“From Madness To Sanity”
Text: Luke 8:26-39
6/19/2022
In the name of Him who is Lord over all, dear Friends in Christ. I think that we’d all agree that insanity is not a laughing matter. But let’s face it. Some of us have seriously flirted with the outer edges of it. I’m not being sarcastic. There are times when life throws a mess of stuff at you and you wonder just how close you are to that invisible line of sanity. Several of my police friends suffer from PTSD and it’s purely the grace of God that keeps them from going insane. But it’s truly sad when a person does loses their grip on sanity. I’ve dealt with this several times during my ministry. Perhaps one of the strangest situations was when I received weird postcards from a former Pastor of our church in Quimby. This poor man had gone off the deep end. Every square inch of the postcards he sent were covered with nonsensical ramblings, which were written as one long, continuous sentence. How can you not have pity on a troubled mind such as this? Thankfully, there is medicine and therapy that can usually help a person in this condition. Along with a competent psychiatrist the problem can be eased or even cured.
But what if those insane actions were caused by demon-possession? There is no drug or therapist in the world who could help with that! Which is exactly the scenario in our Gospel reading. Jesus healed this poor guy who was an insane madman. And his insanity was caused by demons. Granted this was an impressive miracle by Jesus, but we need to dig a little deeper and discover the bigger lesson that it teaches us about our spiritual condition.
I don’t know about you, but the description of this demon-possessed guy gives me the heebie-jeebies. He obviously had the same affect on the people in that region. Early on, they had tried to restrain him with shackles for both his and their safety. Kind of like putting a straight jacket on a mental patient. But this guy displayed superhuman strength and broke free, which was probably their first clue that he was more than just mentally unstable. We have to deal with odd or irrational people occasionally, but this man was more than just crazy; he was dangerous. So everyone must have been happy when he went off to live in the nearby tombs, which probably seemed fitting for this spooky madman. Sure, he harassed folks who passed by. But if you avoided the area you didn’t have to deal with him.
Now, if living in a graveyard isn’t weird enough, this guy also looked and acted crazy. He ran around naked. St. Mark tells us that he cried out like a coyote howling at the moon and used to cut himself with sharp stones. When people do that today we call it self-mutilation and it’s a sign that the person hates something about themselves. This madman in the Gospel was tortured by the demons that possessed him so it’s no surprise that he would treat his body this way. He hated his condition and his current life! To make matters worse, he wasn’t just tormented by one or two demons, but by a whole host of them. When Jesus asked the demon its name, it responded “Legion.” A Roman legion was made up of over 5,000 men. In other words, this poor man was possessed by a large army of demons.
Then, Jesus came along. I always find it interesting that the devil and his demons easily recognized Christ as the Son of God but the humans He came to save didn’t. And these demons knew what their ultimate destiny was: torment in hell. They were afraid of Jesus, and rightfully so. He is Lord over all, including them, and He came to break their power. They complain that it’s not fair for Jesus to exercise power over them before Judgment Day. So they beg Him to let them enter a herd of pigs when they depart from the man. Jesus granted their request. You know the rest of the story. The pigs couldn’t tolerate the presence of the demons and it caused them also to do something self-destructive. They went crazy and ran off a cliff, drowning in the sea below. St. Mark tells us there were 2,000 hogs.
While I’ll admit, that’s a huge loss to the owners, please don’t lose sight of the miracle that just took place! Can you imagine the surprise and amazement of the locals who came out to see what happened? Yeah, all those pigs were dead, but sitting peacefully at the feet of Jesus was the former madman who had terrorized and scared them for so long. St. Luke says he was clothed and in his right mind. I know some of you think that means that he was left-handed since the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. But no, it simply means that he was sane again. The crazy look was gone from his eyes. He was calm and rational. Like Mary, the sister of Martha, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, absorbing the wondrous words of salvation from the Savior’s mouth.
Amazing! But even more amazing is the response of the people. Contrary to what you would expect, they asked Jesus to depart and leave them alone. You’d think that people with even a tiny bit of compassion would have rejoiced that the madman was cured. His tormented mind was free. Plus, there was a huge benefit for them. They could walk through that area without fear of being attacked by a crazy man. This guy could now be a productive member of their society rather than a scary detriment. You’d think they’d at least be grateful for this miracle. If Jesus could do such a powerful thing for this madman, imagine what He might do for the rest of them!
But rather than see the miracle and rejoice over it, they were afraid because they didn’t want Jesus to change their comfortable way of life. Yeah, this madman had been a pain, but as long as he stayed away in his little territory and didn’t bother them too much, they were content. Besides, 2,000 hogs is too big of a price to pay for this kind of miracle, isn’t it? I mean, if Jesus sticks around and does anything else like this, they’ll all go broke. So no thanks Jesus. No more miracles. Why don’t you just leave and let us be.
The illustration here couldn’t be clearer. Christ Jesus had taken a demon-possessed madman and made him sane. More than that, by driving out those demons Jesus had also saved this man’s soul and made him a disciple. Who, in their right mind, would turn down the offer to go from madness to sanity? And yet that’s precisely what the Gerasenes were doing. Although they weren’t running around like a crazy person, they were still spiritually demon-possessed. Their sinful nature was wreaking havoc in their lives far worse than a legion of demons could ever do. Jesus came to heal them with His gracious gift of forgiveness and faith in Him. But that would mean leaving behind their wild, crazy, sinful way of life. And that was a cost that they figured was too high. Instead, they chose to send Jesus away and live with their maddening, self-destructive sin. It was totally crazy!
There’s a bumper sticker I've seen that says, “I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.” That’s actually an accurate statement about you and me. We’ve come to enjoy the insanity of our sin. Like the Gerasenes, we too have a spiritual, demon-possession problem. It’s called our sinful nature. Like that madman, our sinful nature roams about, harassing and scaring us. Oh, we’ve tried to shackle it by telling ourselves that we’ll try harder to obey God’s law on our own. But that madman within breaks free with superhuman strength and continues to terrorize us. So, we made sort-of a peace treaty with it. We’ve laid out certain areas in our lives where we let our crazy, sinful nature run free. It’s self-destructive and hurtful, but we’ve learned to tolerate it. When Jesus comes and offers to cast out that unclean spirit, we decline. The cost seems too great. We don’t want to change because we’ve come to enjoy the arrangement we’ve made. So we turn down the sanity that Jesus offers to us. And it’s nothing less than sheer madness!
Friends, look at the madman that Jesus healed. Once the Lord had cast out the evil spirits, that man was at peace. No longer was he tormented by those demons within him. He thought clearly and desired to be taught at the feet of Jesus. That’s what Christ offers to do for us today. Don’t send Him away because you’re afraid to be changed by Him. Rather, through His holy Word and Sacrament let Him bring spiritual healing to you. Listen to His call for repentance. Confess your sins. Let Jesus go into those areas where the madness of sin has wreaked havoc in your life and let Him drive out that unclean spirit. Then you will be in your right mind as far as God is concerned, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you’ll be able to live a holy life. You will have true peace and a desire to follow Jesus. Like the man in the Gospel, Jesus then sends you out to tell the world how much God has done for you! May the Lord grant us clear minds and grateful hearts that are now totally devoted to serving Him with our whole being. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!