Luke tells us a story of another man for whom liberation seemed fleeting before Jesus met him. Jesus has gone across the Sea of Galilee to the gentile region, the country of the Gerasenes. As soon as Jesus gets off the boat, he is met by a shameless man. For only people without shame go about not wearing clothes. Adam and Eve felt no shame walking in Eden without any clothes. They lived together in innocence where shame was not needed. But this fellow of the Gerasenes is different. He does not live in the paradise of the vibrant garden of Eden, but among the tombs. Adam and Eve walked in the fullness of life; this fellow lives in the arena of death. His shamelessness comes not from an innate innocence, but from a twisted mind. The demons that afflict him have clouded his judgment with lies and falsehood.
And so also there is much shamelessness in the world today. . . .The world is taking off her clothes and thinking that its shamelessness is actually without shame, but while everyone thinks we are headed toward a new and better future where we have created a new Utopia where everything is paradise, they are blind to the tombs. We live in the midst of death, and all of our celebrations cannot hide the fact that death surrounds us. The devil is cheering us on toward our own destruction.
If you think that I am making too much of a leap comparing the demoniac to our society, compare their reactions to the word of Jesus.
Jesus commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man and the man falls down and cries out with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me.”
The demons recognize Jesus. They call Him by name and acknowledge Him as the Son of the Most High God. But in doing so they emphasize their difference; they left that team long ago. What have you to do with me? What do we have to do with each other? The demons know that torment is coming. They know that their way of lies and rebellion has no place in the kingdom of God. Here they are in a gentile region, in an unclean cemetery, and it is as though they ask Jesus, “Why can’t you just let us be? You go do your thing among the Jews and we’ll stay over here among the Gerasenes?”
When the church speaks Christ’s Word, we are increasingly being told the same thing. The world says, “If you want to believe that, fine just keep it within the walls of your church. You can say whatever you want there, just don’t come here and tell us that the emperor doesn’t have any clothes on.” . . .
“Churches,” the world says, “what’s between you and us? You do your thing in Judea, but here in the country of the Gerasenes, you let us do things our way. And don’t torment us by telling us that we are wrong.”
The poor man oppressed by this legion of hell’s satanic crew is caught in the middle. His neighbors tried to restrain him, but he resisted. Empowered by the demons within, he would break the chains and shackles and escape the guard. Freedom, right? If your chains are broken, are you not then liberated? But what if the chains are broken only because you have been seized by the devil? It is the devil whose strength tore the man’s bonds asunder and it is the devil who now holds him captive. Therefore his captivity now is greater than when he was in jail. . . .
There are a legion of ways that we are kept in bondage. There is one way we have true freedom. There are many who flaunt their supposed freedom by living shamelessly; there is one who sees it entirely for what it is. Jesus does not look past the tombs. He does not ignore the shame of the world, but He embraces a broken world. When He is put in bonds, He does not use His strength to break them, but endures them. He allows Himself to be led off as a captive in order to break your captivity. He allows Himself to be stripped and have his garments divided by lot so that your shameless nakedness be covered. He had no house to lay his head, but a borrowed tomb, so that a place would be prepared for you in His Father’s house. He cried out in a loud voice to the Most High God, “Why have you forsaken me?” so that God would have something to do with you, not just something, but so that God would be your Father forever. . . .
Clothed with the righteousness of Christ imputed to you in baptism and in your right mind, having the humble mind of Christ formed in you through His Word, you now sit at the feet of Jesus. Not as a slave, but as one who recognizes that true freedom is to live as God created you to live in His Kingdom and by His Word.
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