Fully Declare

Jesus and disciples have just found themselves in a boat in the sea of Galilee when a huge storm arrives. Wind is blowing this way and that, water is coming up and in to the boat, and what is Jesus doing? Right, he’s asleep.

Panicking, thinking they are doomed and about to die, the disciples wake up Jesus in a frenzied state. Their cries of terror rang with echoes of pleas, begging for Jesus to intervene. Jesus, of course, does. He rebukes the wind and the waves, and everything calms. The disciples, as Luke says, “were afraid and amazed.” At this point, Luke is sure to include that the disciples were so amazed that they said, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”

That is what happened directly before our reading this morning from Luke 8:26-39. After such an amazing event the disciples and Jesus find themselves in the region of the Gerasenes, which according to Mark is in the area of Decapolis. This area of ten cities were founded by Alexander the Great, which makes the inhabitants largely what? Right, Greek.

Well, Jesus and disciples step onto land and are met by a man who “had demons.” We are then told that for a long time this man wore no clothes and lived in the tombs. Now, what are the tombs? Well, it’s where the dead were. This man lived among the dead.

Imagine, for a moment, a man in your head. This man has been possessed by demons, living in a dark tomb with dead people, having previously been chained up by the community and left naked, living on his own and in exile, cutting himself with stones, and desperate to be saved.

Well, this picture might help you out...

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Of course, this is a painting, and an imagine that someone saw when they read over this, but I think it does a good job of showing the nature of the man.

Hair

Chains

Scratches and rock

Naked

Wild in appearance

This is a man in desperate need, and he knew exactly where to go. He throws himself down at the feet of Jesus, asking not to be tortured. Likely, in this moment, we are witnessing the demonic submitting to the true authority, Jesus.

At this point, Luke gives us a bit of background information, adding in that the demon within this man made him so vile and uncontrollable that he was bound and chained up. The problem is that the demon also made him incredibly strong, and would drive him away into the wilderness.

Luke returns to the miracle and we are hearing Jesus ask this man what his name is. He asks this man his name, maybe in an attempt to bring the man forward more and push the demon back a bit. But, given the strength of this possession the demon responds by saying “Legion,” and the reason given is that many demons were in him.

This word “Legion” is interesting because most other demonic possessions we read about has to do with one single demon. Now, remember that this is taking place in a more Greek/Roman area. The word “legion” used as a name is also a Roman military unit. In fact, it’s the largest Roman military unit and consisted of nearly 6,000 heavy infantry soldiers. That’s what’s being used to describe this possession. It’s vast, deep, hard-hitting, brutal.

[LEGION PICTURE]

Yet, despite the name the demons use, despite it’s connection to a hardcore Roman infantry unit…the demons are shown to then beg for mercy at the hands of Jesus.

The demons beg Jesus to be allowed to be placed into the large herd of swine on the hill, and he allows it. The demons leave the man, enter into the swine, and this herd rushes down a steep bank, into the lake, and drown.

First of all, the fact that we have a herd of swine present shows us and the ancient readers that this was a Gentile area. In Judaism, swine are considered unclean and unholy. Now, many people get stuck on this part. Why did Jesus not just destroy the demons? Why did Jesus listen to their request? Why did the pigs have to die? What about the money that people lost because of this?

These are great questions, and if you thought of any of these while we read then you’re Bible study brain is active, and that’s great! But, what’s really important here is that we have two pictures, two scenes happening.

After Jesus cures this man of possession we have:

Scene 1: The demons are exorcised out of the man, sent into a calm and eating herd of swine, and the result of that is madness. Either the swine themselves, or due to the demons’ control, rush off the area where food and safety was down into the water, where they drown.

Scene 2: The swine-herders witness this, run into the city, tell of what happened, and a crowd of people come out to see. When they arrive, the once naked, frightening, violent, out of control, enraged possessed man was sitting at the feet of Jesus. Calm, fully dressed, and “in his right mind.”

Sure, we can get caught up discussing and trying to figure out the whole reason behind the demise of the swine, but I’m more concerned this morning about the man who had been radically changed. Physically, socially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually… all by the power of Jesus. It didn’t matter how deep of a control Satan had on his life, how vile and numerous were the demons… God had the power to bring him to freedom.

That’s what makes the next part so puzzling. The people, after seeing all of this, didn’t fall down and recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Nor, did they really seem to care what happened to the man. Instead, filled with fear, they asked Jesus to leave them. He didn’t argue, didn’t rebuttal, nor did he force himself on them. Instead, he complied.

Finally, as they were about the leave the man whom Jesus had healed asked if he could come with them. He wanted to follow Jesus out and do the ministry work that he had seen and likely now heard about. And, Jesus doesn’t something interesting here. Knowing that he was being asked to leave, he instructs the man to return to his home in the city and “declare how much God has done for you.” He doesn’t ask for credit, or money, or utter holiness from that moment on… he tells him to tell others about what had happened.

Finally, Luke does something seemingly small, but is actually huge. He says, “So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much (who? right,) Jesus had done for him.”

The instruction was to tell about how much God had done for him, and the man gives credit to God through Christ.

Wow, what a story! What a miraculous, historical, wonderful event.

Looking around this morning I don’t see anyone that’s visibly possessed, so you may be wondering, “how does any of this apply to me? I’ve never been possessed before!”

Well, believe or not, this miracle and what comes of it does apply to us. Here’s a few things we can pull from Luke’s Gospel this morning.

Jesus is recognized (Lk. 8:28-33)

The very first thing that the possessed man does when he sees Jesus is falls to his knees. Now, this could have been the man’s action, but I believe it was the demons. Knowing the authority and power of Christ they throw themselves down before Him and do what? Right, beg for mercy.

My question for you this morning, relating to this point, is this… when is the last time you threw yourself before Christ and begged for His mercy? I think we sometimes get caught up in this idea that we somehow deserve God’s mercy. We get caught in this cycle of thinking that because we are saved by God’s grace that we, as His children, are deserving of his mercy. Folks, none of us, no not one, deserves God’s mercy, grace, or forgiveness. Yet, he still gives it to us.

We ought to never take this for granted, and always place ourselves on our knees in a posture of submission before God. Begging Him for mercy, forgiveness, and grace. He is the sustainer, the renewer, the almighty. Let us never forget this.

Jesus frees and transforms

In this miracle Jesus frees a man who has been bound up before by not only physical shackles, but spiritually and even physically bound up by possession. Jesus has so much power, so much grace, so much mercy, that he frees this man from that very bondage.

While we may not be possessed, stripped naked, and living in tombs with the dead… all of us are chained and bound by something. While Christ offers us freedom from the wages of sin, we often like to place ourselves back into sin’s bondage because it’s familiar to us, our flesh longs for it, and sometimes it’s all we know.

But, the reality is, and the promise of Christ that we see through this miracle, is that no matter what sin binds you, no matter how tempted you are to return to a life of sin, Jesus is here to free us from that bondage.

The transformative power of Jesus in our lives is what breaks us from those chains that bind us, those sins that hold us captive and prevent us from growing more and more daily into a Christ-like person. Brothers and sister, no matter what it is this morning that is keeping you from being the very person that God created you to be, He has the ability to break its hold on you. You do not have to be chained anymore to sin in your life. If you don’t believe me, reread Luke 8:26-39.

There are many points to be taken out of this Gospel lesson, but there is one more I really want you to focus on, it’s the one that God highlighted for me after reading this Scripture...

Jesus sends

After being healed this man wanted to do nothing more than to follow Jesus and the disciples, to learn from him, to be at his side through all of the ministry. Yet, Jesus doesn’t accept this request.

Instead of allowing the man to come with him, Jesus says, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”

There are people in this world who have interactions with God. Life changing, transformative moments, and God calls them to use those moments in ministry all around the world. That’s why we have a growing number of missionaries all around the world. People are being called to go and work.

What’s interesting here is that Christ, knowing that he is about to leave this Gentile region at their request, purposefully tells this man to return home, to where he belongs, and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.

This word “declare” is interesting. I think today, for many of us, declaring what God has done for us looks different than what was intended. Many people “declare” Jesus by sharing a Bible verse or two on Facebook, or by praying before a meal in a restaurant, or by saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes. Maybe, for some of us, we’re really good about declaring what Jesus has done for us in the setting of the Church, in worship, or Sunday School, or in a small group, or over the phone with a friend or loved one… and all of that is fine! But, there’s more.

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“Declare” in the Greek is διηγέομαι (dee-ay-geh-oh-may). Listen to some of the definitions of this word:

-to set out in detail

-to describe in full

-to describe

-to thoroughly narrate

-to account for the priority in a story

Even more interesting is that the way this word appears in the Bible indicates a high level of self-involvement on behalf of the speaker or person told to speak.

What this means for us, us Christians who live in community with others, who are around people… it means that we must declare to others what Christ has done for us.

This means more than just a short “oh yea, I believe in Jesus,” or “Yea, Jesus is my Lord,” or even, “Yea, my life was hard before Jesus, but it’s better now...”

No, it means to describe in full detail about what Jesus has done for us. The people whom Christ has transformed have a responsibility, a duty, and a command to share that transformation with others. Each and every one of us have a story of how Jesus has transformed our lives. People will argue with us about the validity and truth of God, they may even sneer at your testimony, but none of that takes away the absolute truth of Jesus’ restorative power in our lives.

This man, who was once possessed, was healed, transformed, and told to describe in full what God had done for him. He was sent back into his Gentile, pagan, non-believing community and told to share what God has done for him.

This morning, I wonder just how many of us are going out into the world, into our communities, into our spheres of influence whether they be friends or family members, and are describing in full detail what Christ has done and continues to do for us. Whenever I talk about evangelism with people, about sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with others, I’m often met with this rebuttal, “But, what if I don’t know what to say or I say the wrong thing?”

If you are sharing exactly and fully what God has done for you in your life, if you are telling other people how Jesus Christ has transformed your everyday living, you won’t get it wrong. They may still rebuttal, but you won’t get it wrong.

If we truly believe that the greatest news there is to share with the world is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that God forgives us through our faith in Jesus, then there should be nothing nor no one in this world that stops us from describing in full to other people the Good News of Jesus and the impact He has had on our lives.

Don’t let the shame of your sin stop you either, because I’m sure this man in an honor-shame society had much to hide. Instead, let it be the fuel that makes your testimony even brighter. The forgiveness of Christ also has the ability to wipe away the shame of our past sins.

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So, remember these three things from this miraculous moment...

Jesus is recognized

Jesus frees and transforms

Jesus sends

And all of God’s people said, Amen!