Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,<\/p>\n
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\u201cI believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.\u201d So the catechism\u2019s explanation of the Second Article of the Creed sums up the very heart and centre of the Christian faith. Today\u2019s Gospel reading on Jesus\u2019 healing of a demon-possessed man expounds on the third evil from which we are saved\u2014the power of the devil\u2014in a most dramatic way.<\/p>\n
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After Jesus had just said to a sinful woman while reclining at the table in the house of a Pharisee by the name of Simon, \u201cYour sins are forgiven\u201d; those who were present said among themselves, \u201cWho is this, who even forgives sins?\u201d And then, in the verses just previous to our text, we read that after Jesus calms the raging sea by the power of His Word, the disciples are filled with great fear and say to one another, \u201cWho is this, that He commands even winds and water, and they obey Him?\u201d Well, they are about to find out who this Jesus is in, of all places, \u201cthe country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe country of the Gerasenes\u201d was a region of settlements inhabited not by Jews but by Greek-speaking Gentiles. That this Jewish prophet would sail across the Sea of Galilee to this region where unclean, unbelieving Gentiles lived\u2014\u201ca rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices,\u201d to use the words from today\u2019s Old Testament Reading\u2014is most significant. For the message that Jesus \u201chas purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil\u201d is not confined to the Jews or to one particular group, region, or country, but is meant for all people in all parts of the world. As St. Paul puts it in today\u2019s Epistle Reading: \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And that is why, when Jesus steps out of the boat, He is immediately confronted by a man possessed by demons who \u201cwould break the chains and shackles\u201d with which the people had tried to bind him and who \u201cfor a long time had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house but among the tombs.\u201d After all, what was behind the false beliefs and worship practices of those first-century people from \u201cthe country of the Gerasenes\u201d? Who is behind the immoral, idolatrous, evil, and wicked ways of twenty-first-century people here in this nation? Is it not the author of sin, the agent of death, \u201cthe father of lies, the murderer from the beginning,\u201d as Jesus calls him\u2014that is, the devil?<\/p>\n
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This is why St. Peter writes in his first epistle these words: \u201cBe sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.\u201d Or, as St. Paul says in Ephesians: \u201cFor we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Although the people who heard Jesus forgive the sins of that sinful woman in Simon the Pharisee\u2019s house questioned among themselves who this Jesus is, and although the disciples wondered the same after He calmed the raging sea, there is someone who knows exactly who He is.<\/p>\n
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We read: \u201cWhen the man from the city who had demons saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, \u2018What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me. For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The writer of Hebrews declares, \u201cthe children share in flesh and blood, Jesus Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery\u201d. These unclean spirits that possessed this man\u2014more than one, for our text says: \u201cJesus asked him, \u2018What is your name?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Legion,\u2019 for many demons had entered him\u201d\u2014\u201cbelieve and shudder\u201d to use the words of St. James. They believe that this Jesus is \u201ctrue God, begotten of the Father from all eternity,\u201d and then shudder\u2014shudder because He is about to destroy them and their wicked works, shudder because they are powerless before Him, shudder because they are about to be cast into the abyss of hell.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNow a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him to let them enter these. So He gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.\u201d This dramatic account\u2014of unclean spirits entering unclean pigs (\u201cdeviled ham,\u201d as it were) and plunging over the cliff into the lake where the unclean pigs drown and the unclean spirits descend into the abyss\u2014must have been especially meaningful to those early Christians who first heard and read of this event. After all, for those believers in Jesus who were being persecuted by the Roman government\u2014oppressed and threatened by the famed and feared Roman legions\u2014and considering that the favourite food ration of those legions was pork, swine\u2019s flesh, and that the insignia on the shields of the Tenth Roman Legion stationed in Judea was a wild boar, what were they to make of Jesus commanding this demon\u2014whose name is Legion\u2014to come out of the man and enter some two thousand pigs, which then plunged into the watery abyss? <\/p>\n
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Why, just this\u2014as Martin Luther puts it in his famous hymn:<\/p>\n
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\u201cThough devils all the world should fill,
\nAll eager to devour us,
\nWe tremble not, we fear no ill;
\nThey shall not overpow\u2019r us.
\nThis world\u2019 s prince may still
\nScowl fierce as he will,
\nHe can harm us none.
\nHe\u2019 s judged; the deed is done;
\nOne little Word can fell him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnd when the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. The people went out to see what had happened and how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Now, we might well understand why those herdsmen whose pigs were floating around dead in the lake would be rather upset, but why all the people? Well, because they, too\u2014like this demon\u2014\u201cbelieve and shudder.\u201d They believe that this Jesus is much more than just some Jewish prophet; after all, He did something their soothsayers and incantations, their chains and shackles, could not do\u2014He healed this demon-possessed man.<\/p>\n
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Moreover, Jesus did all of this not in the land of the Jews, but right here in their own country. And so, they shudder, filled with great fear\u2014fear that this Jesus will cast out of them their own demons, which they rather enjoy and embrace: their wine, women, and song; their love of and preoccupation with money and pleasure; their religious beliefs and practices, to use the words from the Old Testament Reading, \u201cof sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; of sitting in tombs and spending the night in secret places; of eating pig\u2019 s flesh and broth of tainted meat in their vessels.\u201d <\/p>\n
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And filled with fear over what the one, holy, almighty God will do to them because of their spiritual uncleanness; shuddering over the possibility that this Jesus will cast them into the abyss along with the demons and pigs; they \u201cask Jesus to depart from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But there is one individual who is not filled with fear, one person who sees and regards Jesus as a loving Saviour, as the Redeemer from sin, death, and the devil\u2014\u201cthe man from whom the demons had gone out and who is sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.\u201d And
\nthat is the change that Jesus also works in the hearts and minds of people like you and me who are oppressed by the devil\u2014what He works in us through the power of His authoritative Word. So St. Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians: \u201cThe god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. But
\nGod, who said, \u2018Let light shine out of darkness,\u2019 has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And in a way very similar to this man, we, too, have been exorcised of our demons. In the Order of Holy Baptism, for instance, we hear these words: \u201cThe Word of God teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As a result, we are now clothed and in our right minds\u2014clothed with the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Himself, which covers the nakedness of our sins and all our uncleanness; in our right minds, made right by sitting at Jesus\u2019 feet and hearing His Word; minds that know the love, grace, and mercy that the one true God has shown us and bestows upon unclean sinners in His own Son; minds that now partake not of the \u2018deviled ham sandwiches\u2019 of this world but of the heavenly food of the holy Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, who has overcome sin, death, and the devil by His sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now, as Jesus gets back into the boat and is about to cross the lake and return to Galilee, this man begs that he might go along with Him\u2014echoing, as it were, the desire of the apostle Paul who said, \u201cI would rather depart and be with Christ Jesus.\u201d But as with Paul who said, \u201cGod called me by His grace, and was pleased to reveal His Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles\u201d, so also with this man. For Jesus is not going to leave these people in the country of the Gerasenes to their demons. Instead, He says to him, \u201cReturn to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.\u201d And with the result that \u201che went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Holy Spirit blessed this man\u2019s proclamation of Jesus Christ\u2014this man whom we might call \u2018the first apostle to the Gentiles\u2019\u2014for the next time Jesus returns to this neck of the woods, about six months later, we are told that a large crowd came out to sit at His feet and hear His Word.
\nIn fact, from early church history we learn that by the second century a large number of Christians inhabited this \u201ccountry of the Gerasenes,\u201d and that a representative from the church at Gerasa would participate in that church council in Nicaea where, on the basis of the Scriptures, was formalized the answer to that question concerning who this Jesus is\u2014the Nicene Creed that we confess still today: \u201cI believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In this dramatic event we have, in its simplest form, the commission Jesus has also given to each one of us at our baptism, the task He again gives to us this day: \u201cNow that I have redeemed you from sin, death, and the devil with My holy precious blood and My innocent suffering and death, return to your home and tell others around you how much I have done for you. Go back to that station in life, that vocation into which I have placed you and there, in word and in deed, \u2018proclaim the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light\u2019.\u201d In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Friends in Christ Jesus, \u201cI believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","wpfc_preacher":[176],"wpfc_sermon_series":[],"wpfc_sermon_topics":[],"wpfc_bible_book":[],"wpfc_service_type":[],"class_list":["wpfc_preacher-pastor-j-fritsche","wpfc-sermon-single","post-4577","wpfc_sermon","type-wpfc_sermon","status-publish","hentry"],"sermon_audio":"","sermon_audio_duration":"","_views":"19","bible_passage":"Luke 8:26-39 Jesus then asked him, \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d And he said, \u201cLegion,\u201d for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.","sermon_video_embed":"","sermon_video_url":"","sermon_bulletin":"","_featured_url":false,"sermon_date":1750593607,"_sermon_date_auto":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/wpfc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4579,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4577\/revisions\/4579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wpfc_preacher","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_preacher&post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_series&post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_topics&post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_bible_book","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_bible_book&post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_service_type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_service_type&post=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}