Second Sunday after Pentecost

Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7C)

June 19, 2022

Text: Luke 8:26-39

            “Deliver us from evil,” we pray, or better, as Dr. Luther teaches us in the Large Catechism, “Deliver us from the evil one,” that is, whatever may happen under the devil’s kingdom.  The devil is real.  The demons are real, formerly holy angels who rebelled against the one true God, and fell from heaven.  And they are a very real and present danger to us.  Their only way to get back at God for their condemnation is to drag us down to hell with them.  So we must know something of their tactics.  We must expose their lies.  And above all else, we must know how Jesus Christ, and He alone, rescues us from our bondage to the devil, and delivers us into the Kingdom of His Father.

            The Gerasene demoniac in our Holy Gospel is a picture of each one of us as we are apart from Jesus Christ and His salvation.  Now, usually without the dramatic, obvious bodily possession, it is true.  Demon possession does happen, including full bodily possession, but among us in the modern Western world, it is either rare, or at least hidden.  I do suspect that as more and more people in our society explicitly reject the one true God, and many descend into overt and unapologetic paganism, we will see more of this phenomenon.  But, be that as it may, that is not what I mean when I say that this man is a picture of you and me outside of Christ.  I am saying that his bodily circumstances reveal the spiritual circumstances of every child of Adam apart from the life and salvation found in Christ alone (this, by the way, is why the world is the way it is). 

            The man “had demons” (Luke 8:27; ESV).  That may be stating the obvious, but what is not so obvious to us, because we don’t want to see it, is that there is no spiritually neutral ground.  If you don’t belong to Christ, you belong to the devil and his demons.  If you belong to Christ, you do not belong to the devil and his demons.  Whatever it is that brought the man into this state, he has excluded himself from Christ, from the covenant of Israel, such that, where do we find him?  The country of the Gerasenes, the Decapolis, Gentile country, outside of Israel.  Like the prodigal son who fled his father and journeyed into a far country (Luke 15:13).  The man is alone.  Isolated.  Naked.  No house to call a home.  Living among the tombs.  And with swine.  He is obsessed with death, and with all that is unclean.  And he thinks this is freedom!  He bursts asunder any restraint placed upon him in love, and for his protection, and the protection of others.  He would rather live among the dead than have to dwell among the living. 

            See, this is the description of every one of us apart from Christ.  Fleeing our Father.  Outside the Promised Land (outside the Church).  As far away as we can get.  Utterly this-world-centered, the fallen world, the pagan world.  Alone.  For all our supposed connection via social media and the information age, we've even made it a virtue to be isolated (watch for this on commercials, by the way… people sitting alone in front of devices that apparently serve as their human connection… this is killing us).  Naked.  Perhaps reveling in it, like the man.  Or, perhaps, thinking you are clothed with your own righteousness, your virtue signaling, thinking, saying, and doing all the right things.  And because we’re all caught up in the delusion, none of us will point out the obvious, that the emperor’s splendid clothing is nothing but demonic fraud.  No house to call a home.  Certainly not a Christian congregation, the Family of God gathered around His Table.  Obsessed with death.  Abortion.  We’ve made a virtue out of murdering children, tearing babies apart limb from limb, burning them with chemicals.  We celebrate that in this culture.  Euthanasia.  We’ve made a virtue out of murdering the elderly or the terminally ill, the weak, or even just people who are sad.  Uncleanness.  Sexual perversion.  Promiscuity.  The mutilation of sex organs, even on the youngest of children, in the name of freedom.  See, we, too, are pretty good at bursting asunder every restraint our heavenly Father places upon us in love, for our protection, and for the protection of others.  And that is what we call freedom.

            But in Christ, you know it’s not.  When the devil promises freedom, all he really brings is destruction: Guilt, pain, suffering, an endless and burdensome search for happiness and fulfillment in all that is not God.  He brings isolation from other people.  He brings isolation from God.  That is hell.  The outer darkness.  Hell is not an eternity of godless fun with fellow sinners.  It is to be utterly forsaken and alone.  Freedom from God is not freedom.  It is slavery.  These are the true chains.  See these things for the satanic lies they are. 

            And now, behold your Lord Jesus Christ as He binds the strong man (Matt. 12:29), the old, wicked tyrant, and plunders his kingdom, bursting your bonds.

            First of all, notice, Jesus doesn’t stay in the safe and pleasant confines of Israel, and leave the man to suffer the consequences of his own wickedness.  He goes to the man.  The man doesn’t seek Jesus.  Jesus seeks him.  Grace.  Jesus goes to the country of the Gerasenes, out to the tombs, the place of death and uncleanness, where He knows this dear man needs His rescue. 

            He asks the demon’s name.  Jesus would have the evil named.  He doesn’t sweep it under the rug.  That is the devil’s tactic.  Jesus brings the evil out into the open, to be dealt with (this is why we confess our sins, by the way.  We name them, which robs them of their power).  We know that the demon’s name is Legion, because there are actually many of them in the man.  But they are no match for Jesus, who is their Lord and their God.  He commands and they must obey.  They know it, too, which is why they beg Him not to send them into the abyss, the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his demons as their eternal punishment on the Last Day (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 19-20).  At their request, Jesus sends them into the unclean pigs, and it may seem like He is doing them a favor.  But still, they have no peace.  Demons and peace are two words that never go together.  The herd rushes down the bank, and in a great twist of typological irony, the possessed pigs drown in the lake, foreshadowing their ultimate destruction. 

            But what about the man?  At Jesus’ Word and command, he is free.  It is a total transformation.  The people don’t know what to make of it.  There he is, free of the evil one, sitting at the feet of the Savior, clothed, and in his right mind.  And the people are… thankful?  No, they are afraid, and they beg Jesus to leave them.  That is how the unbelieving world reacts to Jesus.  But the man begs Jesus that he might be with Him.  Well… he will be.  But not yet.  Not in a way he can see Jesus with his earthly eyes.  First, he has a job to do, a joyous task.  To go back home (now he has a home!  With people!  And no chains), and proclaim how much God has done for him.  So he goes through the whole city and tells how much Jesus, God, has done for him. 

            And now he is a picture of you and me in Christ.  At Jesus’ Word and command, we are free!  Baptism.  The Gospel.  The Absolution.  I baptize you…. I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  You can almost hear the chains breaking away.  Jesus died for you.  Jesus is risen for you.  Jesus lives and reigns for you.  Jesus gives you life.  And He will raise you from the dead.  He has bound the strong man.  He has crushed the serpent’s head.  Jesus speaks, and the demons must obey.  This Word is your true freedom.  It brings you back into the Home of your Father.  It restores you to the Father, and gives you a place at His Table.  The body and blood of Jesus, crucified and raised for you, the very same body and blood present that day in the country of the Gerasenes, is hand-fed to you.  And it burns the demons where the sun don’t shine. 

            Now, here you are, the demons gone.  You are sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary, who knows that the Word of our Lord is the one thing necessary, the good portion, that will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42).  You are clothed… with the spotless baptismal robe of Christ’s righteousness.  “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  And you are in your right mind.  Once, you were not in your right mind.  Once, you had the mind of the world, enslaved by the elementary principles of the world, the mind that begs Jesus to depart from them, seeking freedom in a far country, naked, and obsessed with death and uncleanness.  But not anymore.  Now, you have the mind of Christ.  You are no longer conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind (Rom. 12:2).  This is accomplished by the Holy Spirit who has taken possession of you.  There is no spiritually neutral ground.  When you belong to Christ, the Holy Spirit replaces the evil spirits. 

            So, you’ve been rescued.  The Lord Jesus has led you out of the devil’s kingdom into freedom, light, and life.  Life!  In Jesus, we celebrate life, and all that is pure and beautiful and true and good.  Now, don’t be like the Israelites, who were always tempted to return to their Egyptian bondage.  It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm, then, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1).  This side of heaven, this is always a danger.  Here we should be warned against every kind of manifest sin, every act of ungodly rebellion, and all manner of uncleanness.  And it is important to say, here, do not give an opening to the devil by playing around with the stuff of darkness.  Here I am warning you against things like Ouija boards, tarot cards, mediums, and other occultic things, the Eastern forms of spirituality that are all the rage these days, as well as pornography, illicit substances, and the like.  These things can be portals for the evil one and his demons, who come and find the place swept clean and ready for habitation (Luke 11:25).  If you have dabbled in these things, or if you struggle with them, flee to Christ.  Here He is.  Right here and now.  He has come to you.  Run to your pastor.  Run to Confession and Absolution.  Run to the Sacrament.  Here, in the things of Christ, there is safety, freedom, and peace. 

            And even though you cannot be with Him now, your Lord Jesus, in the sense that the man wanted to be with Him, seeing Him every day, in His normal, spatial presence… you are, nevertheless, with Him.  Or more importantly, He is with you.  In the hearing of His Word.  Here in His House.  With His Family.  Around His Table.  Sometimes, like the man, we beg Jesus that we might be with Him where He is, to depart and be with Christ, which, as Paul says, is far better (Phil. 1:23).  That is, that He would just take us to heaven already.  Or even better, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  That is certainly coming.  But in the meantime, what are we given to do?  Tell how much God has done for us.  Tell how much Jesus has done for us.  So we do.  Jesus has freed us from sin, death, and the very devil.  We pray “Deliver us from evil.”  The Father’s answer is Jesus Christ, His Son.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.