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Pentecost 4, 06/20/2010
Sermon on Luke 8:38-39, by Steve Saxe
Demonic, Delivered, Declared!
38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39"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.
Many of us are familiar with Hollywood's Exorcist series of movies; those fictional but very sensational accounts of a modern-day demon possession. Those movies may be the first thing that comes to our mind when we hear this morning's Gospel about the Gerasene demoniac. There's something so sensational about demons and the demonic that when we read the gospel accounts, we find ourselves distracted, and our attention is drawn to the fear, mystery and excitement of the possession itself, while the defeat of the demons is side-lined, along with the identity of the Christ who casts the demon out.
This morning's gospel either tempts us to emphasize the sensational element of demon possession or to deny it altogether! If you are drawn to the sensational, then you can't deny the appeal of the story; it is made for Hollywood! There's action, plot, movement, lot's of characters, intrigue... imagine what movie makers could do with such an event in our own time? But if you are a rational modern skeptic who denies the reality of demon possession, then you will write this account off as a bunch of hooey!
As Christians, we are challenged to understand this Gospel in faith, not only accepting the reality of the unseen world of the demonic, but confessing and believing in Jesus Christ as our Deliverer from the unholy trinity of the world, the flesh and the Evil One; realities which influence us and are more powerful than we realize.
The deliverance that we hear about is well summarized in three words: Demonic, Delivered & Declared! If we can understand these 3 words as a whole and NOT separate them, our attention will be directed to Him who is always revealed in Gospels: Jesus, the Deliverer!
In St. Luke's account, this exorcism occurs in between events that display Jesus' divine power: 1) Jesus authority over wind and water in the calming of a storm (8:22-25), and 2)His authority and power over and death in the raising of Jairus' daughter (8:40-56).When combined with those two miraculous events, the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac would have made a very clear statement about Jesus' identity to observant Jews familiar with messianic prophecy. They would have concluded that Jesus is Messiah. With Him the Messianic age promised by God through the prophets had come indeed.
Also significant is where Jesus performs the exorcism. He had crossed Sea of Galilee into predominantly Gentile territory. The other side of the lake that is not part of our text in Luke8:22 was more than a geographical designation. It meant that Jesus had crossed a religious and social boundary that existed between the Jew & Gentile of His day. He had entered a "bad neighborhood" without invitation. Such action would have been seen as questionable; like crossing the well known "tracks" that divided white & black neighborhoods many years ago. For what Jesus encountered was completely unacceptable to a rightly observed Judaism of His time. Everything, absolutely everything was unclean: the people: Gentiles. Their livestock: swine. And in this particular account, the place: tombs and unclean spirits. It was the last place where God's deliverance would be expected.
But it is in precisely such an undesirable location that Jesus meets the demon possessed man, who was clearly out of control. Living naked in a graveyard, he had been taken captive many times, but had escaped just as many times through super-human strength. Jesus' first move is a question: What is your name? The man's answer said it all! He said," Legion" In naming his demons, the man acknowledged that he no longer knew who he was. Not only had he lost control, he had lost his name and identity to a power that he could not control! All that was left was a roiling struggle of conflicting forces in the legion that was at war within him. A Roman legion had about 6000 soldiers. It was many "voices" within that were competing for control in his life! It was such "voices" that drove him into the deserts... away from God and from human community.
There are those who would explain the demoniac's "demons" in terms of mental illness. How do we understand such "demons" in 2010? To deny demons is to deny the Jesus who Delivers. Christians confess the reality of unseen evil powers or spirits in the world. The people, situations, systems and even spirits whose purpose is to destroy & control people. Lutheran theologian Robert Jensen writes:
"We know from experience the power of evil. We in the twentieth century have witnessed the raw power of evil. We have seen genocide rampant in China, Russia, Hitler's Germany, Central Africa, and in the former region of Yugoslavia. Evil exits. Evil reigns! Peoples are oppressed. Individuals are captive to the power of evil."
Demons are but one manifestation of destructive evil influences in our world. Destructive not only to human life and community, but to pigs, and every dimension of God's good creation.
Our Gospel leaves us with no doubt with what God in Christ does: commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. The God we know and see in Jesus Christ is a power superior to the demons' power. In Jesus God delivers freedom and life, even in unclean places like tombs and Gentile territory. It is Jesus' voice and word that deafened the legion of demonic voices within, brought evil to an end and gave life to the man so that he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
This day announces the glad news of deliverance from evil in Jesus Christ. And so we acknowledge that God in Jesus Christ comes to us in the helplessness of our sin and delivers us from evil, freeing us from our demons by the Word of His cross and resurrection. We affirm that Jesus is more powerful than the demons or devils or Satan., and that He is has the final say over sin and every evil power that would take away the life that God gives. For the good news of God in Christ that we confess still brings release through Jesus' voice that continues to speak in the living Word of His cross and resurrection. It is the word of that cross that casts out sin with every evil influence and power that would destroy our humanity. God's Word in the Christ we confess exerts it power and ultimate influence over demons, where we find them, but also over the legion of destructive voices that seek to dominate our lives by telling us: "buy this! Have it your way! Get payback! Go ahead; no one will ever know! The deliverance of the Gerasene demoniac speaks a word of deliverance from death to life to us who daily encounter the demands of such voices within and without. For God in Jesus Christ counters the destructive claims of sin and Satan with the life-giving word of forgiveness and freedom from sin that we need daily as part of the "daily bread" for which we pray.
The message that of the church is that God still delivers through faith in Jesus Christ. A Word that is heard & becomes flesh for us to be received in the Sacraments delivering us from the demonic claims of the unholy trinity that claim us for destruction. The "demons" we face may not be the same as those we read about in gospel, but are the voices of the world and our flesh any less destructive? Our answer to such destruction is seen in Jesus, who by His cross delivers us from evil in ALL its forms by declaring us righteous and justified before God.
Notice how Jesus' sent the delivered man back into the midst of the city to "declare" how much God had done for him. The word for "declare" is a present imperative, implying, "keep on declaring," "continue to tell." Of the deliverance: what God had done for him.
That is what the Church is for. We gather here for the voice of the Gospel which declares who we are, and we confess and tell each other our story of what Jesus or God has done for me! And in the telling of God's word and way, we receive God's freedom in the forgiveness of our sins. So that we might go into God's world declaring the deliverance of God in the love & kindness revealed in Christ. A world that does not recognize its demons,but desperately needs deliverance from them in order to see the life of God! In people who live to declare Him who has freed US & made US His home.
-Amen!