“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  And when he had stepped out of th boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him.  He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him.  Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.  When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’  For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’  Then Jesus asked the him. ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion for we are many.'”

Mark 5.1-9

As I continue to reflect on O’Connor’s book Our Many Selves, I am reminded of a thought that I had some months ago of discussing racial identity through the story of Legion.  I believe that when we identify by a race that we take on multiple identities and subsequent character traits.  When we identify ourselves by a race, we are also given the mindset and behavior, stereotypes and prejudices, the enemies and allies of that social grouping.  We inherit its history, its understanding, perspective and strategy for defense.

The man identified himself by what possessed him.  He identified himself by what oppressed him.  Even though it caused him to be separated from other people and to even harm himself, he did not  challenge the name.  Instead, he allowed what pained him to speak for him.  The regiment had grown so large inside of the man that he no longer was able to speak for himself.  He had loss control of his actions and even though the host, he could be used to inflict harm on himself.

A legion represents one thousand soldiers and for the man possessed, one thousand organized and highly trained demonic spirits. One thousand agendas, skill sets and abilities, none of which supported the man’s true identity.  One thousand devices, tricks or schemes– all of which worked against him.  One thousand distortions and faulty representations of the will of God.  And they were trained only to kill and to destroy.

Yes, the possession was demonic and I would argue that race is evil, a demonic possession of what rightly belongs to God.  And there are a legion of spirits, some of which I named in the post “A Whole Committee of Selves,” that are organized under the command of race.  They are afflicting identities.  They are identities that conflict with the identity of the believer in Christ and when they come into contact with the presence of Christ, I am certain that they will respond as this man’s legion did.  They will bow down and ask Jesus what he wants to do with them.  They will lose all control and will only be able to make requests and not demands as they asked Jesus to send them into the swine (verse 12).

It is my prayer today that we would encounter Jesus in this way and that the legion of racialized selves that torment us would be cast out, that we would clothed with the garment of righteousness and fully possessed by the mind of Christ. Amen.