place.
This situation of oppression is sure to nourish mental instability as it recently happened in the case of Prabhunath from Uttar Pradesh. In 1974 he had been arrested by a suspecting Indian police. Though found innocent a year later, he was kept in prison for another thirty three years. This undeserving confinement caused him mental instability. He was released recently, but he had irrevocably lost much by then. The cases of mental instability or a strange pattern of behaviour were interpreted as ‘Possession with unclean spirits’ in ancient cultures. The ‘man of Geresa, with an unclean spirit’, in the text (vrs 1&2) seems to have some similarity with an unstable Prabhunath. He behaves strangely and wildly by his living among the tomb and by howling on the mountains and bruising himself with stones (vr 5). He experiences the imperial situation in his home town and deals with its oppression through these aggressive and wild behaviours hiding his protest and his attempt to escape.
Having said all these about the battered and oppressed nature of this man the good news is that the scripture does not leave us hopeless. It is to be borne in mind all through our life that the battered lives of the world can find its path of healing in Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus himself was alleged to have been possessed with Beelzebub. He can identify the pain of being branded as the demon-possessed and of course, the emotional burden that might lead one to such a pattern of behaviour. This thought of Jesus aiding this oppressed man and leading him to a fuller life is a marvel during this lent.
How does Jesus aid the man’s healing? In other words, what are the characteristics of the healing initiated by Jesus and how do these insights come to our aid amidst our Lenten observations. Jesus’ healing involves:
1) Identification of the Sources of Oppression.
In verse 9 Jesus asks the man, “What is your name”, to which he answers, “My name is legion: for we are many”. Naming a thing, in the ancient world indicated a power to control. By allowing to name himself, Jesus facilitates the man’s self-identification of the agencies of oppression within him. The person has separate identities that govern him at different times. He has a lack of memory of his original personal information.
His answer is significant at two levels. Firstly, he is oppressed by the Roman legion in charge of that territory. ‘Legion’, is a military term to mark a division of roman soldiers numbering 4000-6000. Secondly, this man possessed by the legion is a representative of his people, in fact a shadow of his local people who also are oppressed and are wild due to the oppression and the lack of space to react. The people are filled with remorse and self-hatred due to their pitiable condition of being oppressed and their covered up negativity, which includes intolerable feelings and impulses are falsely attributed or projected to this lone man-‘the man with the unclean spirit’ by calling him ‘legion’. They turn out to be victimizers when they scapegoat the man who is one among them, as a ventilation of their rage. The people inflict violence upon him by trying to chain him and keep him in bondage. In Frantz Fanon’s words, he bears the collective anxiety of the people over Roman imperialism. In course of time he has internalized the name ‘legion’ as his own. Thus the man is the one who had to carry the violence of all the people in his area. In fact the ‘man with the unclean spirit’ is one who is victimized both by the Roman legions and also by his own people.
Identification and naming of the oppressors is an important task in the process of healing. It is Christ’s healing that is revealed in them who identify the agencies of oppression among us. Last year in Lalgarh, on the borders of West Bengal and Jharkhand, the left-front-headed Bengal government saw the adivasis as a hindrance to their access to the rich resources of the tribal land and linked the adivasi movement for the basic needs, with the Maoists so as to successfully ignore their cries. The Maoists on the other hand, used the pro-adivasi label to cover their heinous acts of violence. The adivasis and their issues are in actual fact sandwiched between the two. Just like the ‘man with the unclean spirit’ these tribal people have to suffer injustice and the two fold oppression from the state as well as the Maoists. They certainly share the rage of the man called as the ‘legion’. Similarly in our society there are many areas where caste, class, gender, sexuality and many other factors become the agencies of oppression. During this season of lent, Christ’s healing requires us to identify these sources of oppression in and around us.
2) Acceptance of the Victim’s Rage with Compassion.
In verses 6 and 7 the man runs to Jesus but he cries out in rage, “What have you to do with me Jesus, Son of the Most High God”. Though he came to Jesus, he still feels the pain of the self-made wounds on his body and the more important pains of depersonalization and isolation. In his violence, Jesus compassionately deals with him. Jesus identifies him as a person who is enraged and cracked under the magnitude of the emotional weight of all the oppression. But his healing from his anguish and pain and rage involved a chain reaction where the compassion that Jesus had on him enabled him to have compassion upon himself. The Lalgarh adivasis, also have come out with a new culture of resistance that emerges from their rage. They created blockades that strictly restricted an outsider’s entry into their territory and prevented especially the entry of the Police who were used by the government as instruments of torture. However it does not mean that in the guise of rage any atrocity can be justified.
Nevertheless, in the case of the `man with the unclean spirit’ the victim’s rage is transferred to Jesus Christ and it is Jesus who asks the `legion’ to leave the man and enter the pigs (vrs 8&13). Pigs were highly considered by the Romans and are used as symbols for Romans in the literature of the day. The pigs into which the legion has moved in, drowns in the sea. The folks of the region really wanted that to happen to the oppressive Romans, thus initiating a new exodus. It is often a good way to transfer our aggression and rage onto Christ and the violent and the oppressive agencies will be dealt with God’s violence.
3) Challenge to Return to the Community for Transference of Healing.
Having found his healing within himself through Christ, the man of Geresa, expresses his wish to be like the disciples who were also in turn, called out to cast demons (vr 18). But Jesus said to him “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you” (vr 19). Home is not used in the narrow physical sense of the term rather it encompasses the whole community of which he is a part. The words “how much the Lord has done for you” implies a lot. The sources of oppression were identified; his rage was compassionately accepted by Christ; and like Jesus Christ, he can deal with the silent violence of his people and transfer the healing that they long for. He returns to his community to be an agent of healing that he himself has enjoyed through Christ.
Submitted by Johnson (not verified) on Sun, 10/07/2011 – 18:35.
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