A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Second Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 7C), June 23, 2019.
Off the Chain
Luke 8:26-39
(Other Readings Appointed: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23—4:7)
Have you ever noticed the difference between a dog who is on a leash or chained up in a yard and the dog who is able to run around freely? The dog who is say on a walk will always want to go where it wants to go and make that known to its owner by pulling and tugging on the leash with a bit of loud barking that seems to say, “No, I don’t care where you want to go; I want to go this way!” Or then, you have those sad looking dogs, chained up in a yard, laying around with almost resigned looks that seem to say, “I wish that I could go and run around somewhere.” And then, you go by your local dog park, watching the dogs freely running around, and you almost picture them running in slow motion, hearing music, and if they could sing, they might be singing, “Born free.” Clearly, seeing such things, we know that dogs are born to run, and to be “off the chain” is certainly for them a good thing.
These thoughts came to mind as I was reflecting on how I might preach on today’s Gospel. We heard again of Jesus’ healing, or perhaps more appropriately, exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac. There are many things which can grab our attention in this account for which we would like to have questions answered so that we can understand both what is going on here and what it all means. There are the questions around how many demons were possessing this poor man so that they felt that they should collectively call themselves “Legion”—a Roman designation for a military unit of three to six thousand men. Then there is the spectacle of seeing these demons begging Jesus not to be sent back to “the abyss”—their proper and rightful place—but instead to be allowed to “possess” a nearby herd of pigs which they then entered and caused to run to their deaths by drowning in the lake. And then there is the response of the locals who either witnessed this event or heard of it, that they “were seized with great fear” and because of that fear asked Jesus to leave them and that place, seemingly fearing Jesus more than these demons who had possessed this man who had now been set free.
Yet as I read these words again, I was struck by what our translation marks as a parenthetical comment, something which just is there to give us some “background information”. And I am referring to these words in our text: “For many a time 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 desert.”
Thinking on these words, one does come to understand what sort of ordeal this possessed man must have been suffering through for a long time. We hear that he lived outside of the city, “among the tombs”, never in a house, and naked. Not only was this man kept outside of “normal human life and interaction”, one could almost have to wonder if this was even a man anymore because of these demons who took over his life. It seems as if the only interaction which this man had with anyone was perhaps with those who were there to “guard” him—people who perhaps didn’t even interact with him but stayed there only to make sure that he did not harm others, or maybe even to see to it that he did not do harm to himself.
What is interesting is that this man was living a life of what could be called a “double bondage”. First, his life was bound by these demons who had taken him over, forcing him to live his life outside of and apart from society. And then his life was also quite literally bound—chained and shackled—for what was apparently “his own good”, protecting him and others from harm that these demons might have wished to inflict. This parenthetical comment which Luke gives us here in this account tells us that these demons did not like this literal bondage one bit. They seemed to prefer to be “off the chain”. So they enabled this man to have the strength to break his bonds so that he could be “free” to run about in the desert, where who knows what sorts of things or danger that this man could come to.
Because of this, we come then to see what a blessing it was that Jesus did drive these demons out from the life of this man, restoring to him so much that he had lost. We hear that when the townspeople came to the place where Jesus and this formerly possessed man were, they found this man, “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind”. In short, they saw this man whom these demons had robbed of his humanity, now human once again, restored and free to live the life that he was born to live.
And this is where we can come to see meaning in this account for ourselves and for our own life and living. Now I am not saying that there are any of us here who are possessed by demons. But we do find ourselves enslaved by our sins and kept under the power and influence of the evil one who tempts and moves us into sinful thoughts and acts. Like the demoniac who was bound for his own good, we try to “restrain ourselves”, wanting to somehow resist the temptation to think or do or say things that could harm us or others. Yet we often find ourselves wanting to “break our chains” so that we can seemingly be free and able to do whatever, whenever, and as ever we please.
Yet, as we live these so-called free lives, we come to discover that we are actually not as free as we may have thought we were. God and His Law comes and shows us that our freedom is actually a different kind of bondage. We think we are free when we do as we please, but then the Law comes and reveals that we have placed ourselves into a life of sin that separates us from God, binds us over to the power of the evil one, and keeps us from having and living the eternal life which God created for us to live in. Our so-called freedom in reality shackles us to something which we do not really want.
So in comes Jesus to us and to our lives, and as He comes we too might ask Him: “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” And His answer to us will be the same as what He did for the Geresene Demoniac. He will ask us our name, and by that name the very same Son of the Most High God will claim us as His own, just as He did for us in the waters of Baptism. In those waters He forgave us of our sin, freed us from the power of the evil one, clothed us with the robe of His righteousness, and put us in what is our “right mind”—having minds and hearts that are shaped and conformed by and to God’s will for us—so that we may be God’s own forever.
Now, it should be said that we do not know what happened to this man after the Lord Jesus had freed him from his demons, except that he did give himself and his life to going and telling “how much Jesus had done for him.” Our hope is that he did not have to deal again with such affliction in his life, but rather found and had a life filled with joy and peace in the Lord. But in our own lives we know that sin and its effects are always with us as we live on this side of eternity. Yes, Jesus has set us free from our sins, but we are still not free from sin as we live out our lives in this world. Because of this, forgiveness must be daily given and applied to us, and our hearts and minds need to be continually renewed and shaped by God and His Word, so that we may be then able to live as free in Christ, looking forward to that day when we will be truly free and living eternally the lives of holiness, innocence, righteousness, and blessedness which we were created from the first to have and to share with our God. And because we know what we have received and what we will also have forever, we too can go out and joyfully tell all those around us of how much Jesus has done for us.
As we sang today, we know that we are a people who are indeed “enslaved by sin and bound in chains”. Yet we also know that this is not the life that we were created for and to live. So we bless the Lord who sent His Son to set us free and to loose us from the bonds of our sins, so that by Him we are able to live our lives truly “off the chain”—free to be the people that we were created to be, both now and forevermore. Thanks be to Christ! Amen!
Leave a comment