Luke 8:26-33 (ESV)

Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

The demons know who Jesus is and announce it to everyone present. Presumably, this includes all the apostles plus the women who were traveling with them. They had just witnessed Him calming the waves and wondered aloud who Jesus really is – and now the demons tell them.

Does this sink in? No. Why? Because it’s too fantastic.

Modern Christians, who grow up getting presents every Christmas, never get a sense of how incredible incarnation really is. That’s better than disbelieving it, but our belief lacks the awe that made the first Christians so legit.

Imagine a composer incarnating himself as a note into one of his symphonies.

Right. Neither can I.

OK, now try to imagine that Shakespeare incarnating himself into one of his plays (not just his being an actor in a performance of one of his plays, but actually becoming a fictional character whose existence is in acts and scenes, not years and days.)

OK, I can’t do that either. That’s the problem with the idea of incarnation. It isn’t just an image of the creator projected onto a wall in his creation; it’s actually Him. It’s just too fantastic.

When the light bulb finally comes on for the apostles, it will fill their lives with light.

What we can imagine is an author creating a character in his own image. Many people think that David Copperfield is a veiled autobiography. Surely many of the events in David Copperfield follow events in Charles Dickens’s life.

But that isn’t incarnation. When David hurts, Charles Dickens doesn’t feel pain.

Christmas is our biggest holiday because incarnation is so awesome. We can’t even begin to grasp it.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies