Do you believe?
Peter Pan implored all to believe in fairies to save Tinker Bell, Do you believe in fairies, me I feel that they things of fiction really. From today’s reading I would ask you a more pertinent question, do you believe in demons or do you feel they are the work of fiction? Bertrand Russell in his book “Why I am not a Christian”, referred to this incident of the demon processed man and the pigs as one of the reasons he rejected the Lord Jesus as he judged this whole incident as unbelievable. This incident is reported three times in the new testament, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke which is sort of underling the importance by God! Were are not talking about the Hollywood Buffy the vampire slayer type beasts, were are talking about foul sprits that seek our damnation and destruction, creatures that would rejoice in causing pain and suffering, that live on lies and deceit and all things unclean. I’ll tell you loud a clear they exist, I know it is not popular in church to speak of such things, but read the gospels and they are constantly referred to, they being demons and demonic influence are still very much with us, but do not be afraid, I have some good news.
Many in the church today might not want to think of demons as a clear and present enemy, and that friends is precisely what the evil horde wants, because the only force that can stop them in their tracks operates through Christ centred believers. Before we revisit today’s text, consider the state of the world, consider the state of society of the things people do – genocide, abuse of children, torture and the cruellest of murders, Rwanda, Cambodia, Kosovo, Iraq, world wars, men bowing before their political gods and serving their material needs, hating their neighbours, have not the forces of spiritual wickedness been let loose? A day does not seem to go by without some terrible and heinous crime being reported awful acts against children, babies and the innocent, I believe this is the work of the demonic, War, hate, self destruction, self loathing, self mutilation, anger, rage and all these things have roots in demonic influence. What about the ever growing interest in physic phenomenon, mediums, spiritualists, horoscopes, witchcraft and the like, these are all rooted in the demonic realms and are the paths to darkness and death. I do not wish to scare or bring fear, be strong be courageous
Beachhead
Lets walk together, come with me to the region of the Gerasenes, perhaps this is a small village called Khersa on the eastern shore of the lake of Galilee, a steep slope of one side. The boat jars as it beaches, step forth with Jesus, feet touching the waves then the firm sand, not the most scenic of places a graveyard in the distance, gapping holes in a cliff once a village now left to owls and wolves, a place unclean to the Jewish people. The disciples must have been wondering why, can’t we go to a mainstream place for once, what good can come in this place, this region is shunned by the Jewish people, they rear pigs here, this Decapolis, the ten towns of the unclean as the Jews judged. No Sabbath rest here, no hope of Messiah, this is a pagan land under the boot and rule of Roman legions, raising pigs for salted pork to feed the soldiers that oppressed. Jesus comes to an unclean land to the very heart of its unclean nature, a burial ground, to the heart of darkness, to the Jew a place of contamination, Lord lets us go make haste away. This is a place of no hope, away from the adoring great crowds hanging on every word, far from the mount no need to feed thousands here.
Then you see him, naked, bruised, bleeding running, more like a looping animal moving fast and erratically running to Jesus, homing directly at the Lord, broken shackles hanging limply from bleeding wrists, what are the disciples doing are they rushing to protect the Lord or scattering, what would you do flee or fight? Before you can think he is upon you. You look to Jesus he does not run, he turns and faces the man was that a smile on his face, doesn’t he see the madman, he sees but he knows this is a salvation time, a scaled down model of what is to come, run oh prodigal run fast the Fathers arms await you they are open wide come. A man living in this blighted place, day and night spent in torment, bruised, cut, the very forces of hell were trying to stop him running to Jesus, but he came, running to Christ a fearfully ruined man at the end of hope runs to arms open wide
Legion
Consider this wretched man, they had chained him in the tombs, he must have acted like a raving lunatic, he broke chains and cried out cutting himself with stones. As he kneeled at Jesus feet I imagine a barely human cruel hash sounding voice shouted out as loud as it could “What do you what with me, Jesus son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!”. The demons always instantly knew three things in all of Jesus encounters with them, these are:
His presence and true identity, they tended to flock to him like moths to a flame
His name and heavenly rank, they always confessed it
His authority over them, they had to do as told
Also by the very nature of the possessed man the demons show what they are about, they want to torment and destroy the divine likeness with which the man was created, trying to blot the image of God from man and replace it with their own. Jesus told the demons his intention “come out”, he was about to restore the image of God to its proper likeness and then he asked “What is your name” - “My name is Legion”, was the demonic response, indicating two things: firstly they were many, a Roman legion of the time numbered between 3,000 – 6,000 men and was a well organised ruthless fighting machine, that’s the second point actually the demonic forces were and are organised, these are not isolated incidents these are units of an organised force an army of darkness ranged against the forces of light, righteousness. The church is far from united and organised into an effective mobilised army, we need to be but were not, yet!
The demon said to Jesus, what do you want with me, almost mind your business, then reality dawned and the demon sensed he was to be punished, knew that he could not resist and the plea bargaining began. This legion of demons were pleading to this one man on a beach on their knees saying “please don’t send us out of this region” meaning they had many rich pickings in the region of the unclean, also they were fearful of their eternal punishment, that is to be cast into the Abyss. They would rather go into pigs than the Abyss, they pleaded with Jesus and he gave them permission, its important to realise that this was not a positive permission, more of a suffered “Go Then”, and they went.
Bay of Pigs
The demons were trying desperately to escape their punishment. Jesus suffered them entering the pigs knowing that it only delayed the inevitable but for a few minutes. This would have been and is a vivid picture, a narrow strip of beach, a huge herd of pigs up on hill above, a man rabid and broken kneeling begging at the feet of another calm, the eye of the storm. Then all hell breaks lose as the pigs go mad, the noise must have been deafening, frightening and terrifying, then the inevitable happens the animals driven mad cannot avoid the cliff and fall en mass into the lake waters below, what a sight, one of those clear moments when natural is crossed with supernatural, unreal to the witnesses. Then as the last animal drowns and the demons fall into the abyss for eternity, the ragged figure spasms and then lies still, peace at last, free cleansed.
Aftermath
I was once a passenger in a terrible car crash were two cars collided with such force that the driver of the other car was thrown clean out of the car. I saw the driver of the other car flying in the air, in slow motion in fact the whole crash happened in freeze frame, saw the money slowly spinning as it came out of his pocket, saw him hit the ground, the coins fall and them smash every thing came rushing and flooding in at incredible force and speed as the seat belt choked me and the seat threw me forward. Must have been like that to those tending the herd a weird scene, the fear and panic as the reality set in, what would they say. They fled for sure into the surrounding Gerasa countryside, telling the people of what they had seen, this extraordinary sight this unbelievable moment. The local village, towns and surrounding countryside would have been stirred to a frenzy as a result of such a display of power and awe, such a sudden financial loss and they would have flocked to the ground zero area and been alarmed by the sight of the dead pigs bobbing and floating on the lake, so it was true. See, see the herds boys would have been chanting it did happen and it was his fault pointing to a the figure on the beach below. The herdsman were facing redundancy, the Romans would go elsewhere, they would have been despairing at what had happened. Yet in their midst was the one whom God had sent into the world not to condemn it, but to save it. He is the one who promised to supply all the needs to those who would become his people “Don’t look at the pigs, People of Decapolis, Look to Jesus Christ”. Jesus says “Come to me all of you who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest”, that man had come to Jesus and found rest but would his neighbours?
What did they see?
Join the throng at the scene of this outburst of miraculous power. What did they see, what gained more attention, most likely the 2,000 floating pig bodies there as they examined the scene in more detail this man in right mind dressed sitting a the feet of Jesus. Isn’t that the madman, the one who broke the chains the graveyard fiend, what has happen, how did he get well. Sitting dressed in his right mind, not making a great display of repentance just at peace, come to me all you who are heavily burdened. The prodigal was home, salvation had come Jesus is here! The people must have been aware of the presence of the divine, they seem to fear Jesus, fear his power, fear his presence, not fitting with their religion, their superstitions, the sense of the infinite and unknown. Just think these people failed to see who was there in their midst, he came to the ones he created and they knew him not, this man could save them from the spiritual oppression of their very existence, this man worth so much more than a few dead pigs, this man arms opens saying “come to me, all who are heavily burdened”. The devil had blinded their eyes, their hearts were of stone and they love darkness more than light, they turned and said forcibly “get out of town Jesus”. The demons paid him more respect!
My Saviour
Before I came to Jesus I was so afraid of all I had to give up, all of the things that were between me and God, if you like they were he pigs grazing on the hill side, I would have died at the thought of them floating belly up in a lake they were so precious to me!
Then I did die to me so to speak, when I turned to Jesus and confessed “Jesus is Lord”, I said yes to Jesus, as I did my pigs flew straight off the cliff in their thousands and guess what I did not even look, I did not care, I did n’t, my gaze was transfixed on my saviour he stood before me on a beach
His eyes looked straight into my soul and I knew then that this is my saviour and he said “what is my name”, he knew my name it was written on his hand and on his heart never to be erased, I fell to my knees and just uttered “Lord, Jesus son of God”. My legion of sins were washed away, I could not careless about the floating dead pigs, just wanted him, to follow him to become like Jesus nothing compares, nothing..
Like my saved brother on the lake shore, I feel his pain as Jesus turns away back to the boat, don’t leave me Lord take me to. The man was desperate, as his neighbours rejected Jesus and sent him away, he was desperate, wanting to go with the Lord, could not live without him. Jesus turned to him and said , "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.“ Jesus calls you where you are to be like him in that place. The man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
We who are saved need to tell of what Jesus has done, no empty promises, tell of the bay of floating pigs, the sins washed away, the saviour who loves is with us
Jesus returned to this region in Mark chapter 7, Jesus healed the deaf and mute man in the region of Decapolis, the man evangelised, the delivered had spread the good word, Jesus in this region of the unclean the dammed set captives free, opened ears said to the mute and deaf man “Ephpatha” or be opened and those whom rejected him on the beach that day turned in amazement saying “He has done everything well!”
Jesus still does, he is waiting arms wide open on the beach ready to free you from sins and the demonic, ready to set you free of your burdens “come to me he says”, come today don’t wait, come tell him your name.
