Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
What negative forces possess you? What negative things bind you? What negatively drives you? Whatever those negative things are, they no doubt can be traced back to the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, and the world and our nature are corrupt ultimately because of the devil, so everything negative really goes back to him. You do not have to be physically possessed by a demon (or demons) in order to be spiritually influenced by the devil and his evil angels. But, while the devil, the prince of demons, is the ruler of this age, his time is short, for he has already been defeated. There may be a number of “mysterious features” in today’s Gospel Reading (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, 16), but its main point and application are clear: as Jesus saved the man who had demons, so “Jesus saves you from the demonic”.
What a horrible life that man had for a long time before he met Jesus. Possessed perhaps by demons numbering the equivalent of a Roman legion’s more than six-thousand, he went about naked, a menace to the community. With family and friends’ relationships disrupted, he did not live in a house but among the tombs. The demons seized him many times, and people’s attempts probably to protect themselves by binding him with chains and shackles were unsuccessful. For, he broke the bonds, likely harming himself in the process, and he was driven by the demons into the desert, having lost control of his own will. Apparently he also lost control of his own voice: he did not even ask Jesus for help.
In some senses, we may see our own lives as similar. Under demonic influence, we may be our own worst enemies, suffering from broken relationships and away from our families and homes, driven by guilt for things for which we should or maybe should not feel guilty, or driven by desires and passions that we know are wrong but seem powerless to overcome. We break the bonds of God’s law that should curb our behavior, harming ourselves in the process. Apart from God, in spiritual matters, we have no control of our own will and voice: we are unable even to ask Him for help.
In the Gospel Reading, as Jesus began to command the unclean spirits to come out of the man, the demons arguably asked for mercy, to not be tormented or sent to the abyss ahead of time but to be permitted to enter a large herd of pigs, which, after the demons entered them, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. The demons hardly escaped the judgment they deserve but at the proper time will be cast into the abyss, the depth, the underworld, the eternal prison of disobedient spirits. Places such as that and the eternal fire were prepared for the devil and his angels, but they will also be used for those whose works do not give evidence of their Holy-Spirit-induced sorrow over sin and trust in God to forgive their sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:41).
In the Gospel Reading, the demons rightly confessed the man Jesus to also be the Son of the Most High God, and similarly, when the man from whom the demons had gone was told to declare how much God had done for him, he declared how much Jesus had done for him. In Jesus, our almighty God works through an otherwise weak human nature. Jesus as God in human flesh not only cast out the demons from the man, but, when Jesus was lifted up on the cross, He cast out the ruler of this world, the devil, and Jesus drew all people to Himself (John 12:31‑32), including you and me. Jesus died on the cross in our place, the death that you and I deserve. On the cross He destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). When we trust God to forgive our sin by grace for the sake of Jesus, then God does just that: He forgives our sin, all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin and re‑creates us, returning us to our right mind.
God does all that for us through His Word in all of its forms, especially the Sacraments, His Word connected with things that touch us and that we taste. God’s Gospel is read and preached to larger groups such as this, but the Sacraments are His Gospel applied to us individually, with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in individual Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in Holy Communion. Today’s Gospel Reading mentions both feeding that could make us think of Holy Communion and sending away that could make us think of Holy Absolution, but today’s Gospel Reading might make us think especially of Holy Baptism, in which we are clothed in Christ and His righteousness. Or, as today’s Epistle Reading put it (Galatians 3:23-4:7), we put on Christ, receive His Spirit, and cry out to our Heavenly Father, who no longer regards us as slaves but as children and heirs. With its driving out of the demonic and making way for the Holy Spirit, Holy Baptism not only works forgiveness of sins and gives eternal life but also rescues us from death and the devil. So, we can point to our baptisms when sin, Satan, and death taunt us, for, by virtue of our baptisms received in faith, those forces are powerless to harm us.
In the Gospel Reading, all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes were seized with a great fear and so asked Jesus to depart from them. In the Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 65:1-9), the people apparently wanted to send God away as they sat in tombs to consult the dead and arrogantly thought of themselves as better than Him (TLSB, ad loc Isaiah 65:4, 5, p.1195). We are not like either of those groups, for we recognize the importance of being here in God’s presence in order to be saved from our sin and so also to be saved from all of the other things that possess, bind, and drive us. We seek that salvation, and we receive it in the ways that God chooses to give it to us. Then, we hear Him tell us to return to our homes and to declare how much God has done for us.
In the case of the man from whom the demons had gone, denying the miraculous change would be difficult, but so probably also difficult would be restoring the broken relationships with family and friends. All the more difficult—but not impossible!—is restoring broken relationships in our case, when our change might seem less miraculous for its at present being incomplete. Nevertheless, we tell our families and friends how much God has done for us in Christ. We do not have to be a professional theologian or missionary to do so, though God certainly calls some to serve in that way (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, 18), and we all should serve as we are called. Fortunately, neither professional theologians nor missionaries nor laypeople talking to their families and friends are responsible for convincing anyone of anything (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, 17); the Holy Spirit will do that, unless the people whom we are telling reject Him and His work.
What negatively possesses, binds, or drives you can be traced back to the demonic, but “Jesus saves you from the demonic”. His Holy Spirit positively possesses us, His Commandments positively guide us, and His love positively compels us. When we fail to follow them, as we will fail, with daily repentance and faith we return again and again to His forgiveness in His means of grace. And, He forgives us! As we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 3; antiphon: v.8), salvation belongs to (or is from) the Lord. Many foes may rise against us, many thousands, but the Lord is a shield about us, our glory, and the lifter of our heads. Daily we can lie down and arise, for He sustains us and blesses us, until He blesses us at the last, with the fullness of our inheritance, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +