When Jesus Comes to Town – Luke 8:36-39 – Justin Sytsma

I want to extend my welcome to what has already been offered

this morning. My name is Justin Sytsma and I

serve as one of the pastors here at Court Rights.

And for those who are new or newer, we are working through

the book of Luke a little bit by little bit.

And it's been just really cool each week to look back and see

where our understanding has been enlarged and grown from one

passage to another. We see themes that Lucas drawing

out and it's just been a lot of fun.

And so we're only on week like 30 ish.

So it's not too late to catch up.

We only got like a year and a half to go.

So also I wanted to mention I've been away in the past few weeks.

We've had a fantastic opportunity to be on holiday, my

family and I, and we were specifically decided on going to

a wonderful little pilgrimage. I went to the John Knox House,

which is like the birth place of Presbyterianism.

I didn't go in, but we, we, we were, we were hungry and went to

a pub down the road instead. But this is where it all began

apparently. So I, I didn't read the history

so I don't know. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

Our Clerk of session, Alex Monsour, he warned me that our

nine year old might not be very enthused by it.

And Lindsey, my wife, said the same.

So anyway, so last week, last week, we saw Jesus and the

disciples and they were in a boat.

I don't want to go there yet. They were in a boat on the Sea

of Galilee as a storm comes in, it rolls in and they're

terrified and they wake Jesus, who is napping.

And Jesus rebukes the winds and the waves.

And we talked about this as the same sort of language that is

used when an evil spirit, a demon, is rebuked.

So this PC, which is often a symbol of darkness and chaos, is

rebuked. And today we'll see a Jesus who

is no, not only powerful to rebuke chaotic waters like last

week, but a Jesus who is powerful enough to rebuke an

entire army of evil spirits. This passage has the potential

to feel kind of heavy in some ways.

It deals with spiritual warfare in a way that many of us only

have kind of a tangential understanding of.

But I believe that God has something for us to hear in this

passage this morning. So let me pray as we read and

begin. God, would you surprise us by

your Holy Word this morning? Would you silence our agendas?

Would you banish our assumptions?

Would you cast out our casual detachment?

God? Would you confound our

expectations when you give us ears to hear and eyes to see

what You are saying in and through this passage?

Would you reach the deepest recesses of our hearts this

morning? We know that you can.

We pray that you will, and we wait and hope with expectation

and anticipation. Amen.

So whether you are in on your phone with the Bible app or you

have a physical Bible or you can follow along here as well.

This is Luke chapter 8 starting at verse 26.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

So they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across

from the Lake of Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he

was met by a demon possessed man from the town.

Nice greeting committee. For a long time this man has not

worn clothes or lived in a house, but has but had lived in

the tombs. But he saw Jesus.

He cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his

voice. What do you want with me, Jesus,

son of the Most High God, I beg you, don't torture me.

For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the

man. Many times it had seized him,

and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard,

he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demons into

solitary places. Jesus asked him, What is your

name, Legion? He replied, because many demons

had gone into him, and they begged Jesus repeatedly not to

order them to go into the abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding

on the hillside, and the demons begged Jesus to let them go into

the pigs, and he gave them permission.

When the demons came out of the man they went into the pigs, and

the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was

drowned. When those tending the pigs saw

what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town

and countryside, and the people went out to see what happened.

When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the

demons had gone out sitting at Jesus's feet, dressed and in his

right mind, and they were afraid.

Those who had seen it told the people how the demon possessed

man had been cured. Then all the people of the

region of the garrisons asked Jesus to leave, because they

were overcome with fear. So he got into the boats and

left. The man from whom the demons had

gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,

Return home and tell how much God has done for you.

So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had

done for him. This is the word of the Lord.

Think speed to God. So if you're anything like me,

sometimes passages like this can be challenging because they deal

with the supernatural in a way that doesn't necessarily land in

our modern Western culture. So I want to start here for a

moment because I don't want this man's affliction to be a

stumbling block to us getting to the heart of this passage.

Here's the problem as I see and understand it.

Modern Western Christians tend. I use that word carefully.

They tend to unto struggle with concepts like demon possession.

Not everyone you know. Our charismatic and Pentecostal

brothers and sisters don't necessarily struggle with this

in the same way. They seem to have a better

handle on this. But there is a tendency within

modern Western Christianity to simply explain away demon

possession as a mental disorder like schizophrenia or

dissociative personality disorder.

There's a concept that was coined by a Christian

anthropologist. His name was Paul Hebert, and

it's called the excluded middle. The excluded middle.

And here's the simplest way for us to think about it.

In our modern Western world, we tend to think through the world

through a empirical scientific lens.

Whatever we can observe and empirically prove, like the

scientific method that we will state that as truth.

This is even true in our faith at times.

This is why the the sphere of apologetics in the Christian

world has ballooned over the past number of decades, because

we want to be able to empirically prove things that

are difficult to empirically prove, like the resurrection,

like the the total historicity of Scripture and things like

that are modern and scientific minds compel us to try to find

concrete answers for things like this.

Meanwhile, for millennia and still today across many parts of

the world and cultures, there is an automatic assumption of a

spiritual realm. So you see the supernatural

realm up here and the natural realm down there.

This excluded middle is the area that says.

Actually, we have neglected to realize that these both

intersect with one another for a whole host of people across time

and space and culture today. It is baked into their

worldview. So the flaw of neglecting the

excluded middle is that we tend to see these two realms as

realms that do not mix, rather than seeing them as integrated

and interconnected, That the spiritual world and the physical

world are not disconnected, but rather intrinsically connected.

So here's what I want us to know.

Modern Western Christians, ones who would generally say that we

believe in something like a literal resurrection, can tend

to undermine the spiritual and the supernatural when it comes

to things like this, such as evil and the demonic, as we see

in today's passage. And I believe we do this to our

detriment. There are cultures across our

world today and across centuries and millennia of history who

have a very real understanding of evil that goes beyond simply

human evil. You go to many parts of the

majority world outside of the West, and you'll find that they

have a much greater understanding and experience of

spirits and of good and evil. And so to deny and reject this

is to deny the experience of literally billions of people,

Christian or otherwise, across time and culture.

It can tend toward us having a little air of intellectual

snobbery. And I want us to go into this

story this morning with the assumption that this man did not

simply have a mental illness. Maybe he did as well.

We don't know but that there is something more happening here.

Let's not let that aspect of this story be a distraction or a

stumbling block for us this morning.

So let's you know, even if you're struggling with that, you

like, I would encourage you take a take a little moment here to

suspend disbelief. We can the safe space to do that

where we can sort of set that aside for a moment and let's get

to the heart of the story, wherever you land on that.

So let's enter this man's world. So the village that Jesus and

his disciples happened upon was a largely Gentile region, so

mostly non Jews. That means, and this is

interestingly Luke's only story in the whole Gospel of Luke

where Jesus goes out of his way to visit a region like this.

Now, little pop quiz, what is the easiest way to tell that

this was a Gentile region? Pigs.

Yeah, they were hurting swine, which is totally forbidden by

Jewish law. It wasn't just the eating.

It was, you know, the, the, the proximity to as well.

In fact, this whole scenario just screams unclean.

You've got the pigs, you have this possessed man, which

literally translates to unclean spirits.

And then you have this man living outside the village

amongst the tombs that would have also been considered

unclean. So this demon possessed man has

been terrorizing the region, quite literally.

He's running around without clothing.

He's living in an act. He hasn't lived in an actual

house for many years. And they're forced the villagers

to have to like, have people, you know, guard this man and

he's breaking the chains on his hands and feet.

He's got like this superhuman strength.

They are economically invested in keeping this possessed man at

Bay. Like they have put in resources

to keep this guy from hurting people and then Jesus shows up

and the demons aren't happy about it.

So Jesus commands the demons to come out and the man's body

collapses before Jesus and the spirits cry out to Jesus.

They say, what do you want with me?

Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg of you, don't torture me,

He says. Now how can we identify the

speaker here? This is interesting.

How can we identify the speaker as the demons and not the man?

You take a look. What does he say?

He says Jesus. We don't know that Jesus has

introduced himself. Maybe he did.

But then is this next part That's the real giveaway.

Son of the Most High God. How would this random dude in a

gentile village know that this is the son of the most high God?

They would have no way to know that this happened earlier in in

Luke chapter 4 where you see this this other possessed man

Luke 4 · chapter mention

say to Jesus and refer to him as the Holy One of God.

So this is not just a a man's speaking.

These are the demons speaking. They know who Jesus is.

I mean, Jesus generally tries to keep his identity under wraps.

He says the time isn't right for this.

And so you know, he often tells the demons to be quiet.

Stop talking about my identity. He then asks for their name.

He says what is your name, Legion?

They reply. The implication here is that

this is not a small amount of spirits, but hundreds or even

thousands. A Roman legion had anywhere from

4 to 6000 army members in it. How did this even happen to the

man? You know, this is like a little

question you can ask yourself during, during drinks after the

service, but like, you know, just a little light

conversation. You know, how did this man

invite like thousands of demons inside him?

I, I don't know. It's an absolutely bizarre thing

to consider, but Legion begs Jesus to not be thrown into the

abyss, but rather to be permitted to enter the pigs on

the hillside. Now it's fascinating to me that

the demons, they beg, they begged Jesus not to go into the

abyss. The Abyss is sort of this land,

this spiritual realm where demons and other evil spirits

would have been banished to. That's what it was known as or

considered. It would have been like an

imprisonment for them. The Abyss is also understood as

the chaotic waters. It's the same language.

The reason ancient cultures were afraid, generally afraid of the

sea, is that it was also known as the Abyss.

You don't want to go there. And the demons were no

exception. They don't want to be banished.

And yet, in A twist of irony, by their request, that is exactly

where they end up. They enter the herd of pigs.

The pigs go mad down the hillside, into the water, into

the abyss. Now, we don't know the ultimate

fate of these demons, but we know that the man has been made

well again. We also know that the townsfolk

are very, very unhappy with him. This poor guy has been afflicted

for years and they can't even like take a moment to be happy

for the guy. Now, some scholars and writers

actually wonder if that was a part of the ploy of Legion.

That in their request to enter the pigs, they knew their fate

was sealed regardless, right? That it would distract from the

miracle of this man's healing? That by causing chaos alongside

their demise, that they would gain just a small victory in

attempting to undermine Jesus's work.

But let's take a moment to look at the outcome for this man.

So this man has been healed. It says that he is now in his

right mind. He's dressed, so he went from

being naked to being clothed. He went from being out of his

mind to being in his right mind. And the other fascinating thing

is that he's sitting at the feet of Jesus.

What does that remind you of? That's the place of a disciple

who is learning from their teacher.

This man has been truly changed, but not only has this man been

healed, salvation has come to this man.

His entire life has been turned upside down.

Jesus came to this town and he disrupted it, and this town and

this man will never be the same. And he wants to do something

about it. He wants to follow Jesus quite

literally here. So you'll notice the demons,

they begged Jesus to not go into the abyss.

And then this man, once he is healed, what does this say?

The man begged to go with him. Same word, same language, used

in very different ways. So the man begs Jesus to let him

go with him and the other disciples.

And Jesus, you know, I think he respected the man's zeal and the

the man's passion. But he encourages him and he

sort of encouraged him to go in a different route, different

path, and encourages that there's work to be done in their

hometown. He says return home and see how

much God, and I want to point this out, how much God has done

for you. So the man went away and told

over, all over town how much Jesus had done for the man.

I think it's just important to note that you know that Jesus,

again, he is showcasing who he is, his power.

And this man realizes quite intuitively, this man is more

than just a man. I'm going to tell my village who

Jesus is. Jesus wants this man to share

the story of his salvation, to share what God, what Jesus has

done across this region. He wants him to share with

anyone who will listen, anyone who would have known him as this

possessed man. He wants him to go and share the

story of what Jesus has done in his life.

Now the only thing we haven't quite dealt with yet is the

villagers, townspeople. In my mind, they present the

most interesting twist on this narrative, even beyond the fact

that we're dealing with a demon possessed man.

You would think that Jesus healing this man would be a

moment, as I said earlier, to celebrate that this man's life

was restored. But what is their response?

What is their response? They were afraid, Fear.

They find the man sitting at Jesus's feet and it is written

in his right mind and rather than marvelling, no, they were

afraid and not in like the good kind of fear.

And then they find out everything that went down with

the pigs and they asked Jesus to leave.

Why? Because they were overcome with

fear. They were overcome with fear.

A great talked about fear last week.

The disciples were afraid of the storm, rightfully so, And once

the storm was quelled, that fear shifted toward Jesus in a way of

like man, this man has power over the winds and the waves.

This is amazing and kind of terrifying in the best of ways.

This fear seems different. It seems misplaced, like

certainly they were fearful of Jesus's power, there's no

question there. But should they not have been

more afraid of Legion, who's now gone?

Fred Craddock says this. He says even when it is for

good, power that can neither be calculated nor managed is

frightening. Makes sense.

The devil you know, quite literally here, is better than

the savior you don't know. There was a predictability in

their life, and Jesus messed with that.

The townspeople had seemingly learned to cope and coexist with

the evil among them, the possessed man in their presence.

They had guards keeping watch over him.

Maybe that was a paid position, I don't know.

He resided amongst the tombs and he was off in his little corner

of the world, and they just let him do his thing.

They learned to tolerate the evil in their midst, but their

fears seem to go deeper into their insecurities and even

their livelihoods. I mean, think about the

livestock that they lost. We don't like to think about

that. Like, I don't know how many pigs

were in this herd. And all of a sudden, like, could

you imagine? Like, OK, don't imagine.

Never mind. Never mind.

We won't do that. That's gross, but like the truly

tragic loss, I get it. They are so blinded, though, by

what they have lost that they cannot be excited for this man

who has this new lease on life. They can't see beyond their

current situation. The man is healed, the demons

are gone, and the townspeople continue to be angry and afraid.

Jesus showed up at this seemingly random Gentile village

and had a major impact, but it is not without its controversies

or contentions. And this is the nature of Jesus

when he comes to town. When Jesus comes to town, people

are healed. We've seen this time and time

again already in Luke. Wherever he goes around,

remarkable things happen. When he comes around, people are

brought from brokenness into wholeness.

People's stations are uplifted. The outcast are rejected and

embraced and accepted. And this man is no different.

This man personifies so much of what Jesus is healing ministry

was about. He had been possessed for so

long. He was living on the outskirts

of town in these tombs, like the pariah that he was.

He was naked and unhoused. And Jesus heals him, draws him

back into community, back to wearing clothing again, which

I'm sure the the mums and dads of little ones were quite

grateful for so that they could go on their evening walk without

having to shield their kids eyes.

The man returns to a degree of normalcy while recognizing that

his life will never be normal again.

He has been forever changed. As imitators of Christ, we are

called to do the same. It's why we pray and fast when

there are friends among us that need healing.

Our Calling is also that we would bring healing and

restoration to the broken places in our church, in our city, in

our nation and our world. That we'd uplift the station of

those whom society has rejected. That we would restore people to

community. That is Our Calling as well.

When Jesus comes to town. People aren't just healed

though. People are saved just like this

man. In this short turn of events,

this man goes from being a possessed man to being healed.

From being healed to sitting at the feet of Jesus in the

position of a disciple. He was a follower of Jesus just

like that. He didn't just thank Jesus and

move on with his life. His life had been indelibly

changed and he knew it. He owed his life to this man.

This was a moment of conversion for him as the boat was leaving.

This man begs Jesus to let him go with them because he wanted

to dedicate his entire life to this man who saved it.

As imitators of Christ, this is Our Calling as well.

Now we know that it's God that does the saving, but it is for

us to foster a church culture and environment where people can

be transformed by Jesus and follow Jesus.

Where we'd provoke curiosity about Jesus and have meaningful,

transformative conversations with friends, with colleagues,

with neighbors. However, when Jesus comes to

town, it can be disruptive to the local economy, to the

people's way of life. While this one man's life was

changed, the town was obviously very divided over what had

happened. They were fearful they had lost

their main source of income and they ultimately asked Jesus to

leave again. Fred Craddock, smart guy, he

says these words. The Garrison people are not

praising God that a man is healed.

They are counting the cost and finding it too much.

This is the reality of Jesus who imposes on what is comfortable

and normal. Because the ethics of the

Kingdom of God will naturally interfere with how we spend our

resources and our time. It will confront and convict.

And yes, sometimes that means it will repel, as we saw here.

And again, as imitators of Christ, this is Our Calling as

well. Not to repel people

intentionally by the way, that's not what I mean.

That's really easy to do. It's easy to be a jerk Christian

who just puts lots of heavy burdens on Christians and non

Christians alike. That's very easy to do.

Now Our Calling is to live a life that is like a little bit

weird. And I mean that like a beautiful

way. And when people ask me to

describe court, right, I've said this before, but I'll say it

again. When people ask me to describe

court, right, I say court writes a little weird, but like, in the

most beautiful way, like in the most like charming and lovely of

ways. Like my affection in my 6 years

here at this church has grown just immensely.

And, but I still describe you as a little weird.

You're like my weird family. It's, it's, it's a lovely thing.

We're called to be that, though. I think we're called to be

weird. The kind of weird where we live

an intentional community with one another, bringing each other

into different parts of our life.

Over dinner, over coffee, whatever.

It's reworking our personal budgets to be increasingly

generous, to make a difference in our community and across the

world. It's growing a a large urban

garden and giving away all the produce.

Like, that stuff is weird. This is beautiful and it's

disruptive to what we would call in Canada a normal way of life.

That's going to draw some people in.

They're going to be provoked to curiosity, but for others, it's

going to force some to drop out. They're gonna say, oh, that's

that's not for me and that's OK. This is the nature of the

gospel, and it's the nature of life inside the Kingdom of God.

Lastly, when Jesus comes to town, ministry and mission

begin. There are very few moments, as I

said earlier, where Jesus intentionally goes to these

Gentile spaces to to do ministry.

This is the only one that's recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

He was laser focused on his ministry to the people of

Israel. But here in Luke 8, Jesus lays a

foundation for mission. He heals this possessed man who

has his miraculous conversion experience and he wants to

dedicate his life, his whole life, the following Jesus.

But Jesus tells him, no, no, stay here, return home, don't go

anywhere because I want you to be a faithful witness, to bear

witness to what God has done in your life here.

These people have had a first hand experience.

They know who this man was before and they see who this man

is now. Eventually, once once they stop

being so angry about the pigs, maybe they'll be curious to hear

this man's story. He has laid down a foundation

that is going to be amplified up to 10 in the book of Acts, and

it continues to this day. The ministry of Jesus to the

nations. Jesus was not permitted to do

any more work in this region as they forced him to leave.

But that, I want to be very clear, does not mean that the

gospel was hindered here. You need to know that because

there was a man who stayed, his life was changed by Jesus and he

would surely go on to share his story with anyone who would

listen. As imitators of Christ, this is

also Our Calling. Most of us in this room will not

be called to international mission work, but we are all

called to mission like this man. Most of us are called to stay.

We're called to share the story of God in our lives.

We're called to share the story of the trials we have been

through, that God in his faithfulness in the midst of

those trials. The stories of healing where God

has been at work in our broken situations and has brought us to

wholeness, where God has restored us back into community

and life. We are living testimonies of God

at work, and our stories may be the gateway for others to

understand the story. The story of Jesus's life, his

death and his resurrection. And as they see Jesus mirrored

in our lives, in my life and in your life, that they may be

provoked into curiosity to grow in a knowledge of who Jesus is.

Let me pray God, would you help us to be like this healed man

who has been through an amazing conversion experience and is

willing to share his story to to have A to have had a a true

encounter with Jesus. God, we are just grateful for

our stories and the things that you have brought us through, the

trials you have brought us through, even through doubts and

fear, through broken situations. God, you have brought us

through. Would you allow us to enter into

those stories in a more deep way that would allow us to Share

your story, the story of your redemptive work in our lives?

Just pray for all of us, no matter where we are, no matter

what we are encountering. Maybe we're in the middle of

that right now. Maybe we're we're in the middle

of these challenging situations. What?

Wherever we find ourselves this morning, God, would you meet us

where we are? Would you bring us to the other

side and would we use these stories for your glory and your

honor? I pray this all in Jesus name,

Amen. Amen.