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I Am Legion
Luke 8:26-39
26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[a] which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When 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!” 29 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 demon into solitary places.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission.33 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.
34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them,because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “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.
I can’t help but think of people I have come across or heard about with huge mental illness challenges when I hear of this Geresene man living outside of town in the graveyard without a thread of clothing, in a constant state of fear and alert, and scars all over his self-harmed body.
What has happened to this man? How did he get like this? What went so wrong and where are his family, his friends?
And what on earth is Jesus doing out here in this danger zone of death. He is a Jew in unclean, unknown Gentile territory on the far side of the sea.
We are watching this happen with the silent disciples. They say and do nothing in this whole account. Maybe they are still shell-shocked after that scary night on the sea they have just experienced – when even the wind and sea obeyed Jesus’ command to be silent. They are silent now…
We don’t even go into town. Instead, we head out to the fringe of thins fringy place. We meet this dangerous man who cannot be chained by chains but is totally chained by the dark side, the demonic, the pain the isolation, the self-harm, the lostness.
“Legion”. His own name does not count anymore. He is ‘Legion”
For people in the ancient Roman world, “Legion” had only one meaning: a unit of approximately six thousand occupying, seemingly all-powerful Roman soldiers. Romans rule. Roman control. Roman take your freedom and use it for their gain. Same for demons. They
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We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Press On toward the goal: Into the Water
1 Peter 3:18-22 The flood a symbol of baptism
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,[a] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God.[b] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Mark 1:9-15 The baptism, temptation, and preaching of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted[a] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’
Friends, as we enter another Lent, we begin with water; the water of Noah’s flood and the water of your baptism into Jesus in the water.
Peter speaks about both ‘waters’. He does this to speak God’s grace into your heart as you ponder God’s heart of love for you in the innocent suffering and dying of his Son these forty days.
Peter is speaking to people suffering some kind of “fiery ordeal”. Some say this is something like a mild persecution in their region – being excluded from life in the community because of their faith in Jesus.
I don’t know what kind of ‘fiery ordeal’ you may be facing at the moment. But Peter says this ‘water’ is the cleansing stream that will enable you to get through well.
On the experience of suffering, Peter asks the question: Is it better to suffer for evil or to suffer for good?
Some might say, “Who cares!? I just don’t want to suffer!!” Fair enough. But there is a bit of difference between suffering for something evil you have been engaged with or suffering for doing only good.
If you suffer for evil, you probably deserve it. You are getting your just reward. But if you suffer for good, then you probably don’t deserve it and are not getting what is just.
Peter’s little question might have come from well-known words of one of the famous philosophers lots of people in his communities would have known. From Plato:
“To act unrighteously is worse, in that it is more disgra
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We Are His Building
John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’[a]
18 The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’
19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’
20 They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
What Jesus did this day in the Temple area must have made quite an impression. All four gospel writers recall it.
John tells us that at the time, they did not really know what Jesus was doing. It is only after the resurrection that they recalled that the Scriptures say that ‘zeal for the Lord’s house’ would consume the Messiah and that the temple Jesus was speaking of on this day was not the temple they were standing in but the new temple of his own body.
John tells it differently to the others too. He does not share it as being a trigger for the final lead up to the crucifixion at the end of Jesus ministry like the others. John remembers it being at the very beginning – right after the wine at the wedding in Cana. John is saying something different to the others about this.
When Jesus enters the temple area, nothing is unusual. The whole sacrificial system of animals, birds, grain and exchange of currencies have to be done somewhere. The Jerusalem temple is a huge open market space in the centre of the city.
Why is Jesus zealous enough to personally make a whip-chord, turn over tables of foreign exchange merchants and rattle the cages of those doves!? He does not call the place a ‘den of robbers’ as Matthew, Mark and Luke tell it. This does not seem to be a protest about malpractice or corruption. It seems to be bigger… deeper.
For John, Jesus seems to signalling the dismantling of the whole thing – building, system, practices…..
This temple, this building with all of its associated roles, stories, symbols of religious identity and even national pride is no longer necessary. Jesus is not talking ‘reform’, he is talking complete revolutionary shift. It is being demolished to be replaced by something bigger and better. That is BIG!
Everyone knows that this is God’s building. What could possibly be better?
This building was originally established at the Lord’s direct command - first via Tent of Meeting in the Exodus wilderness, then by Solomon, then rebuilt to part of its former glory by retuned exiles under Nehemiah and Ezra and then finally made great again by Herod for his own political purposes and personal ego. We hear that it has taken Herod 46 years to build so far.
Like security people at the footy, when Jesus disrupts the whole show, the keepers of the Temple are on the job straight away.
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The Spirit is Working
Acts 7:55-60
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.
We have been celebrating the greatest moment that changes the world and created a whole new community in the world this season of Easter. And even is what has been a tough vintage, we have been trying to enjoy our Vintage Festival and Thanksgiving celebrations.
But now, without warning, we are confronted with this violent episode of the Stephen, the first person killed for faith in Jesus in those first heady days of that first gospel community.
The whole deadly affair sounds similar to what had happened to Jesus just a short time ago. The great victory over those in power maybe was only short-lived?
How did Stephen arise?
The first gospel community in Jerusalem was made up for Greek speaking and Hebrew speaking people – The Hellenist (Greek language and culture) and the Jewish (Hebrew language and culture) disciples.
Luke tells us that a dispute arose. In the immediate generosity that broke out in this fledgling community, a system of allocating income and food to the more vulnerable people in the new community came to be. Those who had gave to those who did not. A fair percentage of those who were vulnerable were women who had lost their husbands. They had no rights and very few options. Therefore, they often had to live on almost nothing.
The dispute was about seeming favouritism in the daily distribution.
The Greek speaking people complained to the Jewish speaking people about their widows being overlooked in this daily distribution.
Wisely, ‘The Twelve’ – Those 11 eye witnesses of Jesus, plus the one who came into the group to replace Judas (Matthias) took quick action to settle this dispute.
They appoint overseers of this welfare ministry who would make sure the whole thing was done fairly.
One of those seven people appointed as Stephen.
They were all “full of both the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3). But Stephen seems to be recognised in the community as being very gifted. Stephen is the first one named in the group, and the only one to receive specific praise as one “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (6:5) and “full of grace and power,” doing signs and wonders among the people (6:8).
Stephen is most annoying to those who hold all the power in the city synagogue community because, like Jesus, he speaks in a way that his detractors find impossible to dispute (6:10). This is just how Jesus said it would be in Luke 21:15 as he speaks with The Twelve before they became ‘The Twelve’;
15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
So, bold Stephen speaks in front of the powers that be.
Stephen does not hold back! His sermon is long. It is a lot longer than Jesus’ ‘Twitter’ length responses to those accusing him. It is longer than Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon a little while before this one. This sermon is longer than Paul’s sermons.
Stephen goes throug
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The Treasure We Live and Leave
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter breaks into praise years after those heady days of the resurrection as he writes to encourage his people.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
He speaks of a trusted inheritance that reaches back into the present struggle of life to give joy and hope in that struggle.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us ….. an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Peter begins with that great event – the Resurrection from death by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.
Everything he says and everything good and worth struggling for is founded on that resurrection of Jesus.
I think a lot of people who do any serious thinking about Christianity soon bump into the news of this resurrection. They then realize that because Christian faith is founded on the resurrection, it is an all or nothing faith and life. Accordingly so many choose the ‘nothing’. It is easier and safer.
The close circle of people around Jesus got that truth right up close and personal when the resurrected Jesus appeared and greeted them with the all- encompassing peace of God for their new life with him.
This faith we live is not something you manufacture on your terms. It comes by the grace of God on his terms and for his purposes in your life.
Jesus is a matter of the heart, not just of your thinking or your will.
I reckon a lot of people know this and stay away. They don’t really want a Saviour because that would overtake your heart and that would shape your thinking and your will, your decisions, your choices, your decisions – and that is a direct challenge to your very self and your whole life.
Jesus always knew this. Do you remember that day on the grassy slopes by the Sea of Galilee when he launched into a description of how things would eventually be in this new creation he was here to inaugurate? It is called the ‘Sermon on the Mount.
“You’ve heard it said…… But I say….”.
“You have heard it said (by your parents, your synagogue leaders, your legal people, your priests and your whole community all your life) that that it is an eye for an eye…. But I say, love your enemies,,,,
Jesus is telling t
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We seem to have settled for ‘church’ being a building more than a people, where the building is an end in itself and not a tool for different people, where the church we belong to is more a fixed institution than an adaptable movement, only a weekly gathering more than a daily relating, something we ‘attend’ more than a life we ‘do’ together; a spectator sport we watch rather than a sport we actually play.
As a result, the focus is often not so much building community but maintaining a building; keeping the known community going way more than seeking the unknown community around us; living OUR vision rather than the one here, with or without a building.
But, God’s mission still stands:
…. [that] through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Christians always have four things to ponder as they live their faith in the face of an overwhelming non-Christian or even anti-Christian society. They could either;
Go along, Go underground, Give it back, or Give it up.
What if there is a fifth way to live it well? -
Jesus' close friends found out just how Jesus can shine. No matter how we might try to hide him or dismiss him, or how much we struggle to live in him, he will always find a way to shine.
Whatever happens in my life, he is in it. Jesus will be heard, and his kingdom will continue to come close to me. Whatever happens to us as a church, he will speak and some people somewhere sometimes will catch a glimpse of his love and his light and his love and be lit up themselves. -
Real complaint to God, brings real clarity from God.
Job sees. He sees his own limit, weakness, lack of power and certainty and he sees God’s unlimited goodness, power and commitment to the world. Job sees God as Giver: everything the Lord lists here is gift – gift for life, gift for human life, gift for Job.
In Job’s suffering the sun rises, the clouds form the rain comes the stars shine the wind moves and life is sustained for Job.
Nothing has changed when it comes to the gracious sustaining gifting of God….. Paul says;
Romans 12:3
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
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We remember Paul and Peter who became big names for the first Christians and all Christians since those first heady days of the Jesus movement in the world.
We live in a righteousness that does not come from achieving, performing, being good or bad, but comes as gift from Jesus' achieving, performing being holy and true- enough for us all.Any lasting peace, unity, confidence and conviction to speak and do his love by faith comes from his love for me, not my love for me or anyone else’s.
Hear his love for you that gives you courage to stay the course in whatever you are facing today:
I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ….18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
There is life that has been won and one day it will be a complete win. Jesus is that complete life, now and then.
And so, we share the Call of Peter and Paul. For Paul it was this:
15 ….. God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15)
Friends, safe passage in the love of Jesus is assured, no matter what.
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What do you need when you are under heavy pressure at work, in your relationships, your study, your family? You need someone important to you to tell you have their approval and support no matter what.
Even better when this respected person; the boss, the teacher, the lecturer or your spouse or parent or child says these affirming words.. and even publicly.
Like when the boss comes into the meeting and gives a word of praise and affirmation of how able you are, and how well you are doing your job, in front of everyone. Everyone hears the affirmation. It helps them trust you.
That’s the Father’s intention here. By these words of affirmation said publicly, the Son gains courage from this public affirmation of his calling and the people gain a reason to trust the Saviour.
This is especially clear the way Matthew tells it. He does not put it as other gospel writers put it;
‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’(Luke, Mark)
but
‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
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I suspect we want to know we did something good, we made a positive difference with all we were given. We all want and have wanted all along to breed love and joy in our kids, our families, workplaces, present friends and associates. We know the world needs joy, hope and love.
We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world.
But when I hear this parable about the end of it all – me and the world, I always find myself feeling pretty uncomfortable. That last guy gets very harsh treatment by the Master! It makes me wonder what sort of God we have if God is like this Master!
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Nathaniel was found by the fig tree. He was looking for new hope there. it weas not in the tree. it would be in the man who would give his life on a cursed tree so we be free!
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I listened the Luther on this and it made sense…..
The Lord …… compares it (the Christian community - us) to ten virgins. Five are wise, five foolish.
The foolish virgins are those Christians who give the appearance and impression of being godly. They want to be good evangelicals (Lutherans) and are able to say much about these things. They praise the Word and say: “Yes, it is a splendid thing. This is what it means. It cannot possibly be otherwise according to the Scripture, etc.” Paul speaks of these people in 1 Cor. 4:20: “The kingdom of God is not in only talk, but in power.” It consists not in speech, but in life; not in words, but in works. Although they are able to say much about many things, they are in reality unwise virgins who only have the lamps or the vessel, that is, the external equipment, and they behave according to their nature, as Matthew writes (7:22), saying, “Lord, Lord!” The mouth is there, but the heart is far away (Matt. 15:8).
The oil is not in the lamp, that is, faith is not in the heart.
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From Martin Luther...
“….it comes to pass when you hear that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has by his most holy touch consecrated and hallowed all sufferings, even death itself, has blessed the curse, and has glorified shame and enriched poverty so that death is now a door to life, the curse a fount of blessing, and shame the mother of glory. Suffering has been touched and bathed by Christ’s pure and holy flesh and blood and thus have become holy, harmless, and wholesome, blessed, and full of joy for you. There is nothing, not even death, that his passion cannot sweeten. (Luther, LW, Vol. 42, pp. 141-142) -
O that so many Lutherans in the Barossa (including me) could hear the sound of that cracking whip-chord and the coins tipping off those tables and the flight of spooked doves! And then be with Jesus sipping wine transformed from water at a wedding, eating fish and bread on the grassy slope be the sea, smelling the strong scent of perfume around that room as she anointed him for his burial, ate more fish on the beach with a risen Jesus doing the cooking, hearing the rapid words of a woman who no one ever saw or wanted to see in the village inviting everyone to come out and ‘meet a man who told me everything I ever did’ (John 4:29).
If they did, they would hear the New Temple say this:
21 ‘Woman,….. believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…... 23 … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’
(John 4:21-24) -
Ten young women: five with 'oil', five out of 'oil': five accepted five dismissed. What is the oil!?
Is Jesus is saying that the oil is not our love or faith or patience or anything we can do or manufacture or achieve ourselves? What if instead, the ‘oil’ is a gift; gift to be received that makes us ready, not work to be done that hopefully makes us ready? Then this parable speaks of pure wonderful grace and fires our hearts in thankful faith and solid hope for what is to come because it is not based on me – but founded on Jesus. -
There is a song for every occasion. There is s spiritual song for every step of this spiritual journey with Jesus. The Psalms are those songs and this one is a 'banger'!
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We come to the end of this little journey in this little letter of First John.
We have heard of the broad sweep of what God has done for the word he loves in the Son he gave for the life he calls us to live. It is very grand in scale and yet practical in the living of it. Faith, love and obedience to what the Apostles reveal of God from what they saw and heard and touched in Jesus of Nazareth is the life to which John calls us.
Today we hear this rather abrupt and very direct little directive in the last sentence of this letter.
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
I wonder why John ends his letter speaking of idols?
Idols are part of this anti-messiah world that have their pull on our heart strings. John did warn us not to give our hearts to the world because this will destroy love and hope. John has also shown us that God’s heart for us is lavish in scale and that this can make our hearts lavish in love for each other. Idols must be a threat to this love.
We will reflect on idols and John’s remedy for how we guard giving our hearts to them and instead, keep our heart firmly attached to God’s truth in Jesus so we can love.
May you know God’s heart of love for you today so that your heart is full of love for people around you. This love between people is how the world comes to know Jesus’ love and hope.
- Visa fler
