Jesus removed whatever demon this unclean spirit was. He did so through the authority of his speech, his language. But he removed a perhaps larger demon at the same time. He removed the stigma this man felt. It was as if Jesus erased the scarlet U for the unclean spirit this man felt on his forehead.
God’s desire for Nineveh was not that people settle up some debt for their sins. It was only that they turn from their destructive ways of being in the world and come more fully alive.
Maybe Christ is inviting you and me to let our uncertainty not be a shield but to have enough humility and hope to come and see that the world is filled with the glory of God.
Don’t you think that turning our loneliness into the abundant life we were created for might be why Jesus risked stepping into that line of complicated humans at the Jordan River to strike up a friendship that has now extended even to us?