Artist: M Alice Abrams
Title: Legion Released
Medium: Linoleum Block Print, watercolor
Size: 12 x16 in.
Artist Statement:
On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Christ arrives by ship to the country of the Gadarenes. As he and his apostles disembark, they are immediately greeted by a man, notorious in the surrounding areas for being afflicted by many evil spirits. He was outcast and feared, considered a danger to himself and others. On his arms and legs dangled broken ropes, chains, and shackles, tools used to try to contain him during his violent and brutal outbursts. It was said that no man could tame him, and no chain could hold him. He dwelled among the tombs, his cries piercing the quiet countryside. His body scarred and bruised, physical wounds from an unseen enemy within. But today, he was at the shore, pleading with the Savior for relief from his demons. Almost immediately, the demons use the man to question and taunt Christ, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?” The words echoed from his raspy, hoarse throat. As if already knowing their fate, in the next breath they plead for mercy from Christ, asking to be cast into a herd of nearby swine. Christ grants them that one wish and the spirits flee the man’s body with haste, leaving him exhausted and weeping with relief. I imagine Christ now holding the man who couldn’t be held, as his own spirit grasps to recover and fill its tired and abused body.
But the story isn’t over, and neither is his battle. What’s left of the man is to face the very people who had once bound him in shackles. The man goes into the nearby city to share his miraculous recovery hoping to be accepted back into society, and is promptly sent away by those who did not think they were capable of loving him, or forgetting who he had once been. A new demon seeks to control him: shame. He returns to Christ with his head bowed, hoping to find a home among Him and his party. Perhaps he dreams of traveling with the Savior, far away from the home that reminds him of his dark and lonely past. Maybe with a new life at Christ's side, he can outrun the shame that he feels surrounded by, one that jabs at him like a thorn breaking skin every time a person who knows who he was stares daggers into him in the streets. And while Christ was known to take in the most rag tag of followers, he does something surprising instead. He offers comfort and reassurance, and bids the man to return and try again. “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” And he departed, and began to publish how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” The man had been healed, but now it was time to recover, and use the confidence of Christ and His future Atonement to fill his soul and become a new person.
