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+ + + 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. (Amen.)
In his book Hell from the Heavens (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2015), author John Wukovits is said to describe the epic story of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II. On April 16, 19-45, in an eighty-minute ordeal during the battle of Okinawa, the battle-hardened destroyer U-S-S Laffey was hit by no fewer than twenty-two kamikazes. When the smoke cleared, the Laffey had sustained significant damage, but the destroyer was not destroyed. (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.14.) Somewhat similarly, in today’s Gospel Reading, a legion of demons—which could mean six-thousand demons—mounted a sustained attack on a man from the city of Gerasa, but Jesus delivered that man from those demons, as Jesus also delivers you, not only from the devil, but also from sin and death. In fact, considering the Gospel Reading, this morning we realize that “Jesus destroys the destroyer for you.”
In the Gospel Reading, the Divinely-inspired St. Luke narrates the basic exorcism and provides a lot of back-story as he does so. As we heard, in a Gentile territory, Jesus was met by a man who had demons that for a long time had left him naked and living among the tombs, despite human attempts to bind and guard him. Jesus was commanding the unclean spirits to come out of the man, and so the man fell down before Jesus, and one of the demons begged Jesus: not to torment them, not to command them to depart into the abyss of hell, but to let them enter a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside—about two thousand pigs, St. Mark reports (Mark 5:13). So, Jesus gave the demons permission—said to be “one of the more mysterious features of this account” (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, p.16)—and the demons did enter the pigs, and the herd of pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. “What the kamikazes were unable to do to the U-S-S Laffey, the demons did to the pigs” (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.14). When my mother and I saw this scene brought to life on stage in Branson one year ago, the special effects showing the pigs’ going down the hillside into the water were kind of amusing, but no doubt the reality was not funny for those who lost their property.
You and I may never have seen anything like this kind of demon-possession, but that we may never have seen anything like it does not mean either that it did not happen then or that it does not still happen now. We take seriously the Bible’s supernatural world view, and we all certainly experience at least lesser forms of evil influence. We might speak of others’ or ourselves’ “fighting demons”, and we can see the wakes of destruction that result. People can be in some sense “possessed” by drug or alcohol abuse trying to ease their minds or by other kinds of addiction trying to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. As his minions in the Gospel Reading assaulted the man, destroying his dignity and relationships, and as the demons destroyed the pigs, so the devil himself tries to destroy us. Holy Scripture calls the devil “the destroyer” (Revelation 9:11; confer John 10:10), and we see the devil, the destroyer, trying to destroy: individuals, relationships, marriages, the lives of the unborn, livelihoods, churches, and society. One assault is followed by another, and we may feel like the crew of the U-S-S Laffey, enduring one kamikaze “slamming into us after another, trying to sink us” (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.15). The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature try to deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice, and too often we succumb to their temptations. On account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve nothing but death here and now and torment in hell for eternity.
Yet, the abyss of hell as a place of torment in eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, not for us; from the foundation of the world prepared for us is a kingdom (Matthew 25:25:34, 41). So, in order for us to escape hell and inherit that kingdom, God calls us to turn in sorrow from our sinful nature and all our actual sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be; God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
The devil may try to destroy us, but Jesus came to destroy the devil and his work (1 John 3:8), and Jesus disarms the devil and puts him to open shame by triumphing over him (Colossians 2:15). “Jesus destroys the destroyer for you!” In the Gospel Reading, the speaking demon addresses Jesus as “the Son of the Most High God”, and, later, the man from whom the demons had gone, told to declare how much God had done for him, proclaimed how much Jesus had done for him. Truly Jesus is God in human flesh. As the Hymn of the Day put it, “Christ the Lord has entered / Our human story; God in Him is centered. / He comes to us, by death and sin surrounded, / With grace unbounded” (Lutheran Service Book 825:1). In the Gospel Reading, Jesus may have been outnumbered, but He was not outmatched (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.14). Jesus remained in total control then as always. In the Gospel Reading Jesus let the demons essentially destroy themselves, and Jesus likewise let the devil essentially destroy himself, by the devil’s leading Judas to betray Jesus to the crucifixion and death that defeated the devil and ultimately will destroy him (Arndt, ad loc Luke 8:33, p.242). In destroying the destroyer, Jesus saves you, me, and all people. Jesus died on the cross for us, in our place, the death that we deserved on account of our sins. We might say that, as important as Jesus’s delivering us from the power of the devil is, more important is Jesus’s delivering us from sin and death. In today’s Old Testament Reading we heard of God’s desire to save people who, among other things, sat in tombs and ate pig’s flesh (Isaiah 65:1-9), and God has that same desire to save us who walk in a way that is not good and who follow our own devices and who provoke Him to His face continually. And so, when we repent, God does save us, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
On this secular Father’s Day, we might think of the pictures of fatherhood that we form by relationships with our earthly fathers: whether affectionate and caring; aloof and distant; or harsh and frightening. Our sinfulness against our heavenly Father would have to make us fear Him, even wish that He were distant, if God the Father did not so much desire to be close and intimate with us that, as we heard in the Epistle Reading (Galatians 3:23-4:7), the Father sent His Son to redeem us and in Holy Baptism sent His Spirit to lead us to call out to Him, “Abba!”, “Father”, or “Daddy”. (Fickenscher, CPR 32:3, p.4.) Some baptismal rites include an exorcism of any unclean spirit in order to make room for the Holy Spirit. Regardless, Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe what the words and promises of God declare about Baptism. In the Gospel Reading, the water of the Sea of Galilee drowned the herd of pigs, but the water of Holy Baptism indicates that our Old Adam—or, sinful nature—should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, so that a new man—or, redeemed nature—should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. So, prompted by our redeemed nature, we come to confess privately the sins that we know and feel in our hearts for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, and we come to receive in the Sacrament of the Altar bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We hunger not for pig’s flesh but for the Bread of Life (confer Arndt, ad loc Luke 8:37, p.243).
We come as we are (LSB 570), but we do not remain as we are; rather, we are transformed. In the Gospel Reading, the man from whom the demons had gone sat at the feet of Jesus as a disciple, clothed and in his right mind, and, though he begged to depart with Jesus, Jesus told him to return to his home and declare how much God had done for him, and the man did. Likewise, the sailors aboard the U-S-S Laffey told their story (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.15). As we prayed in the Collect of the Day, God casts out from us all sins and evil desires and pours into our hearts His Holy Spirit to guide us into all blessedness. In keeping with our vocations, we also proclaim throughout the whole city how much Jesus has done for us: how Jesus destroys the destroyer for us. You do not need one thousand voices (LSB 811); you can use the one voice that you have, whether speaking, writing, posting, or texting. You do not need to be a professional theologian or missionary, though God does call some to serve in those ways (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, p.18). You are not responsible for convincing anyone (Bugbee, CPR 29:3, pp.17, 18); you simply narrate your story, and God does the rest. Certainly some, if not many, will reject the call to faith. In the Gospel Reading, all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. Their request may be hard for us, who know and love Jesus, to imagine, though we might also be frightened by demonstrations of Divine power or have economic concerns (confer Acts 16:16-24), under-appreciating the incalculable benefit of Christ.
“Jesus destroys the destroyer for you”—it is an epic account far greater than that of the U‑S‑S Laffey in author John Wukovits’s book (Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.15). No matter what God in His wisdom permits you to face, you can have the resolve of today’s psalmist’s and, with God Who has helped you in the past, not be afraid of even many thousands who have set themselves against you (Psalm 3; antiphon: v.8). No matter your circumstances (Philippians 4:11-12), you can be content now with the peace and joy that God gives you with the forgiveness of your sins. And, on the Last Day, when the devil is completely destroyed, and your body is purified from the corruption of your sins, you can sing eternal anthems to your King (LSB 811:5).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +