Dignity
/Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. -Mark 1:23
There’s plenty of language in the bible that we no longer commonly use. In the gospel reading for this Sunday, for example, we hear about a man with an ‘unclean spirit.’ In this story it seems the man was the kind of guy that disrupted a gathered community in some way as Jesus was there in the temple teaching. There are many instances of people with unclean spirits or with “demons” in the gospels. In some cases, like the boy “possessed by demons” who would periodically fall and twitch and foam at the mouth, we would recognize the description of severe epilepsy and would term him “ill” rather than as being beset by demons. Others described with unclean spirits or demons we might call mentally disturbed or disruptive or combative or mute or deaf or unable to participate in community life for any number of reasons.
As outdated as the terms unclean spirits and demons may sound to our ears, I think there is something important for us to examine in this biblical way of naming a variety of troubled states. Because in the bible, if a person has an unclean spirit or a demon, it means that something has befallen them that is out their own control. They are struggling with an unfortunate condition, a misguided understanding, or some kind of irresistible temptation that is causing them to act out in a way that separates them from others in community.
There is a certain compassion in recognizing that people can be ‘overtaken’ by misfortune or wrong instead of assuming they’ve caused or chosen it themselves. There is a wisdom to recognizing that people often get trapped by things they are not able to do much of anything about. There’s also a certain empathy to it, because who’s to say where a demon or an unclean spirit will choose to roost next? Such things could happen to anyone, and there but by the grace of God go I.
I was listening to a radio program a few years ago in which a man described a language difference he’d noticed between his native land, England, and his adopted home, America. In England, he said, those who are chronically ill or disabled, poor or homeless, addicted or imprisoned, unemployed or shaped by trauma, are called “unfortunates.” It may sound a bit condescending to use that term, he explained, but at least it is a term that recognizes that fortunes can change in ways beyond our control, and that people are all dealt different hands in life, some of which are quite poor hands to play. He’d decided that the term ‘unfortunates’ was far preferable to how such people are often viewed in America - as ‘losers.’
Now, I am not advocating that we go back to demon and unclean spirit language, nor am I satisfied with the term “unfortunates.” But in our very competitive and judgmental society, we too often lose sight of compassion, wisdom and empathy toward those who have not been able to grab their piece of the American pie. We talk about them as if they should have kept up or worked harder, like we did. They should have paid better attention in school - they just need to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps. America is a land of opportunity, we say, and the gold ring is out there for anyone to grab, right? So get in the game.
We’re clear about the gold ring everyone’s working so hard to grab, but we’ve lost sight at times not only of the factors stacked against many people that keep them from being able to get a grip on a gold ring. We’ve lost sight of the advantages others of us have had that allow us to simply assume the gold ring ours to grab if only we want it enough.
Jesus had compassion on the least of those in his own society. He ate and drank with sinners, healed those who were sick with hopeless conditions, brought those who’d completely fallen off the edge back to life and back into the arms of community. He reminded people that even those who were considered lost causes were still in God’s sight, beloved and worthy. He was able to transform people with a touch or a word.
With Christ as our word, we too are called to remember that there is no such thing as a loser in the eyes of God. We, too, are called to proclaim the worth and dignity of every human being with our own words and actions in this world.
