Responding to Jesus’ Miraculous Deliverance
(Note: Sermons can be heard in audio format at https://millersburgmennonite.org/worship/sermon-audio/)
Scripture: Mark 5:1-20
Introduction:
Let’s call them Legion for lack of a better name. There were a bunch of them.
Our home where I grew up in Lost Gap, Mississippi was on 10 acres of wooded land. The house was set back from the main road aways so we had a long driveway.
That didn’t seem to bother them much.
Each morning for a while there here they would come (rumble) barreling down the driveway onto our property, a whole passle of the neighbor’s piglets.
They’d root around in the yard and mom’s flower garden and generally make a complete nuisance of themselves until eventually we’d shoo them away.
But sure enough the next morning here they’d come like a swarm of locusts of Biblical proportions invading our rural home.
After this had gone on awhile, my dad decided he needed to speak to the neighbor about his piglets being loose and all and so he went up to have a talk with him.
Well the next day rolled around and guess what? Yep, here come them pigs arunnin’ (rumble) down the driveway.
That was when dad decided he needed to take matters into his own hands.
So one evening he went out and strung a strand of wire a couple of inches off the ground from the shop across the width of the driveway. Then … he hooked it up to the electric fence.
Well, the next morning sure enough here come them piglets (rumble).
Oh, did I mention that there was a heavy dew the night before?
Well, them piglets were a coming (rumble) and all of sudden they hit that strand of wire with their little nosees (bam!) and you should of heard them squeal (Whee! Whee!) Then they hit it again (bam!) Wheee! Wheee!
And all of sudden, that herd of piglets got the message that they weren’t welcome, and they took off as fast as their little hooves could carry them, crying whee whee whee all the way home.
You know it’s strange, but we never did see them piglets round our house again.
Sometimes, piglets, and if we’re honest, weeee, children of God, need some guidance. Sometimes, if we don’t listen the first time, God’s message can be, well, a bit shocking.
Sort of like what happens in our story this morning.
Mark’s description of Jesus healing the demon possessed man is a continuation of what Rachelle preached on last Sunday. Just like people may respond differently to the seeds God plants, the people in our story today have very different responses to Jesus’ deliverance.
What will be our response? May God bless the reading and hearing of God’s Word.
Let us pray,
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of every heart here be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen
Homily
As you have heard, today is Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday. Today serves as a reminder and a celebration of the beautiful worldwide mosaic that is the community of God. Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world. Jesus is about destroying the dividing wall between us and God AND tearing down the barriers between people too. Which is what we little Christs are to be about as well.
Our story this morning begins with Jesus quite literally crossing over the sea of Galilee, from his familiar home country to the predominantly Gentile lands of the Decapolis, a league of ten ancient Greek cities formed in Palestine after the Roman conquest of 63 BC. It’s not the kind of place a good Jewish rabbi of Jesus’ stature should be visiting.
Remember these are the days when a proper Jew would travel around Samaria for instance rather than through it and the Samaritans are closer relations to the Jews than the Gentiles!
One has to wonder, did Jesus become “unclean” as soon as he stepped off the boat onto the shore? There are so many parts of this story that scream, “unclean!” The man with the demons for instance would have been permanently unclean not only because of the demons that possessed him but because he lived among the tombs. The herd of pigs in the area was also an example that this was Gentile country for Jews were forbidden from eating pigs and even being around them was considered ritually unclean.
Now I’m sure when my parents, who grew up in upstate New York, moved to Mississippi, it was quite a culture shock. And even more so when we moved out from the city of Meridian to the more rural Lost Gap community. The piglets were not the only animals from the neighbors that found their way onto our property. There was a big ol pig, a flock of biddies (that’s Southern for any kind of baby chicks), and a horse to name a few. Now mom and dad could have got bent out of shape and done more than string electric wire or let it be known around the neighborhood how much we liked bacon. Instead, these incidents of animal invasion became opportunities for them to connect with their neighbors. My mom would visit them on a regular basis, and we wound up giving the family the playhouse dad had made for us. When I talked with my parents this week, they both said that they had a good relationship with that neighbor. Good fences do make good neighbors. But sometimes being good neighbors means we have to cross over fences, Amen? Amen.
Are there “unclean” dirty, different, uncomfortable places and people that God is calling you to visit and enter into relationship with?
As the Believer’s Bible Commentary states, Jesus is “compassionate and powerful, willing and able to restore wholeness, even if he must cross boundaries of uncleaness to do so.”
That’s what Jesus is exemplifying here again, crossing a barrier, be it tangible or not, unafraid to be in relationship with the “unclean.” As soon as he steps onto the shore, Jesus is immediately confronted by the demoniac, who speaking with the voices of the demons, recognizes who Jesus is.
There is a lesson here about power and strength. The demon possessed man was strong, so strong that he could not be bound, he broke the chains that were meant to restrain him. But the power that possessed him was harmful and let’s get one thing straight, the destructive powers then and the those of today may seem all powerful but their power is nothing when compared to the power of Jesus.
There is power, power, wonderworking power, in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonderworking power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.
Do you believe that? The principalities and powers of this world sure do.
Those that possess the man are so afraid that Jesus is going to send them straight back to hell that they make a deal with him. “Hey, Jesus, just send us into those pigs.” Jesus agrees, the demons enter into the pigs, and the herd runs over the cliff and drowns.
Speaking of power, the name the demons give themselves is Legion. It is not a coincidence that a term used to describe the unit of soldiers that formed the crux of the Roman army, and its conquest of the known world is the one used here. Looking around the world today, it is easy to see how so many continue to put their faith in military power as their primary response to disagreements or conflict. Unlike the Legion of demons in our story, the Legions of the Roman Empire, the missiles, bombs, ships, and tanks bombarding the world today, the power of Jesus is different. We may not always see where it is at work, but the power of Jesus’ love is the greatest power the world has ever known. We must never forget that. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20:7).
When Jesus tells the demons to be quiet, the word he uses is the same one he used when he calmed the storm on the sea earlier. It literally translates as “Be Muzzled.” Perhaps we need to take steps in our own lives to turn off the noise of the constant beating of the drums of war in what we see and hear.
Are there areas in our lives where we need to allow the Spirit of God to remind us of where true power lies, asking for eyes to see where God’s love and peace are at work in the world?
There is also economic cost present in this story. The destruction of the herd of pigs represents a significant economic loss for the people in the area. 2000 pigs would have been worth a substantial amount at that time. When the herd of pigs runs off the cliff, the swineherds run off to tell the people, and the owners perhaps, what has happened. People come a runnin, they see their pigs gone, and the demoniac sitting there clothed (which by the way means he was naked) and in his right mind. Their response? The people ask Jesus to leave. They are more concerned about the hit to their pocketbooks, than they are about the amazing miracle that has occurred in their midst. As I asked earlier, what would be our response?
Is our money or the things money can buy keeping us from experiencing deliverance in our own lives and in the lives of people around us?
In the end, we must not forget that our story today is a miraculous display of Jesus’ power to heal and to change lives. A man possessed by not one but many evil spirits, who lived among the dead, physically strong but crying out in agony and pain, naked and scarred from countless self-made wounds, is transformed. His response? Jesus, Let me follow you. I want to be your disciple.
Strangely, Jesus tells him No. Not to the following Jesus part, but rather that the man’s call is to be an evangelist to his own people. This radically transformed man, rather than Paul, is the one who will be the first missionary to the Gentiles. It’s also interesting to note here that while Jesus is often telling people not to say anything about what he has done for them, the opposite is true for this man. And the man does as Jesus asks, going throughout the ten cities proclaiming his deliverance at the hands of Jesus.
When pigs fly. We often say the phrase to describe something we deem impossible. There will be peace on earth. When pigs fly. Nobody will go hungry or be homeless anymore. When pigs fly.
Well, in this instance, pigs do fly. They fly right off the cliff and into the sea, taking the demons of brokenness, violence, and mammon, back to hell where they belong. We may think something is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
There is indeed wonderworking power in the precious blood of the Lamb.
At the end of Matthew in his Great Commission, Jesus says these words:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Do we believe Jesus has ALL authority (that is power) in heaven and on earth? How are we living out Jesus’s great commission? Do we trust that Jesus is indeed with us no matter what forever?
How will we respond to God’s wonderworking power in our lives and in the lives of our family, friends, and neighbors?
You never know, we just might see pigs fly.
Let us pray,
The Lord’s Prayer (using sins).
Slow Mover 