Why Did Jesus Cross the Lake?

Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39
June 23, 2013
© 2013

 

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Why did the fox cross the road? To get to the chicken. I’m sure you have heard many variations on this theme.

Today we will think about what we have to cross to share the love of Jesus with people who are hungry for love. What keeps us from crossing? What can get us across?

In order to understand the story of the man with a legion of demons in Luke 8:26-39, we need to start back at verse 22 and ask, why did Jesus cross the lake? As a skillful story teller, Luke repeats certain words to weave the themes of this story together to answer that question.

Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and told them to cross to the other side, which was Gentile territory. On the way a powerful storm threated to swamp the boat, and the disciples were terrified. When Jesus calmed the storm they were amazed and even more afraid.

Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— ²⁹for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) ³⁰Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. ³¹They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. ³²Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. ³⁴When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. ³⁶Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“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.

In our culture we fuss about things like trying to explain the demons and figuring out who will pay for the drowned pigs. We need to let go of those issues so we can learn for ourselves that Jesus’ love carries us across our fears to share that love with people who are hungry for love.

Did you hear these words: fear, beg, seize, clothes?

Fear connects the disciples and the people of the Gerasenes. The disciples were afraid they would perish in the storm, but when Jesus calmed the storm they were afraid of someone who had more power than the storm. The people were so afraid of the man with the legion of demons they guarded and bound him, and when the demons seized him he broke the bonds. But when Jesus freed him from the demons, the people were seized with great fear of someone more powerful than the demons.

The demons begged Jesus not to torment them (v. 28), not to order them back into the abyss (v. 31) and to be allowed to enter the swine (v. 32). Jesus seems to have complied with their begging, but being drown in the lake is symbolically equivalent with being returned to the abyss. The people asked Jesus to leave them – a different word than “beg” but still strong language, and again Jesus complied and returned to Galilee. But the man from whom the demons had gone begged to be with Jesus (v. 38), and Jesus refused and sent him home to declare how much God had done for him (v. 39).

When the man with the legion of demons first met Jesus, he had worn no clothes for a long time (v. 27). But when the demons had gone, he sat at Jesus feet, clothed and in his right mind. Did you hear this echo from our reading in Galatians 3:27? In baptism we are clothed with Christ.

Jesus sent the man home to declare how much God had done for him, and he proclaimed throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. Luke is purposely equating Jesus with God and asking us, “How much has Jesus done for you lately? Have you proclaimed how much Jesus has done for you?”

When the people found the man sitting at the feet of Jesus, did you think of Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus sitting at Jesus’ feet in Luke 10:39? It is a distinctly Lucian image of being enthralled and absorbed with the presence and words of Jesus. This is not a picture of religious obligation but of captivating love.

The man who was freed from the legion of demons begged to be with Jesus, but the people who witnessed his liberation asked Jesus to get away from them. We’d all like to think we’d be begging to be with Jesus, but if we think Jesus might ask too much of us or frighten us with power beyond our control or comfort, we might just beg Jesus to leave us alone.

Ironically, Jesus complied with the begging of the demons but refused when the man he freed from the demons begged to be with him. Yes, Jesus delights when we want to be with him, but he has bigger plans. He wants us to proclaim how much he has done for us. Jesus’ love is what carries us across our fears to share that love with people who are hungry for love.

So why did Jesus cross the lake? He made his disciples work and go through a frightening storm to love one pathetic man who was a despised Gentile and terrified his neighbors.

Our call to worship from 1 John 4 tells us that the opposite of fear is not courage but love. “Perfect love casts out fear.” (v. 18) A mother does not rush into the street to sweep her child from in front of a speeding car because she is brave. No, love pushes all fear to the side. In disasters such as 9-11 or the recent Oklahoma tornados, first responders do not enter collapsing buildings as a show of courage but motivated by love to rescue as many as possible, even if they don’t know them.

The time of transition between pastors can be filled with fear for a congregation. The future can seem bleak. Conflict can seem more likely than consensus. I may not feel comfortable in the future God is opening ahead of us. God may expect more of me than I am prepared or able to give. A release of God’s power may be overwhelming. Love, not courage, carries us over these fears. Love for each other in the congregation, and even more, love for spiritually hungry people who need to meet Jesus.

For a church to fear for its survival during the interim between pastors is only natural. But mere survival is an inadequate incentive for all of the work and courage that the interim journey between pastors requires. Only love for the spiritually hungry people of Odessa is strong enough to carry you over the fears that loom ahead.

Jesus didn’t offer the man a comfortable companionship but sent him on a challenging mission of extending the love he had received to the very people who were afraid of Jesus. “Declare how much God has done for you.”  Jesus’ love is what carries us across our fears to share that love with people who are hungry for love.

 

Embarrassing Guests

Luke 7:36-50; Galatians 2:15-21
June 16, 2013
© 2013

Banquet in the Home of Simon the Pharisee
Bernardo Strozzi (1581 –1644)

Candy and I are delighted to be with you today and to begin our interim journey together. You are just starting down the path that will bring you not only a new pastor but new opportunities. After over 35 years of long-term ministry with congregations in Illinois, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Texas, we are engaging in interim pastorates in this stage of life in which we, too, are making transitions.

A congregation’s interim time between pastors is not for marking time with minimal loss until the new pastor comes but is about accomplishing some very important tasks to prepare not only for the new pastor but for new opportunities for ministry. During our months together we will focus on your heritage, your mission, your leadership, your connections with the larger church, and preparing to welcome a new pastor with enthusiasm.

My approach to preaching during our time together will not be to pick out Scripture passages to clobber you with. Rather, I will work with the selections from the Common Lectionary with a view to helping us all listen for the voice of God together as a community of God’s people.

I certainly am not ready to prescribe anything specific today. However, as I have spent time with Luke 7:36-50 this week, I realized it speaks to the challenges of every congregation who wants to reach out to spiritually hungry people in our pluralistic, secular society, more and more of whom have little if any church experience. I recognize them in the woman who tearfully anointed Jesus.

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” ⁴¹“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

All four of the Gospels report a woman anointing Jesus. Matthew 26 and Mark 14 clearly tell the same story, set between Palm Sunday and Easter. Before reporting Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, John 12 tells of Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointing Jesus. I suspect this is the same incident as in Matthew and Mark that John tells out of chronological order (as he often does) with other details for effect. The story Luke tells seems to be set in Capernaum early in Jesus’ ministry. Though not all agree, I believe this is a different woman, and the story makes a different point.

This woman’s behavior telegraphed her acute awareness of her many sins and her desperate plea for forgiveness.

Yet, Jesus used the past tense when he said her sins were many and the perfect tense when he said they have been forgiven. The forgiveness was already accomplished before he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Jesus interpreted her extravagant expressions of love as a response to having been forgiven, not as an appeal to be forgiven. With our linear thinking, we want to find the point at which she wasn’t forgiven and then was forgiven, but Jesus makes penitence and forgiveness simultaneous, not sequential.

If we are serious about introducing spiritually hungry people to Jesus, many of them will be drawn into the community of faith with no understanding of church etiquette or vocabulary. The transition from not trusting to trusting Jesus may be blurry and uneven. To love them as Jesus would means we need to understand them, not that they need to understand us and how we do things.

Simon the Pharisee was already skeptical of popular opinions that Jesus might be a prophet. When he saw that Jesus let this notoriously sinful woman contaminate him by touching him so intimately, he was convinced Jesus was no prophet. Either he lacked discernment or he lacked holiness.

But Jesus not only saw more deeply into the woman than Simon did, he heard Simon’s thoughts. In good prophetic tradition, he exposed Simon, not with confrontation but with a story in which Simon convicted himself.

Simon’s problem was not that he didn’t have enough sins to be forgiven to evoke extravagant love for God. Simon’s problem was that his self-righteousness blinded him to the gravity of his sin from which God desired to liberate him and thus deprived him of the well-spring of love.

Spiritually, self-righteousness is doubly dangerous. By blinding us to our sin, it deprives us of the love that flows from forgiveness. And self-righteousness telegraphs to spiritually hungry people that we think they are unworthy and so unwelcome among us.

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Paul’s explanation that we are justified by faith in Galatians is the theological analysis of Jesus’ gracious word.

Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This kind of faith is not agreeing to correct theology. That’s just mental works righteousness and another source of self-righteousness. To live by faith is the confidence that you have been forgiven and Jesus is living through you.

We lived in Mt. Holly, NJ for 17 years which was the home of the great Quaker saint John Woolman who lived from 1720-1772. In his Journal, which I read several years before having any idea we’d be going to Mt. Holly, he described his own experience of being crucified with Christ and its implications for those who don’t know Jesus. He wrote of a dream he had during an illness.

I then heard a soft, melodious voice, more pure and harmonious than any I had heard with my ears before; I believed it was the voice on an angel who spoke to the other angels. The words were, “John Woolman is dead.” I greatly wondered what that heavenly voice could mean.

I was then carried in spirit to the mines, where poor oppressed people were digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard them blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved, for his name to me was precious. Then I was informed that these heathens were told that those who oppressed them were the followers of Christ, and they said among themselves, “If Christ directed them to use us in this way, then Christ is a cruel tyrant.”

All this time the song of the angel remained a mystery, and I was very desirous to get so deep that I might understand this mystery.

At length I felt divine power prepare my mouth that I could speak, and then I said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh [is] by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20, KJV). Then the mystery was opened, and I perceived there was joy in heaven over a sinner who had repented, and that the language “John Woolman is dead” meant no more than the death of my own will.

With his interaction with the woman and Simon, Jesus turns upside down our whole understanding of outreach. We want spiritually hungry people to know and trust Jesus. But if we are the givers of the Gospel, not only will we push people away, we miss out on the joy and love that comes from complete awareness of our own forgiveness. But when people who we thought of as outsiders overflow the love of being forgiven on us, we receive grace that releases the love of Jesus through us.