The 7th Sunday of Pentecost

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus + Christ. Amen.

How fitting it is that, for the first Sunday in the “Church half” of the liturgical calendar, our little flock has tripled in size—at least for this morning!—in order to celebrate the newest member of God’s family through Holy Baptism: Latisha Kay Aulner.

Thank you to Pastor Sommerfeld for serving as the hands and voice of Jesus Christ in the administration of this Holy Sacrament.

This morning’s sermon will focus on the appointed Gospel text about the man who is delivered from a Legion of demons. In this reading, we witness the wretchedness of mankind’s estate apart from the salvation found only in Christ Jesus. Next, we discover the powerful working of our Lord’s saving Word in this exorcism of the demon-possessed man, a power that is still available to us today through Holy Baptism. At the end of the text, we receive a dreadful warning against rejecting the Gospel by treasuring our earthly possessions more than the spiritual wholeness offered by Jesus.

For context, just before this morning’s Gospel pericope, which is a text taken from the middle of Luke chapter eight, Jesus has calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The boat bearing the Lord and His disciples now lands in the country of the Gerasenes, part of the Greek-influenced area of Judea known as the “Decapolis.” Jesus barely has time to set foot on dry ground before He is approached by a demoniac—that is, a demon-possessed man.

St. Luke goes into great detail in describing the wretched state of this poor man, who has fallen under the influence of Satan’s minions. By causing the man to strip naked and flee from human habitations, the demons have made their victim seem more like a wild beast than someone made in the image of God. What’s more, St. Mark tells us that the man had taken to gouging himself with stones, further defacing the image of God through bodily mutilation.

The demoniac’s miserable life parallels that of the unbelievers indicted by the Lord in today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah, chapter sixty-five. Recall verse four: “[Those] who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs; who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels.” Though it may not appear to be the case on the outside, this is the spiritual state of everyone who does not believe the Gospel. Everyone who lacks faith in Christ Jesus is naked because he lacks the robe of Christ’s righteousness. The unbeliever dwells in tombs because he is dead even while he appears to live. And just as the demoniac cut his flesh with stones, the spiritually dead person gouges his soul with sins. Beloved, this was even the case of my darling daughter Tish before she was baptized this morning. While she looked just as cute and cuddly before Baptism as she does now, she was not spiritually beautiful or even spiritually alive in her natural-born state. Apart from Christ, her spiritual distress was the same as the demoniac’s. But praise be to God! Jesus did not see fit to leave Tish in that dead state, any more than He saw fit to leave the demoniac in his condition. Likewise, Jesus desires to rescue each and every one of you. In all cases, this involves a form of exorcism.

Let me explain. The Christian Church has historically included a brief exorcism within the Rite of Holy Baptism. Blessed Martin Luther recommended the following: “Depart, thou unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit!” This is because, in Holy Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit.

In Acts chapter two, verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine, St. Peter declares,

Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

And in his Epistle to St. Titus, chapter three, verses four through seven, St. Paul writes,

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

To be baptized is to receive God the Holy Spirit and to be washed, born again, and renewed by Him. And when the Holy Spirit dwells within you, He doesn’t share the space!

Like a king taking charge of his rightful property, the Holy Spirit expels the demons of unbelief when He takes up residence in the soul of the baptized person. The Holy Spirit isn’t the only member of the Holy Trinity who joins this party, however. When Tish was baptized, God the Father claimed her as his adopted child, for as St. Paul writes in our Epistle reading from Galatians,

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ . . . And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise . . . Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

And in Baptism, God the Son forgave Tish all of her sins and sealed her to His Passion and resurrection. As St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six, verses three and four,

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Jesus drove out the spiritual Legion from the demoniac with His spoken Word nearly two thousand years ago. So, too, he drove out the demons of unbelief from Latisha less than half an hour ago this morning. And he drives out the demons of all those who come to the font in faith.

But what is the basis of this spiritual deliverance offered in Baptism? After all, when Jesus exorcised the man, his Legion of demons begged to go somewhere. The pigs bore a fault that was not their own and were put to a violent death so that a human being could have life and deliverance. And when Jesus exorcised Tish and forgave her all her sins, past, present, and future, those sins had to go somewhere too.

But God couldn’t place those sins on the backs of sacrificial animals. As the writer to the Hebrews says in chapter nine, verse three, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” When Jesus cast out the demons by His Word of power, He did so because of what He would do on the Cross about three years later. And when Jesus took away Tish’s sins, and yours, and mine, He did so because of what He had done nearly two thousand years ago.

When we read of the terrible death of this herd of swine plunging headlong off of a cliff and drowning violently, we shudder at the horrors of demonic possession. And when we look at the Cross and see our God dead from suffocation, we shudder at the horrors of our own sin. Beloved, the baptismal font isn’t just a place for cute baby pictures and nostalgic memories. It is the place where you go to die on the Cross with your Lord!

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. When those who tended the swine rushed to tell the city of this unforgettable exorcism, the townsfolk arrived to see the former demoniac “clothed and in his right mind.” The man who was once mad with nakedness is now clothed with a new life granted to him by Jesus, at whose feet he sits.

Likewise, all who believe and are baptized wear the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, given to us by our Lord on account of His sacrificial death and triumphant Resurrection. You who once were mad with unbelief are now in your right mind, hearing the life-giving Word of God with joy instead of scorning. And you have been spiritually resurrected so that you may sit at the feet of Jesus, your risen Lord.

Incidentally, if you or your children have not yet been baptized but earnestly desire this Sacrament, please speak to Pastor Sommerfeld or another pastor ASAP.

Sadly, not all will receive this message with joy. The Gerasenes are seized with fear at the presence of Jesus, just like the Legion of demons were. These people should have immediately praised God for restoring their countryman to soundness of mind and wholeness of body. Instead, they were distressed by the death of their pigs, showing they cared more about property than about the infinite value of human life. Worse yet, the Gerasenes failed to recognize that God’s saving Prophet was standing right in front of them. They begged for the departure of the God-Man who had come to save not their property, but their immortal souls.

On many occasions, Christ warns His believers to avoid obsessing over the things of this world. Excessive love of material things, which the New Testament calls “Mammon,” is one of the greatest hindrances to those who would live saintly lives. Consider those times when you have chosen the love of property and temporal goods over the love of God’s Word and His image-bearers.

I want you to really consider it without shrinking back or making excuses. Was that optional overtime on Sunday worth neglecting the communion of saints? Were those extra few minutes of sleep worth missing your morning devotional time? Was the oversized dessert in a cup from Starbucks worth greeting the streetside beggar with an empty hand? Was that glowing screen in your hand worth your attention more than seeing your baby smile?

Those who choose the goods of this earth over Christ and their neighbors are like the Gerasenes, begging Jesus to depart from them so that they can continue living their swinish lives. If you do not wish to host Christ and His Word, He will eventually oblige you and depart for other shores, like a life-giving rain cloud that hovers for a time before drifting away. In doing this, Jesus simply follows the principle He expressed in the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

I don’t say this to leave you in despair, beloved. I say this to warn you against having security in your sins. I don’t want you to treat the fact that you were baptized once upon a time as a license to do as you please. Christ Jesus saves us by grace alone through faith alone, but He also urges us to live lives of repentance. We depend upon His faithfulness when we are unfaithful. Because of His grace and mercy, we begin to live God-pleasing lives.

That means remaining on guard against sin and being vigilant when its roots creep into your life. More importantly, that means fleeing to Christ both for protection against sin’s wiles and for forgiveness whenever you fail in the fight.

It means returning to your Baptism daily. When you are tempted to value property and material things over God and all those made in God’s image, say to yourself—and to Satan as he tempts you to turn from God in living a selfish and self-centered life—“This isn’t how a child of God acts! I am baptized into Christ!”

And when your conscience grows guilty because of a past sin, whether committed decades ago or mere minutes in the past, repent and say to yourself,

I am baptized! I have sinned against my God, but He loves me and gave His Son to die for me! I am a great sinner, but He is a greater Savior, and He has put His Name upon me in Baptism!

Jesus will not abandon the one who clings to His Name in repentance. Jesus even remains merciful to these ungrateful and Mammon-minded Gerasenes.

How can I say this? Because Jesus asks the former demoniac, now a disciple, to remain in his home country so that he may tell others “what great things God has done” for him. Christ leaves a Gospel outpost in the midst of this spiritually bankrupt territory.

And that’s what Holy Baptism makes you, beloved. You weren’t just adopted by the Father, united to your Heavenly Brother Jesus, and given the Holy Spirit. Any of those gifts would be enough, and yet God continues to shower blessings upon you. God doesn’t view things through a lens of a “minimum requirement for salvation.” Instead, He gives you a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”

In Holy Baptism, the Lord gives you both the ability and the desire to speak the Law and the Gospel to others. You don’t have to be a preacher in order to tell others how God delivered you from spiritual nakedness, madness, and death. You don’t have to be a pastor to proclaim how God clothed you, gave you a sound mind, and delivered you unto new life. Relying on the Holy Spirit to focus and direct your Christian witness will work on the hearts and minds of those with whom you are sharing this Good News.

In other words, the only requirement to tell people “what great things God has done for you” is to be a child of Paradise. And as the Sermon Hymn reminded us, that’s exactly what you are, because you have been “baptized into Christ.”

The grace of our Lord Jesus + Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.