Bible Passage: Luke 8:26-39
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: June 19, 2022

Bulletin June 19, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

In the magnificent explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed in Luther’s Small Catechism we confess about the Lord Jesus:  “He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil.”  With those words we mention the three enemies of our soul: sin, death, and the devil.  And the end point of Jesus’ work is that we are finally forever free from them and with the Lord.

As we look at the earthly ministry of Jesus, we observe that each of his miracles was a “pushing back” of these things.  The miracles were a small-scale, local, temporary, freeing from these enemies.  Jesus pushed the effects and the curse of sin back as he healed acute and chronic disease and birth defects.  He pushed death back when he raised the dead.  And we see Jesus push the powers of hell back in those accounts where Jesus casts out demons.  We have one such account before us today.  It is the story of Jesus meeting the demonized man in the region of the Gerasenes.  It is the day when The Legion from Hell Meets the Son of the Most High!

The scene of this dramatic story takes place on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus has put ashore there and is immediately met there.  We know from the other Gospel writers that there were actually two demon possessed men present.  Luke focuses on just the one.

A description of this man breaks our hearts.  We are told he used to live in the city but for a long time now, because of demon possession, has been living out among the tombs.  There he lived, naked, like an animal.  Many times the demons would seize the man.  It sounds like it must have been very violent when this happened.  The people would try to restrain the man.  They put chains on the man and shackles on his feet.  But the demons in the man snapped them all like charred string and the man would return to the tombs.  A desperate existence!

In the condition of this man, we see what the devil and the demons are all about.  They are about dominance and destruction!  Look at what they have done to this man!  They were not content to “influence” his life; they “possessed” his body and used his limbs and mouth to do their work.  They destroyed the man’s life! He ran around naked and lived in a graveyard!  In Revelation 9 the devil is called “Destroyer.”  A most fitting name.  That is what he wants to do, destroy anything good and right and decent and cause as much misery as possible.  In John 10, Jesus talks about the thief who gets in among the sheep.  Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10)  The “Legion” comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

Things were about to change for the Legion!  They have met the Son of the Most High.  Notice what happens when the demons see Jesus!  They know exactly who has shown up!  They fall down in front of Jesus.  They address him as the Son of the Most High. Jesus says, What is your name? (v. 30)  The demons give that creepy answer, Legion, because many demons had gone into him. (v. 30)  A Roman legion had 6000 soldiers in it.   The demons begin begging Jesus not to confine them to hell.  They ask permission to enter a herd of pigs just yonder.  The Son of the Most High grants his permission.  The demons leave the man.  And true to their nature, they enter the pigs and proceed to kill and destroy them.

But the man was delivered! Free from that dark and demonic domination!  Free from that tortured existence!  Word of what Jesus did quickly spread. People from the city come out.  There they find the man.  He’s dressed and normal and sitting at Jesus’ feet.  The safest place on earth.

Friends, that is why the Son of the Most High walked this earth!  He came to deliver us all from the legions of hell.  There is a verse in the Bible that sums up the reason for Jesus’ coming this way:  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:7)  Oh, none of us (so far as I know) was ever bodily possessed by demons like the man in our text, but all of us come into this world needing to be delivered from Satan – from his accusations before God’s throne, from his dark dominion and domination.  That is why Jesus, the Son of the Most High, was stripped and crucified and taken out to the tombs.  To deliver you from the devil!

There was an interesting custom in the early Church.  The baptism rite began with these words, “Depart thou unclean spirit and give room to the Holy Spirit.”  And a little later in the rite, the pastor said, “I adjure thee, thou unclean spirit, by the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit that thou come out of, and depart from, this servant of God.” (LW 53:98)  Now, the people didn’t really think their little babies were possessed by demons, but it was a dramatic way of confessing what we learn in the Catechism:  “Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.”

May I say one more thing about our baptized babies?  Moms, dads, remember what happens in baptism.  Martin Luther said, “Remember…that it is no joke to take sides against the devil and not only to drive him away from the little child, but to burden the child with such a mighty and lifelong enemy.”  Baptism makes the devil hate your children.  The other day I was in a book store and I glanced at the “young adult” section.  I was shocked to see the number of books that had very dark and demonic themes to them.  But it was all packaged to look nice and harmless.  “All the teens dabble in the occult, no worries!”  The devil is mad that you and your children have been delivered from his grasp by the Son of the Most High!  He wants you back.  But you, like the man in our text, have been delivered from that by Jesus!  With your shameful nakedness clothed in the righteousness of Christ, with the right mind worked in you by the Spirit of God who now “possesses” you, with your children by your side, continue to sit at Jesus’ feet, and tell all who will listen how much God has done for you in his Son, Jesus Christ!

Amen.