Being Authentic

Being Authentic
Luke 8:26-39

Lord God, take my words and speak through them, take our minds and think through them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you, you who are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Eve
Some years ago, I remember being riveted by a film based on a true story. I can’t remember the title, or even the name of the heroine for sure, but I do remember the essentials of the story, and I think her name was Eve.

Eve was a young woman who was having some problems, and went to see a psychiatrist. Things seemed to be moving quite well, until one day an entirely different girl showed up for the appointment. She claimed to be a friend of Eve’s, but was very dismissive of her, and completely different in character. Where Eve was shy and timid, the friend was loud and brassy and over-confident.

It became apparent that these two totally different people, who even looked completely different, were actually the same person. Eve had multiple personalities, and each personality emerged not as part of Eve, but as a completely separate and distinct person. As treatment went on, so various other personalities emerged, although none were so strong as the first two.

It turned out that Eve had had one of those terrible and terrifying childhoods, with a psychotic mother who was very unpredictable. And the only way the child could survive was to become a different person in response to her mother’s extreme mood swings. The different personalities had taken over to such an extent that Eve herself was unaware of what was happening. Whatever personality she was in at the time, she was unable to recognise that the other personalities were also her. She thought they were different people, outside herself.

Fortunately, after an immense amount of hard work and deep pain, Eve was able to come to terms with her condition and with her traumatic childhood, and she eventually discovered who she really was. And she was able to own the different personalities as part of herself.

Masks
We all wear masks to some extent, so that we’re slightly different people at work and at home, with our families and with our friends. Perhaps slightly different people in church, too. In different circumstances, we tend to show different aspects of ourselves. But most of us who have good, stable backgrounds don’t need to split off the different aspects of our personality. And so on the whole, we know who we are, and we usually recognise each other, whatever the environment.

Perhaps the one person who never wore a mask, was Jesus. It seems from the gospels, that he was always himself, that he never hid behind a façade. It seems that the inner Jesus was identical to the outward face of Jesus, so that people meeting Jesus met the real person, not an aspect of him, or one side of his personality. They met the authentic Jesus.

Authentic
Someone who is that transparent, that authentic, is very close to God, for there are no thick layers of defence keeping God out. This made Jesus very dangerous to his opponents, for at some deep level human beings know the truth when they hear it, even when they deny it intellectually. And the truth can sometimes hurt.

It also gave Jesus immense healing power, for there does seem to be healing in the atmosphere when we can be truly ourselves with other people. Which is one of the reasons why small self-help groups are often very effective.

Legion
When Jesus met Legion, that poor deranged Gentile who had so many personalities even he couldn’t count them all, the depth of Legion recognised the truth, the authenticity of Jesus, and he cried out. There couldn’t have been a greater contrast between the two men. Legion, hidden beneath so many multiple personalities they couldn’t be counted, and Jesus, completely one, a total unity within himself. And the depth of Legion recognised the contrast.

Jesus healed Legion. And a nearby herd of pigs, unclean animals, took flight and were drowned, symbolising the “drowning” or the “death” of the “unclean spirits”, the illness, within Legion.

Legion begged to be allowed to stay with Jesus, but now he was healed, Jesus immediately sent him out as an evangelist. Legion didn’t need any training. He wasn’t given any help; simply the instruction to go home, back to his own town, and declare how much God had done for him. He simply had to tell his story, for genuine stories are very powerful. And he did it, too. He went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Crowd Reaction
But the reaction of the crowd who came to see what had been going on, is interesting. Everyone was naturally terrified of mad Legion. He’d been under guard, he’d been bound with chains and fetters, but he’d broken the lot and escaped into the desert where he lived a sub-human life amongst the tombs. You might expect, once he was in his right mind, people’s terror would abate in their delight at having him back amongst them, cured and sane again. But their terror didn’t abate. It seems they were even more terrified now Legion was healed.

Instead of welcoming Jesus, this great healer, this authentic person, and begging him to stay, the people begged him to depart. They couldn’t cope with his power. It was beyond their experience, and rather than explore the new dimension, the potential he was offering, they wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to remain where they were, where they were comfortable. They didn’t want to be challenged by Jesus.

Honesty
Perhaps too, they were terrified of his honesty, his authenticity. It can be scary to be faced by someone, who doesn’t know how to hide or disguise his or her true motives or feelings.

Children can sometimes be very disconcerting, for they say what they really think, and it can be unflattering. It’s much more disconcerting (but rare) to meet with an adult who says what he or she really thinks.

Perhaps when Jesus said we must all become like little children, if we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven, he was referring to this quality of uncompromising honesty.

And so Jesus went away. He does what people want him to do. He does what people really want in their hearts, no matter what their lips might say. So if people want to send him away, he goes. If people want to crucify him, he allows them to do that. Imagine sending Jesus away, with all the gifts he had to offer. Those people didn’t know what they were doing, and they lost out in a big way.

But the opposite is also true. Jesus comes where he’s wanted. He heals when he’s asked. And those who benefit most from his presence and his gifts, are those who are most authentic. Those who are the same on the inside as they are on the outside. Those who have managed to put aside their masks, and are fully themselves in every situation.

Amen.