St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 20, 2010
“Doing That’s Serving!”
Text: Luke 8:38,39
According to Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1, “For everything there is a
season, and a time for every matter under heaven”. Then come familiar
verses that speak of a time for this and a time for that including,
“a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
As Christians, don’t we all need help with that? Don’t we all wish
we were better at that, sitting, keeping silent, hearing, receiving
the Good News of how much Jesus has done for us, then going & telling
others how much Jesus has done for us.
That’s what is at the heart of the Gospel reading for this Sunday
which begins with a most amazing, most powerful, most reassuring
demonstration of Jesus power over evil; over demons. What eye-opening,
life-transforming power the Lord Jesus’ has to heal deeply troubled
people.
If this miracle story of healing & helping a deeply troubled man
were divided out into “a time for this & a time for that” there are
three significant times or significant moments reported here.
First is a time to act and it is Jesus who acts. Jesus no sooner
stepped out of the boat onto the shore of the country of the
Gerasenes and He encountered a man who was not himself, a man who in
the eyes of his family & fellow townspeople was “out of his mind.”
The man ran around naked. He was a “frightful, unpredictable” monster
of a man whom no one wanted running loose so the people tried to keep
this man chained up and out of sight, but that didn’t work. Given
the strength of the demon that possessed him, the man was strong
enough to break out of chains & shackles. He ran around the cemetery
at the edge of town, shouting, howling, keeping company with the dead.
In that moment Jesus first ran into the man, Jesus did not have to
stop & think about what He could do for the man. When the man saw
Jesus, the demon in him cried out & fell down before Jesus and said
with a loud voice, “What have you do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most
High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
Jesus wasted no time ordering the demon whose name was Legion
to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs that was feeding nearby.
The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the
pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.”
In that moment, it was a time to act, and the Lord Jesus acted.
Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man, let go of the man, flee
from the man into the pigs, and the demons responded. Knowing who
Jesus was, knowing they were no match for the power & authority of
Jesus, Son of God, the demons departed as Jesus commanded.
The second important moment in this story is that moment when the
man finally free of his demons, sat quiet, calm, a time to be silent.
When the people went out to see what had happened, and 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 the people
were afraid.
The people were afraid because Jesus had done such an awesome,
awesome thing, exorcizing a terrifying, life-controlling demon. Who
was this Teacher from over in Galilee that He could not only still
a storm out on lake, but He could still a storm in the life of a
human being & make him normal; make him calm, quiet, clothed, and
in his right mind? Now beyond the fact that when the townspeople
people learned what had happened and they were upset with Jesus for
what he did to the pigs, it also catches my attention that as upset
as the people were, they found the man they had all been afraid of
sitting “quietly at the feet of Jesus.”
“Sitting at Jesus’ feet” is an expression that implies being
silent, attentive, receptive, listening to Jesus. Later on in Luke,
when Jesus is welcomed into the home of Mary & Martha and we read
that Martha was busy in the kitchen; Martha was distracted with
much serving; Martha was working alone to prepare a meal, where was
her sister Mary? Mary was quietly, attentively sitting at Jesus’
feet, listening to his teaching. So also this man formerly possessed
by a wild, powerful demon. The man was not only healed; he became
a student of Jesus. In fact, this man probably was Jesus’ very
first “gentile” student.
A time to keep silence! Have we not all had moments like that?
We experience a time of turmoil, a time of struggle, a time of
suffering & pain. We have times of trial & temptation that exhaust
us to no end, hard times that leave us feeling helpless, sometimes
hopeless; then comes a word from Jesus, a word of peace. What good
words there are from Jesus that set us sinners, weak as we are, free
from the demons of worry & anxiety & guilt & shame & helplessness.
Hesitant, reluctant, fearful, worried as I can get, what a good
word it is that the Lord Jesus directs me to in Isaiah 43 where I
read, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are
mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the
rivers they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall
not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your
God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
That brings me to the third important moment in this story. When
the man “clothed in his right mind”, having sat quietly at Jesus’
feet, begged Jesus that he might go with Jesus, Jesus said to him,
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”
And get this!!! “The man went away, proclaiming throughout the
whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”
The man not only had a story to tell, but he was bold to tell it.
The man would have been perfectly justified to go back home, start
living an ordinary life, relax, enjoy being in his right mind after
so many years of being “crazy”, being out of his mind, but instead he
does as Jesus tells him and goes back to tell the whole city what God
has done for him; how the God of the Jews is very much a here-and-now
God for Gentiles; and that God is a God of great mercy & power, great
love & concern for all mankind.
Just how that man went about “proclaiming throughout the whole city
how much Jesus had done for him,” we’re not told. The point is, he
did it. He was healed. He sat silently for a time at Jesus’ feet.
Then when Jesus was asked to leave, Jesus told the man to go back to
his home, to tell his story, and he did.
Let this be a reminder to us that we are none of us finished
learning; that as we sit & listen & experience by faith what God has done
for us in Jesus, there are hard times, rough places when our speaking,
our telling others what Jesus has done for us is the thing to do.
Truth is, it’s not when things are going well that our witness,
our speaking turns out to be helpful but when things are not going
well, when life is not easy.
When the apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord three times to relieve
him of his thorn in the flesh. The answer Paul humbly, graciously
received from the Lord was, “My grace is sufficient for you for my
power is made perfect in weakness.”
For Paul that meant Paul’s speaking, telling what Jesus had done for him
involved boasting all the more gladly of his weaknesses, that the power
of Christ might rest upon him; that for Jesus’ sake Paul was content with
weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when Paul
was weak, then he was strong.”
Let that be true for us too! Like that man in today’s Gospel who
went back to a town not friendly or receptive toward Jesus, so there
are people around us, maybe even people we know, who aren’t friendly
or receptive for hearing about Jesus or hearing about the great
things God in Jesus has done for us and all mankind.
Our task is not to be passive, and it’s not to get preachy or pushy
or impatient or discouraged. Our task is to hang around, to let God’s
grace, God’s power be strong in us when we are weak that we may be
positive; that we may keep telling our story; keep pointing to Jesus’
work, Jesus’ cross, Jesus’ love, and keep hoping that at the end
of the day, thru the speaking of Jesus, God’s holy, healing Spirit
may bring people back to the Jesus they have forgotten or they have
wandered away from.
Put yourself in that healed man’s sandals who was in his right
mind. Imagine him saying to himself, “Jesus has something that he
needs me to do.” Imagine saying that to yourself. Believe it.
Follow through. “Jesus has something he needs you to do.” It’s true!
Let none hear you idly saying, “There is nothing I can do.”
While the multitudes are dying And the Master calls for you.
Take the task He gives you gladly, Let his work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when He calleth, “Here am I send me, send me!” (826.
LSB, v.4)