C, Post-Pentecost 2, Proper 7 - Luke 8:38–39 "Making a Gentile Gentle"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) “The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

The encounter between Jesus and Legion, the man possessed by a legion of demons, is a strange event in the ears of twenty-first century hearers. Who is this man confronted by Jesus on the gentile side of Lake Galilee?

He is a man portrayed as one in the depths of depravity.  The unclean of all unclean gentiles, living in the spiritual and physical uncleanness of death.  In his unclean state, he sees no need for the bondage of clothing, and when he is bound with chains and shackles for his own good and for the protection of those around him, his demonic possession is so powerful, he breaks free and withdraws to the wilderness, to the known dwelling of demons, in the desert.

Where no one else could bind this legion of demons within the man, Jesus is the only one to bind the sin and free the sinner.  At the sight of this gentile made gentle and clothed sitting at Jesus’ feet, fear strikes the hearts of the other Gerasene gentiles, and they ask Jesus to leave.  It seems the devil they know is better than the unexpected salvation they don’t! 

This is not the only extreme picture God’s word gives us today.  In the Old Testament, King Ahab and Jezebel, are arguably the most abhorrent people from amongst God’s chosen people.  So much so God uses Jezebel’s name in Jesus’ warning to the church in Thyatira, in Revelation, as a vengeful person or personification of those who lead others into immorality and idolatry against God.

Jezebel and King Ahab seek to kill Elijah, after he slaughters Baal prophets on Mount Carmel.  As Elijah is pursued, he is broken and desires death from God, rather than from the vengeful two.  From Mount Carmel he flees and is sent forty days to another, the mountain of God.  To where Moses first, saw the burning bush, and from where he received God’s word of Law, the Ten Commandments.  From here, Elijah is sent back to anoint Hazael, a gentile king in Syria, and Elisha, a prophet, to continue in his position.

These events all seem foreign to us.  Burning bushes, naked demon possessed tomb dwellers, and a prophet pursued by a rogue king and his evil queen seeking revenge.

From these two readings in God’s word, we’re called to hear that regardless of being an Israelite or gentile, God calls all people, and he does not let the demonic or death defeat him.  But that he seeks to defeat death and depravity in both his chosen ones, and those whom he calls to testify of his works.

These biblical accounts are extreme events.  How are we to picture ourselves in them? 

First, despite these biblical accounts reporting the greatest of abominations, we do well to see ourselves included in them!  We’re to view them as accounts that include everyone, leaving no one unaccountable.   Second, we do even better to see ourselves as the characters in these real stories, so we know what is really in store for us, in relation to how we respond to God’s actions.

We have opportunity to search ourselves to see if we’re a Jezebel or an Ahab type of character, unrepentant and unforgiving, on one hand!   Or, whether we’re like Legion.  Whether we receive and proclaim God or reject him and act with rebellion and revenge!

When the locals saw what happened to demons, to the pigs, and to the man from whom the demons departed, they were seized with great fear!  The people were more fearful that the demon possessed man was now not possessed.  If this Jesus is so powerful he can cast out demons from him who is the epitome of demon possession, how powerful is he to cleanse me of my seemingly well behaved publicly pleasing happy demons and my supposedly inoffensive idols?   

Or on hearing what happened to Ahab and Jezebel, we’re not called to think, that won’t happen to me because I’m not like them!  Rather, if God can do that to his chosen people, what can happen to me when I conduct my life without repentance and forgiveness, and in its place work with revenge and murderous thoughts!

The reality is we’re not all that different to Legion, whom Jesus delivered from death and destruction from within himself.  And furthermore, it takes very little for us to return to the ways of Jezebel and Ahab, when we take the kingship of Christ, implanted in us for granted.

In our baptism all have been made disciples of Jesus Christ.  All who remain in Jesus and his word are offspring of Abraham, bearing the faith that makes us righteous, just as Abraham was deemed to be righteous by trusting, not in himself, but God.  We are gentiles joined as one as God’s people, having been grafted into God through his Son Jesus Christ.  Just as Legion was made a gentle gentile we too have been made gentle gentiles in our baptism into Christ.  We are made disciples, disciplined in repentance and forgiveness, by Jesus Christ, the Light of the Nations, the gentiles.

In baptism we are God’s children.  In Galatians, Saint Paul says, “For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  (Galatians 3:27–28 ESV)  

Baptism has cleansed and saved you, remaining in that baptism continues to cleanse and save you, in baptism all baptised people have been given the gifts like Legion, to “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39a ESV)

Jesus did not allow Legion to come in the boat with him and the disciples he was to send out as apostles.  Instead, he commissioned him to declare in faith what God did for him.  And he did, “And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39b ESV)

The one who formerly bore the demons and declared, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” (Luke 8:28 ESV) Now goes and declares Jesus, as the Son of God, who saved him from depravity.

This is how God the Holy Spirit wants you to see yourself in his word, being cleansed and being forgiven.  Indeed, Paul wants you to see as he saw himself grafted into Jesus Christ, who though he was a Jew was in danger of being pruned from the Holy Vine of God.  Just as God told Elijah that there was a remnant in Israel, there is also a remnant of his people in Christendom, chosen by grace.

You have been chosen by grace in your baptism; this is a baptism where the Holy Spirit gives faith.  God’s Spirit leads us away from faith in the self, like the faith of Jezebel and Ahab, which saw them separated from God.  Therefore, they died in the most debased way possible. 

As Paul warns, “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” (Romans 11:20–22 ESV)

In faith, through repentance and the forgiveness of sins, you stand grafted into Christ as one legion of sinner-saints.  In the kindness of God, the Holy Spirit motivates you to tell others of the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ our Lord who has delivered you from the depravity of eternal death and clothed you in his righteousness. Amen.

B, Midweek Lent 5 - 15:37–39, 44–45 "Pilate & the Centurion's Passover"

Mark 15:37–39, 44–45 (ESV) “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.  And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph!”

The last breath of Jesus Christ caught the attention of the centurion standing at the foot of the cross!

Sometime in the future you and I too will give up our last breath.  What might that look like for us, as we ponder Jesus’ last breath? 

This Roman soldier would have been accustomed to seeing death.  He would have seen plenty die at his command.  He would have spilt criminal’s and enemy soldier’s blood and seen them give up their last breath.  As a soldier, he would have been thankful it was them and not him who died. 

Yet, to see Jesus die in the way that he did, made this Roman commander of the crucifixion, make this extraordinary claim.  What did he see in himself seeing the Son of God dead on the cross?  A Roman soldier served only one god and that was Caesar!  Yet here he calls the dead man on the cross, Son of God!

This man was “a” Son of God, is the Greek translation of the centurion’s exclamation!  We are not told why he said it, we are not told what he saw other than the way Jesus breathed his last.

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ death, it’s not just the centurion who makes the exclamation, “this man was a son of God!”   Rather, it is he and the other Roman soldiers who are intensely frightened, or filled with awe, as a result of the eclipse of darkness, the earthquake that tore the curtain in the temple Holy of Holies, splitting rocks, and people raised from the dead. 

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ death, written for the Gentiles, it testifies, “when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47 ESV)

Whatever it was, causing the centurion to exclaim a man crucified to be a Son of God, shows this was no ordinary crucifixion. 

Being a commander of one hundred, he would have allowed and witnessed those under his authority having their sport with Jesus.  Dressing him in a purple robe, pushing the crown of thorns down into the flesh of his skull, spitting on him, striking him, and humiliating him as the King of the Jews!

Now the commander confesses this crucified man was a Son of God.  Why he said this, is not entirely clear.  However, what is clear, the one he exclaims as a Son of God, is dead!  God on the cross was no longer alive!

Pilate is surprised by the timeliness of Jesus’ death, when Joseph of Arimathea, asks for Jesus’ body.  So, he calls the centurion who witnessed Jesus’ death, and the centurion reports the accuracy of the situation, and Pilate releases the body of Jesus to Joseph.

The claim of Jesus being the Son of God has greater significance in Mark’s Gospel account than the other Gospel accounts.

John Mark, the gatherer, and complier of Peter’s witness of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection, introduces his account saying, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1 ESV)

Although not all manuscripts say “the Son of God” in verse one, those that do, stand out from Matthew’s Gospel which introduces Jesus Christ as the son of David, the son of Abraham.   Luke’s account begins in the temple with Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, not mentioning Jesus till later on.  And John’s account of the Gospel, begins with a parallel of Genesis one, “In the beginning was the Word…”, introducing Jesus as the Word made flesh!

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, written in Mark one, introduces only a few claims that Jesus is “Son”, “of God.”  Jesus only ever refers to himself as “the Son of Man” in Mark.  In fact, only in John’ Gospel do we ever hear Jesus directly name himself as “the Son of God”.

Surprisingly, in Mark’s Gospel account, we do not even hear Satan test Jesus in the wilderness,  by temping him with the words, “If you are the Son of God…”.  There are no “ifs” here in Mark, Jesus is the Son of God! 

However, the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God, comes from Satan’s entourage.  When Jesus comes in contact with evil spirits, they do not question “if” he is “the Son of God”.  They cower before Jesus, proclaiming him as “the Son of God”!

In Mark’s Gospel, God first declares Jesus as his Son, at his baptism, by John in the Jordan.  In Mark one verse eleven we hear, “And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11 ESV)  God again affirms this at the transfiguration.  We hear, “And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’” (Mark 9:7 ESV)

Nevertheless, it’s the evil spirited man at the synagogue in Capernaum who first names Jesus as being “of God”!

He says, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”  (Mark 1:24 ESV)

There is no testing here!  Rather, there is affirmation and fear of God the Son’s fury and annihilation!  And it’s not just a one-off accident as we hear from Mark three verse eleven, “whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”  (Mark 3:11 ESV)

Similarly, before Jesus casts the demons out of Legion into a herd of pigs, he reacts to the coming of Jesus in this way, “And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.  And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”  For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”  (Mark 5:6–8 ESV)

The demonic spirits who are destroying people, see Jesus, know, and fear Jesus of Nazareth because he is “the Son of God”.

The reality of the unseen world sees the reality of the truth; Jesus is the Son of God!  Now the centurion sees this too.  He is the first in the seen world to see Jesus as a Son of God.  However, he sees this after his death.  Here a gentile, a pagan, one who did the bidding of those seeking to do evil to Jesus, sees the truth of whom he has crucified on the cross.

The death of Jesus Christ at the Passover passes over nobody!  Those who were witnesses of the crucifixion, those who participated in the crucifixion, those who cowered before the crucifixion, remember Jesus’ death!  But now all know Jesus of Nazareth, is the Messiah, Christ the King, and is the Son of God raised from the dead.

How much more does Satan and his entourage of supporters now fear him since he has power over death!  The Son of God was born into his own creation and lived as a man, Jesus of Nazareth.  He was killed on the cross and buried with the dead.   Now he is raised and glorified as the Son of God. 

Now the Son of God takes away the sin of those who do not pass over Jesus as the Son of God, who bears forgiveness of humanity’s sin in his resurrection from, and power over death. 

As we draw near to the remembrance of Jesus’ death on Good Friday, in the reality of your death, in your last breath, may the Holy Spirit grant you comfort and clear sight in the Son of God’s salvation over your sin.  Amen. 

C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “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.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.