No to Me. No to Us!!!
Lk 8:26-39 NKJV
Purpose: Do not let the
negativity of the world change us.
27 And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain
man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes,[b] nor did he live in a house but in
the tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and
with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most
High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”
29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the
man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with
chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into
the wilderness.
30 Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”
And
he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him.
31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out
into the abyss.
32 Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain.
So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted
them.
33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and
the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they
fled and told it in the city and in the country.
35 Then
they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man
from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in
his right mind.
And they were afraid.
36 They also who had seen it told them by what means he
who had been demon-possessed was healed.
37 Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the
Gadarenes[c] asked Him to depart from them, for
they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned.
38 Now
the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him.
But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house,
and tell what great things God has done for you.”
And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things
Jesus had done for him.
Footnotes:
- Luke 8:26 NU-Text reads Gerasenes.
- Luke 8:27 NU-Text reads who had demons and for a long time wore no clothes.
This is the Word of God
for the people of God.
Praise be to God.
Amen
No to Me. No to Us!!!
Lk 8:26-39 NKJV
Purpose: Do not let the
negativity of the world change us.
Two sermons ago, I hope you remember, we talked about how
our parents and grandparents lived through difficult situations in their times,
and how they used to talk about those situations. Well, now I want to ask you, do you remember the attitude of your
parents or grandparents? It is important to remember what kind of attitude
our parents and grandparents had when they encountered problems out of their
control.
In my case, I remember that my mom was an assertive person, my dad’s
tendency was pessimistic but mom was his balance and she usually very quickly
made him touch reality. To be an assertive person is to be confident in one’s
points of view.[1]
Actually,
we can be in the other extreme, idealistic. To be idealistic is to dream about
perfection[2] in ourselves and in the
world. To be an idealistic person is to be out of reality because perfection is
impossible to reach in an imperfect world. To be a pessimist is a state of the
mind that ALWAYS expects the worst to happen.[3] There is also the attitude
of being positive. To be positive is to be confident of one’s opinion or
assertion. It is to be fully assured.[4] Sadly, I have found more
people who are pessimistic or idealistic but not positive or assertive.
For example, all of us have heard the person who says, “I
thought that I was going to be promoted but XYZ was promoted instead of me. Oh,
well. It was obvious I shouldn’t think about it.” Pessimism spreads like a
fungus. It is an infection of the mind. We also have heard the idealistic
person who says, “Oh, well. I am going to lose 150 pounds and wear a wonderful
bikini.” The idealist is totally out of her or his reality. Both of these
attitudes are easier to find or to obtain because they lead us to the path of
least resistance. Actually, the majority of the people or are pessimistic or
idealistic because it is easier to let the circumstances, environment, or
culture trick or trap us. It is hard to be in balance. It is hard to be a
positive and assertive people.
Here was Jesus is coming from one side of the lake to the
other, and He encountered a man who is possessed with demons. This man was
naked and was living in the graveyard. That means he was an outcast, homeless,
and undressed. Life was hard on this man. Life was cruel to him. How many times has life been this way with
us or with one of our beloveds? How many times have we been outcast people? To meet people who are in crises or
being one person in crisis or being an outcast is difficult and sad. Do we welcome these kinds of people or do
we send them away? When the possessed man saw Jesus, the demon inside him
screamed and recognized the authority and power of Jesus. How
many demons are we able to carry around? There is the demon of negativity
which helps to lose our hope and faith in God. And we start hearing or even
thinking, “We are living in a terrible situation. We go to places just in
fear.” There is demon of idealism which helps us to be out of touch with the
reality of what God commands us to do. “It doesn’t matter if I don’t do it. It
will happen anyway.” Do we keep our good
attitude about life even in the face of terrible news? Or do we let the
demon of negativity take over. God has been very clear with us, where
the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). We can feel fear.
We can be afraid for a moment but we don’t let the fear overtake us. We cannot
live in fear. It is against our beliefs.
Here comes the difficult part, after Jesus had healed the
man. Jesus had made him a whole person again. This man was fractured and broken
by demons, by the circumstances in his life. What was the first reaction and
answer of this man? He wanted to serve Jesus. He stopped focusing on his
demons, or on his bad luck, or on his circumstances. The man witnessed that for
God there is nothing impossible. The man was restored to a normal life. The
hard part for him was to accept his new good life. He could easily go back to
the same emotional and spiritual brokenness. When one has lived for a period of
time distant from God, the great danger is that once Jesus has helped us and
restored us to a path of being better persons in a better life, then it is
difficult to believe it. It is easy to go back to the condition and situation
we were because it is what we know. God in Jesus offers us such a peace in the
middle of international chaos called terrorism and abundant life and assurance
in the middle of a society which is morally and ethically broken. He didn’t
want to go back to the misery of his human condition. He thanked God for his
new, good, and positive situation in his life. He knew that the only way that
he could own and keep his sanity and wholeness, was embracing and accepting
this care of Jesus in the middle of a dangerous world.
My dear ones, our religion, Christianity, is a religion
of abundant life, because the Spirit of God who lives in us cast out fear. It
is a religion of sanity because Jesus heals in the middle of this messy and ill
world. And is a religion of positive assertion because we know that Jesus is
real and He’s still performing miracles.
Let us pray,
Dear Father
Very often, we think that
Jesus is too good to be true. The man of today’s lesson knew and accepted Your
goodness. He didn’t hesitate to take and live out his new and abundant life.
Help us to do the same. Help us to be positive and assertive in our way of
living. Help us to be like Jesus, who didn’t allow the crisis and the human
situation in His time to make Him pessimistic or idealistic.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.
