Mark chapter 5 starts with a remarkable story about a man possessed with demons. “My name is Legion for we are many,” he tells Jesus. There are sufficient issues and enough depth to be found in the story to keep a preacher happy for many sermons. I propose to look only at verse 15 where the townspeople come to investigate what is going on and find the man “sitting, clothed and in his right mind.”
The description of the man after Jesus has come into his life compares to the one that starts the chapter. There he is an uncontrollable monster, tearing up every restraint that society can put on him. He incessantly stalks the area ranting and raving, and even cuts his own flesh on sharp stones. His exclusion from society is total. Short of killing him there is nothing they can do but keep re-shackling him and excluding him from normal social contact. Those who suffer from a depressive nature will know these symptoms only too well, although most restrain from allowing their feelings to be expressed in such a physically violent outpouring. And society still treats those who lose self control in exactly the same way. We want the ‘nutters’ locked up and we don’t really care where.
The ‘black dog’ of depression can and does make a person utterly restless and destructive, both to things and people around them, and also to themselves. Today’s culture where young people deliberately cut themselves is no surprise at all, unless it be that they do it quite openly. It is a way to control the boiling anger and frustration they feel: instead of inflicting violence on a loved one or on expensive property, they do so on themselves. It is an expression of sheer disgust for lives that seem hopelessly ineffectual and achingly desolate. In a way, depression and other psychological illnesses are modern expressions of demons; or alternatively, what the Jews called demons were illnesses given animated expression.
Legion’s problems are much worse than depression: here is the real rage of the psychotic. Then, through his meeting with the Lord he finds a place of calm in the storm. In the presence of Jesus he can sit still, his behaviour returns to what is socially normal, and his thinking becomes plain. All the shadows and ghouls that have haunted him during the darkness have melted away like morning mist in the warm light of the love of Jesus. He has found a haven in our Lord. The early church used the anchor as a symbol of faith. Whatever the storm of circumstance that we suffer, the promise of Jesus to take us to a better place is a hope that acts as our anchor.
It would be too easy to infer from this story that coming to faith will automatically end episodes of mental anguish. As with all things, total release will only come in the next world. I’m sorry to say that the depression I described earlier can afflict believers too. But there are two things that are worth pointing out. Firstly, when the blues strike, the doctor is likely to be Jesus (Bible, prayer and fellow believers) rather than your GP. The depression is more likely to pass soon and be less severe than formerly. Secondly, Jesus sends Legion away to tell people what God had done for him. He obeyed –and he gave his personal witness to many people – his own history! Depressive Christians are allowed to ‘remember’ their pain so that they can witness to God’s grace more effectively. What good would it be if we met a Legion and could not identify with their predicament? Then they would never find this place of sanity, this anchor in the storm.