Have you ever watched a movie, or TV show and were so impressed that every chance you had, you talked about it? Many of us have done that.
Have you ever read an article or a book and you were so affected that you almost immediately had to tell your family, friends, and maybe even your co-workers? There are quite a few of us who have done that.
Have you ever spoken with someone about how you have experienced God moving in your life? All of a sudden, the answer isn’t as quick.
This morning’s passage is one of those that revolves around the healing of a man who was possessed, as the scripture says, by demons. He is freed from this state that he had lived in for who knows how long. His first inclination is to stay close to the man who healed him. I think that’s totally understandable.
But that isn’t what Jesus wants from this newly healed man. Instead, Jesus tells him to go home, “and declare how much God has done for you.”
Think about your own life,…and then recognize that this message to ‘go and declare’ did not stop with this one man, o so long ago. The scripture reads this way.
Luke 8:26-39
26 Then they arrived
at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he
stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time
he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28
When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his
voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg
you, do not torment me”— 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept
under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds
and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him,
“What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31
They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 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.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Galatians
3:23-29
Intro
Our second passage talks about the imagery of being confined, trapped, and imprisoned. However, this state no longer exists. Instead we are now freed. We are freed because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sakes. We are freed because the chains of death could not contain one who was without sin. We are free. The question is, what will we do with this freedom? Will we live for ourselves, looking to satisfy our own desires? Or will we instead live so that all might know the God who freed us? The scripture reads this way.
Galatians
3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
One of the great things about kids (which, I have no problem admitting, also has a tendency of driving their parents just a little crazy), is that if they’re comfortable with you, then they will tell you whatever is on their mind. This happens all of the time with both our 11 year-old Jim and our 5 year-old Austin.
For Jim, if something happened at school that really excited him, he’ll come bounding off the bus and crash through the back door of the house, immediately calling out, ‘Hey Mom,’ (it’s always mom, by the way), ‘I want to tell you something!’ As soon as he finds his mom, he will immediately begin talking excitedly about whatever happens to be bouncing around in his head. It could be something that was said, something that he saw, or just something that he experienced. But no matter what it is, he has to get it out.
Austin has a method that starts out more polite,…but he’s not. He’ll walk into a room, and regardless of whether or not you’re having a conversation, he’ll start talking: ‘Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me! It’s my turn now! It’s time for me to talk!’ At which point, he’ll just start talking. Like I said, started out polite.
In both of their cases, they have something bouncing around in their head, or floating around on their heart, that needs to come out. Admittedly, sometimes their check valve isn’t as well positioned (or utilized), as we adults might like it to be. But I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have kids who are willing to talk about what is important in their lives. Sure, right now what may be important is what happened in the Iron Man video game, but as they get older I believe that freedom to declare what is there is something that will serve them, and those around them, well.
Too often, as adults, we have bought into the mentality that we need to keep stuff to ourselves. We’ve bought into a societal mentality that says, ‘we are the masters of our own domain; that others can think whatever they want, just don’t bother me with it.’
The reality of this position shows up in just how resistant we tend to be in regards to speaking about, what we say is extremely important to us: God, and our faith in the Creator of all.
That is why a passage such as the one we have heard in Luke is so vitally important, not only to hear, but to respond to. The man who was possessed with demons was healed. We hear that statement and we tend to get hung up on the demon part. Some of us wonder what the pigs did wrong that they were the recipients of the demons. But too often we forget how Jesus ultimately directed the newly freed man: go and declare.
Because here’s the thing, there is not a person who is walking this earth who is not in need of the healing power of Jesus Christ. All of us, to using the language from Galatians, “Jew or Greek, … slave or free, … male and female; … all of [us] are one in Christ Jesus.” We are one in Christ Jesus because each of us need the healing power of Christ so as to be freed, freed from whatever burden of sin that we might carry, freed so as to be welcomed by God in faith, freed so that we might be able to step out in that faith and declare, declare what is at (or at the very least should be) at the heart of our lives. We have been freed, not to go out and do whatever pleases us, but freed so that we might be able to shine the glory where it should have been all along: upon the Almighty.
Yes, it’s real easy to think that the person in our Gospel story was more in need of God then we are. After all, look at all of his problems: they were so numerous that they called themselves Legion. He really must have been separated from God. Our problems are nowhere near that great.
What we need to remember though, is that there is not some gradation of separation from the Divine. It’s not like someone sits in heaven going, “well, so and so hasn’t sinned all that much so they’re only this separated from God. But that guy, oh, that guy has messed up so badly that there’s no way that he will ever get back to God.” That isn’t how it works.
What we are able to recognize through Jesus sacrifice on the cross and then subsequent theological revelation is that all of us are in the same boat; all of us needed God to reach out to us; all of us needed God to forgive us so that we might be whole. That’s all of us! We may all be different from the man in our story, but our similarities far outweigh the differences.
And what did Jesus tell the newly healed man? “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” That is for us as well. “You, you who have been healed; you, you who have been brought into a closer relationship with Your Father; You, you who have been freed, go and declare. We should be like Jim and Austin, bursting through the door, or calling out, ‘excuse me, excuse me, excuse me!’. If what we have been given means the world to us… no, if what we have been given means eternity to us, then shouldn’t we be taking every opportunity that we have to declare the freedom that we have received through Jesus Christ? If the only way that someone knows you’re a Christian in because they see you pull into a church driveway on a Sunday morning, then something is amiss. We have been freed, and being freed, we have been called to declare.
When I moved out to western Michigan to attend Hope College, I went out there knowing no one. But within the first six months a family who attended the church that I knew about through my parents took me in. The dad of the family was named Gerry. Gerry was a well-respected owner-operator of a well-established jewelry business in the community. He was always someone who was able to support the greater community, whether that be through his business, his church, or his own personal efforts.
It’s the last part that I want to touch on a little bit, because in addition to being a jeweler, Gerry was also a cop. He served on the city police force about 20 hours a week and had been doing so for a long time. Whenever we got together, he loved to talk about the various things that had been going on during his shifts. Now Gerry is a great guy, but when he was wearing his uniform, you shouldn’t mess with him. If you were in violation or had broken a law, he would give you the respect you deserved, but if it was not returned, well, then, you created your own consequences.
The amazing thing was, and this is almost without exception, every time someone disrespected him, and he needed to at the very least sit that person down, or maybe even arrest them, he would invariable make time to talk with that person later, not about what they had done wrong, but about how they didn’t need to live the way they were living, that there was a better way, that there was freedom found in God.
There was one time where a drunk driver crashed into the cruiser Gerry and his partner were driving. The drunk driver was totally lit and it was anything but easy making the actual arrest, and getting him back to the station so that he could begin to sober up. Gerry was anything but pleased with this guy.
However, the next morning he went to the guys cell, and said, “my guess is that you don’t remember me, but I was in the car you hit last night. I helped to arrest you. You deserve to be in here for what you did. You need to change and you can change: you can change because of God; you can change because God loves you.”
I don’t know about you but when I heard that story of an arresting officer going out of his way to declare the truths of God, I was amazed. I asked Gerry if he was angry. He said, “of course I was! He hit my car! But more than being angry I was saddened because I’m just like him and he’s just like me: we’re both in need of God. The only difference is that God has helped me to figure that out. Maybe God can work through me to allow him to figure that out.”
Gerry has been blessed with the gift of faith: he has been freed and every time he has the opportunity to declare that truth, he takes it. It may be while he’s sitting in a church pew; it may be while he’s helping you to look at a diamond; it may be while you’re under arrest. I know that all three happen. But when the opportunity presents itself, he steps out and declares. It’s right there, and he has to get it out. He is one in the long line of Christians who recognized that God had called them to declare the freedom he had received.
What about you? What about all of us? All of us have been separated from God. All of us have been freed of that burden, whatever it may be, and welcomed back into relationship with God; all of us now have the opportunity to declare to our worlds how important that freedom is. What will we be saying to the world?
After
Sermon Prayer
Holy God, we thank You for all of Your blessings, and especially this day we thank You for the freedom that You have granted us through Jesus Christ. We pray that Your Spirit might empower us so that we are able to use this freedom to declare the truth of Your life changing and healing forgiveness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.