Go Away!

Luke 8:26-39 Basingstoke 24th February 2008 Go Away!

The decisive moment in the last war took place on 6th June 1944

The campaign to liberate Western Europe was code named “Operation Broadsword”

As US, British & Canadian troops landed on beaches of Northern France = D-Day!

Imagine the scene - landing craft get to the beaches, soldiers spill onto the shore

In many cases were met by a well, entrenched powerful army.

A bit like that as Jesus steps ashore the other side of lake Galilee

He’s confronted by a well entrenched army! A Legion, seeking to repel him

As he comes ashore, Jesus invades territory that this powerful enemy thinks of as theirs.

Jesus had planned come to the region of the Gerasenes all along

Even as he travelled there his progress over lake was being challenged

v22ff a huge storm arose threatening to sink his boat destroying him & his followers.

I imagine the storm as a show of force by the legion of demons who knew Jesus was heading their way and they want to stop him dead before he could reach them.

The storm on the lake was like an artillery barrage to prevent him landing!

But the Lord Jesus is Supreme Lord over all creation, over the wind and the waves

Nothing can stop him, in fact quite the opposite, he pushes forward to meet the enemy!

It wasn’t just Jesus who was told to go away in this story

As the story unfolds there are several points where someone is told to go away

1. THE WILD MAN WAS TOLD TO GO AWAY v27

No doubt after the storm the disciples want to go home – change wet clothes, tell their wives what happened on the lake, but Jesus wants them to go on.

• Doesn’t he know what’s over that side of the lake? Its Gentile country!!

• We’re not supposed to go there. It’s dangerous, & dirty, they even keep pigs there!

• And you know who lives there? THE WILD MAN OF THE GERASENES!!!

Everyone knows he lives there, because no one wants him living next door to them!

Everyone has told him to go away! I imagine how parents scared their children to obey them

warning them to watch out or “the wild man of Gerasenes will get you!”

Jesus knows all this, but despite that, he still insists on going there so they land on the beach

Disciples hoped maybe the wild man would stay hidden in the grave yard, but no there he is!!

Mark says he ran towards them. Listen to Mark’s description

This man lived in the tombs, and no-one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No-one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Luke tells us he was naked, refusing to live in a house preferring the graveyard instead

Sounds like a scene from a horror movie. Here he is –

Lonely no longer welcome in the villages, no home no family

Lawless violent, so strong no one could restrain him as over and again he broke free

Restless tormented and shrieking out day and night

Suffering – no clothes cold at night, self harming cutting himself scarred bleeding bruised wanting to end his own life

Q? Why is he like this? Luke simply tells us he was “demon possessed”

Today in the west people try to rationalise this and put it down to some form of mental illness Refuse to take seriously the testimony of the Bible that this was a spiritual problem.

Do I believe in Demons? No, But I believe against them!

Yes they exist , but I don’t believe in them because they’re not God or a god

In baptism we believe in God but we reject the devil and all his works!

Demons are a fallen part of God’s creation. The Bible says the angel Lucifer rebelled and tempted Adam & Eve, taking 1/3rd of the angelic host with him in his rebellion (Rev 12:4)

Demons weren’t created by God as evil beings they became evil by rebellion!

They are the corrupted sinful wrecks of what were once angels

They once looked upon the face of the Father (Mat 18:10) but no longer

They remember the presence of God but now are filled with hatred against him

Everyone else had rejected this man from the town but Jesus has a deep concern for him

Everyone else told the man to go but Jesus looks for him and comes to deal with the evil

v30 Jesus asks him his name and the reply is