Strange Salvation Story - Sermon for the Second Sunday After Pentecost (June 22, 2025)

Scripture Readings: 1 Kings 19:1-15 | Psalms 42 & 43 | Galatians 3:23–29 | ​Luke 8:26–39

“The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:38-39).
 
There’s no two ways about it: our Gospel passage this morning is a strange story. There are strange characters, and sinister spiritual forces at work… there’s frightened villagers, and a herd of pigs rushing to drown themselves en masse in the lake’s deep waters. On their own, these elements might seem much more at home in some kind of thriller, or horror story… but here we are, Sunday morning, and they are handed to us as part of God’s Good News for us.
 
And it really is Good News, because… as strange as this story may be… it’s a story of salvation. It’s a story of the Living God revealing His rescuing power at work in Jesus Christ in ways that defy our familiar ideas of what’s possible… and shaking up our comfortable impressions about the Person we’re really dealing with.
 
This strange story doesn’t come to us in a vacuum, of course. It’s part of St. Luke’s overall account of Jesus Christ, the Son of God… and it fits into the flow of Luke’s narrative… revealing bit by bit who this Jesus is, and what He is all about.
 
Just before the passage we read this morning, St. Luke tells another incredible and eerie story about our Lord. While they were crossing the lake by boat, a fierce storm descended upon Jesus and His disciples, threatening to drown them all. The disciples, several of them experienced fishermen… were panicking… but Jesus was fast asleep. But when they finally woke Him up, the disciples were in for an even bigger shock.
 
Jesus, their Teacher and Master, did not just comfort them, or try to calm them down… no, instead He stood up and calmed the storm itself with a word… mastering these deadly forces of nature… the wind and the waves, with ease… and without fear. And then He chides His dumbfounded students for their lack of faith, and their response says it all.
 
Luke 8:25, “They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” That’s a good question!
 
But this question is just left hanging… and we are left with an image of Jesus that is deeply unsettling, to those around Him. Even to those closest to Him. And this is because St. Luke wants us to see something truly surprising and special going on here. Namely, that in Jesus, we come face to face with someone far more powerful than we have categories for. Someone whose authority and mastery is frightening, and beyond compare. And yet, His amazing power is being put to work for a clear purpose: to rescue and redeem us… to become our Saviour… setting us free from the forces we cannot control… and filling our lives with His life-changing love.
 
And this is where our Gospel reading today picks up. The storm has been put in its place, and our Lord’s boat reaches the far side of the lake, and lands in the country of the Gerasenes… Gentile territory… the land of the “strangers”.
 
And there they receive a strange welcome indeed! Right away, they are met by a man with many demons: naked and homeless… living among the tombs. The image that might easily come to mind are the people we sometimes encounter who are not in control of themselves… those whose erratic behaviour comes across as frightening… unpredictable… and dangerous. But St. Luke makes it clear that there is some serious spiritual darkness at work in this man’s life.  
 
Whatever led him to this desperate place, the man’s story was tragic. He was broken… cut off from his own community… living like a wild animal… enslaved by forces far outside of his own control, and cast off by society as hopeless.
 
But as fierce, and uncontrollable, and overpowering as these demons may have been… they are far from the masters in this story. These dark spiritual forces at work in the man recognized Jesus right away… and they’re terrified! They know they’re no match for the Son of God, and they fall down before Him, begging Jesus not to torment them.
 
And to make a long, strange story short… Jesus sets the man free. He drives the demons out of the man, and releases him from their power. Just as He mastered the winds and the waves, Jesus masters the spiritual rebels bent on ruining people’s lives, in order to bring a stranger healing and wholeness.
 
As I said before, this is a story of salvation… it’s the story of our powerful Saviour. But the twist is God’s salvation is now being brought to light well beyond the borders of Israel… in the land of the Gentiles! Those who knew little to nothing about the Living God were being set free by His love. And so, here we catch a glimpse of what Christ came here to do: to bring light to those burdened by darkness… and healing and help to the hopeless… to seek out and save those who are lost, and turn their lives around by His love.
 
But then comes yet another twist: once Jesus casts out the legion of demons, and sets the man free, the word gets out, unsettling and frightening the locals, who beg Jesus to get back into His boat and leave them alone. They want nothing to do with someone so powerful, and so disruptive of the status quo. They would rather be left in the dark, and so Christ and His disciples pack up and leave again.
 
Kind of an anti-climactic end, isn’t it? I mean, Jesus had travelled all that way, rescued one desperate, demon-possessed man as soon as He stepped foot on land, and was then sent packing. This hardly seems like the most efficient, or productive use of our Lord’s energy and time, does it? But then again, the story of God’s great salvation at work rarely goes how we expect it to… and our great Saviour didn’t come to maximize productivity… but to seek and to save the lost.
 
To this one man, Jesus’ short and strange boat trip meant the world… it changed his whole life forever! He had been set free from the nightmare he had been living, and wanted to join Jesus’ band of disciples. But as it turns out, the Lord had some other plans in mind for him.
 
Luke 8:38-39, “Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.”
The freed man was to be a witness of God’s saving work among his own people: to serve as a living sign, showing those in his life what Christ was capable of, and eager to do… bringing God’s light and life to those in darkness, through the power of His saving love.
 
Many of us here today have also experienced the powerful, saving love of Jesus Christ in our lives… maybe not in the same way as this man… but in other amazing, and equally life-changing ways of our own. We have experienced the gift of His forgiveness. Or His guidance. Or His comfort and peace… even in the midst of seasons of terrible pain and loss. Or perhaps we also have been rescued from forces that were beyond our own control… receiving His healing touch in body, mind, and spirit… and finding in Him the love that truly sets us free.
 
We know that following Jesus doesn’t mean that we won’t face times of suffering… but it does mean that when we do, we can trust that His power is far greater than everything that might oppress us… and that His saving love will one day set us free completely! That because of Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us at the cross, God’s New Creation has already begun, and that everything that stands in His way will finally fade, while we’ll share in His good Kingdom forever.
 
And as strange as our own stories may be… in Jesus, our stories are stories of salvation too! Each with their own strange cast of characters… unpredictable events and encounters… and serious threats and dark forces at work that somehow need to be overcome.
 
And the Good News is that, no matter who we are, or where we come from… Jesus has come to where we are to be our Saviour. And He is not at all afraid of the messiness, the brokenness, and even the darkness of our stories. He is the One who has conquered death, and dealt with our sins through His own blood, and rose again to set us free forever… not only in eternity, but beginning even now.
 
But one question for us this morning is: What will we do with the freedom that Jesus has already brought into our lives? The freedom that comes from the faith, and the love, and hope that we have already received in Him?
After all, the stories of God’s saving love are not over yet. Many in our world today… many of our friends and neighbours… are still longing to be set free, and are trapped by dark forces far beyond their control, and don’t know where to turn for help.
 
Jesus sent the man He set free back to his home, to share with his neighbours what God had done for him… and those of us who have also come to know God’s saving love in Jesus Christ have the same opportunity to go home and tell those in our lives  about what Jesus our Saviour has done for us… not only with our lips, as the Prayer Book says, but with our lives as well.
 
In Jesus, the Living God is still at work bringing His salvation to bear in our lives, and our world. And we His people are able to take part in His saving work by bearing witness to what He’s done… both for us personally, and for us all at the cross… inviting those around us to draw near to Him in faith, and experience His saving love for themselves.
 
We might find this prospect a bit strange… or frightening at times. And our neighbours might not be interested in what we have to say, or in letting Jesus unsettle or disrupt their lives. But as Christ’s people today, we are called to let His saving love shine through all we say and do… and with the Holy Spirit’s help, and guidance, and power at work in us… Jesus our Saviour really can work through us to bring His salvation to light… and against Him, the darkness doesn’t stand a chance! Amen.