The King . . .

     Our story from Luke this week might seem out of place in our discussions of kingship and sovereignty over the last few weeks.  After all, Jesus is engaged in spiritual warfare in the story rather than instructing His people how to live economically, politically, and whatever other ways we might like to consider.  Yet the story speaks directly to one of the big problems of kingship.  It will, of course, take me a moment to get us to the point where we can see how the passage speaks to us at Advent in the 21^st Century, but God-willing and inspired, I shall!

     Why does this story come now in Luke’s narrative?  Those of us who have studied Luke’s Gospel understand that this is the fifth exorcism in his Gospel.  There are, however, some significant differences that make the story worthy of our consideration today.  (1) This is the first exorcism that occurs outside the boundaries of Israel.  To us, nearly all of us Gentiles, such an idea is barely worthy of notice.  To 1^st Century Palestine Jews hoping to encounter the Messiah, such a story would be unimaginable.  The Messiah was coming for God’s chosen people, Israel.  Anything that the Messiah would do would be for the benefit of Israel, or so they thought.  We all know that Jesus came first for the Jews, but then we also know that the Jews were meant to be a blessing to the world.  Jesus is simply fulfilling God’s plan for the Jews, right?  Exorcising demons is a theological and supernatural act.  Jesus, we might say, has come to free the Gentiles from the minions of the enemy as much as He has the Jews, His chosen people.

     (2)  This exorcism is the first multiple-possession in Scriptures.  In Roman terms, a legion meant somewhere north of 5000 soldiers, once one considered all the scouts, messengers, and auxiliary troops.  Is it possible that the demons who confront Jesus in this story were claiming to be more than 5000 strong?  It certainly is possible.  Given the time and the emphasis on the legions, I think it wrong to dismiss the idea.  What is important, though, is Jesus’ ability to deal with multiple demons as easily as He can with one, as in the other encounters.  Most of us would be terrified were a single demon to confront us.  Jesus is confronted by multiple, perhaps more than 5000, and is nonplussed.  In fact, in the power dynamics of this encounter, it is the demons who are terrified.  The demon-possessed man falls prostrate before Jesus.  The demons beg Jesus not to torment them.  The demons beg Jesus not to order them into the Abyss.

     It is a curious word, is it not, “order”?  Such is Jesus’ power over the demons that, were He to order them into the Abyss, they would have to obey His command.  Those of us who have seen movies or heard account of exorcisms understand that it is a battle for us to cast one out in Jesus’ Name.  But here, multiple demons beg Jesus not to order them, such is His command over them.

     (3)  This account of Jesus’ encounter with Legion is important because it dwells on the responses of those who hear or see or are affected by Jesus’ miracle.  The exorcised man is dressed, of sound mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus at the end of the story.  In fact, the man asks Jesus for permission to follow Him and is denied!  Contrast that with the crazed, chain-breaking supernatural strength, and hanging out in the tombs at the beginning of the story.  The townsfolk have a different response, do they not?  They want Jesus to leave.  Clearly, they are afraid of His power, so they ask.  But they do not want Him in the village for any longer than is absolutely necessary!  Ah, we are all like Augustine, are we not?  “Lord save me, just not today!”

     (4)  The exorcism of Legion comes within the overarching story of Jesus demonstrating His power and authority over nature, the supernatural, disease, and even death.  We might say in modern language that Jesus is proving who He is.  Who else but God’s Anointed can calm the weather, cast out multiple demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead?  Who else, indeed!

     (5)  Finally, the story is unique because it is the only miracle in Luke in which other creatures besides humans are involved.  I know there has been a great deal written and taught about the presence of the pigs over the centuries.  Some have suggested that the pigs represent the apostate life of the people of Gerasene.  Since they were not Jews, however, it would be hard to consider them apostate.  Others have suggested that the pigs, grazing in the area of tombs, simply illustrate the uncleanliness of the human heart.  Perhaps that is part of it.  I think the more likely rason for their presence is that they demonstrate to us, in graphic detail, the chaos and destruction inflicted upon humanity by God’s enemy and his minions.  We in the modern western world scoff at the idea demons and their influence.  But Luke’s narrative serves as an important reminder that, although the demons are unseen, they are dangerous and life-taking.

     So, what does all this have to do with the idea of kingship?  How does this story fit in with God’s idea of His Anointed ruling for our benefit?  In many ways, the answers are obvious.  We live on this side in history of the Empty Tomb, so we know that Jesus is who He said He was.  He is the Son of God, the Messiah.  All authority belongs to Him.  That claim, of course, is not just salvific.  It is a claim that transcends politics, that transcends, economics, that transcends philosophy, that transcends individuality, and transcends even our sins which served to separate us from full communion with God.  We might like to think that God is happy when we give Him 90 minutes on a Sunday, as if we important people are doing Him a favor by giving up some of our time to worship Him, but is that all that our salvation is worth?  Were our lives really only worth 90 minutes of our time each week?  Of course not, our lives are everything to us, and that is precisely what we are expected to offer Him in thanksgiving for what He has done for us!

     We may not like to admit it, but each one of us is like the man possessed in Gerasene.  Most of us are slaves to our appetites and cravings.  Our addictions might even be socially acceptable like gluttony or alcoholism, but they are there.  They plague us.  What’s worse, misery likes company.  Often, so long as those appetites are acceptable, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors, and even our family will try to console us with the statements “it’s not so bad” or “everybody does it.”  We know it is wrong, yet those around us will often try hard not to make us feel bad about those wrong things we are doing.  Think I am wrong?  What are society’s teachings about drugs or alcohol now?  What are society’s teaching on casual sex now?  What is society’s teaching on marriage and divorce?  What is society’s teaching about any law that we break?  Truth and moral uprightness have become a major casualty of the currents winds and passions of society.  If you have a sin that seems unacceptable today, just work the press and social media to demonstrate that you are normal.  And, here’s where we ought to feel most uncomfortable, how is the Church much different from the society it is called to serve or to invite?  Ouch is right.

     What happens in the story is indicative, I think, of society when the collective encounters the Risen Christ.  There are many lessons in this pericope, but watch the crowd.  The demoniac has been relegated to the tombs.  At times he has been chained there.  Society has shunted him off to the side, unable to help him.  Jesus comes along and cures the demoniac.  How should the community respond?  Presumably, since he lived in that area, he had family and friends.  Should not they be overjoyed at his cure?  Should they not give thanks that he seems of right mind, that he is clothed, and that is studying at the feet of a rabbi, in this case THE Rabbi?  This itinerant teacher just commanded a legion of demons to leave, and they did!  Talk about a cause for celebration!  Yet the crowds, the community, responds in fear.  When told of the story of the healing, the people of the surrounding country were seized with great fear.  They asked the Healer, the King, to leave.  Can you imagine?

     Of course we can imagine!  The modern world responds in much the same way to the power and authority of God.  Ever been asked what you think God would think about a behavior, an activity, or an idea?  What happened when you shared that idea?  More likely than not, there was scoffing and marginalizing.  Ever stick your nose into someone else’s business uninvited with what you think is good biblical advice?  How did that go over?  Again and again we see the reminder from John 1 played out into the world.  He came into His own, yet His people did not know Him.  Humanity loves the darkness far more than the Light!

     It is a fearful thing to ponder the authority and power of Jesus.  If Jesus is who He says He is, He is the singular focal point of the cosmos.  He is the singular focal point of history.  He is the singular focal point of authority.  Of wisdom.  Of love.  If He is who He says He is, that means we are doing a lot of things wrong.  How many of us put Him first in our lives?  How many of us love our neighbors as ourselves?  How many of us live a life to encourage others into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ?  All the time?  And if we fail at the “important” big Two commandments, how many more times do we fail at the little things He teaches?  What happens when we fail kings?  It is no wonder many are terrified at His claim and power and authority.

     Of course, if Jesus is who He says He is, He is also the Good Shepherd.  He is the ruler who lays down His life for His sheep.  He has come to save, not condemn.  He came not to terrify, but to call.  But that saving act on His part requires an assent on ours.  We yield to His authority.  We call Him Lord.  We make a conscious decision to do our best to follow Him.  In baptismal language, we die to self so that we can live to glorify Him in our lives.  And so begins a King and subject relationship unlike any in the rest of the world.  His disciples make seemingly strange claims like “In serving Him is perfect freedom.”  But His disciples understand that He wants what is best for us.  And, unlike even good kings, who may try their best, Jesus knows what we need.  Best of all, nothing can separate us from Him, once we have chosen Him.

     Our King can send us to the edges of the world, into spiritual or physical battles, into common or uncommon ministries around us, and we can go confident that we will share in His glory for all eternity.  Such is His authority that even death itself, just like a horde of demons, must bow to His commands.  That authority, that power, just as the power and authority to cast aside a legion of demons, gives people pause.  That kind of power and that kind of authority is terrifying because it reminds us how strong the One wielding it is and how impotent we truly are.  And make no mistake.  One day, all will stand before Jesus.  Either they will have acknowledged Him as King and will be admitted into the kingdom He has prepared for us, or they will have refused “to bend the knee”and be cast out like the demons.  I do not think it much of a surprise that the villagers respond to the presence of Jesus much like that of the demons.  Both know His power and authority; neither are willing to yield.

     Brothers and sisters, we live in an age that thinks kings are all like George Martin’s humanity on Game of Thrones or even worse.  Part of our message, though, is that there are kings and then there is the King.  The King came to save, not condemn.  The King came to show us the path to the Father.  The King died and lived and ascended that you and I and all who call upon His name might also live forever.  More amazingly, the King came and worked healing in your life, my life, and the lives of all who gather to worship Him, that we might be made fit ambassadors for Him, heralds of His Gospel, and proclaimers of His release.  Put much shorter, you and I and all who claim Christ as Lord and King are like the demoniac of Gerasene, now finally free, in right mind, at the foot of the Teacher, and equipped to proclaim His transformative work in us to those whom we know and meet in our own lives!

Peace,

Brian†

Who rules our lives and our hearts?

     After a bit of jumping back and forth in chapters eighteen and seventeen these last three weeks, we get to jump ahead a bit into chapter 21 of 1 Kings this week.  If you have been gone or if you are new, you have missed some really good stories.  We have read of the Battle of the priests or gods, where Elijah does battle with 450 priests of Baal.  We have read of God raising the widow’s son to life, at the intercession of Elijah.  During those discussions, I have reminded us that Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, although they are titled like history books, are not history books in the way that we want or expect.  The books tell the story of the difficulty of finding a king after God’s own heart.  We might say they are a theological commentary on the monarchy.  Unfortunately, most of that commentary is negative.

     With the exceptions of Josiah and Hezekiah, each king does worse than his ancestors.  The further we get from David, the further from God each generation tends to drift.  It makes sense to us, right?  Many of us are the descendants of immigrants.  Some of us here at Advent are within the first couple generations of immigration.  How well do we retain the cultures of our origin?  How well do our children retain and respect the cultures of our origins.  Over time, much of what made us “us” is lost, and we become whatever we are.  As each king drifts further and further from God, it makes sense that their sons become less and less men who obey and teach God.  It is a tad ironic, is it not?  The king’s primary responsibility is to study the torah and teach it to the people.  As each succeeding generation rejects the torah, the further and further the royal family drifts, and the further the people of Israel drift, from God.

    How far have they drifted?  Chapter 21 ought to shock us, but we are 21^st Century Americans.  It is hard for us to grasp what Ahab is trying to do.  We might be shocked at Jezebel’s scheming and plotting, though maybe our politics insulates us against that.  What really ought to sock us, though, is the king’s effort to take the hereditary land from a faithful citizen of Israel.

     We have a few high Anglo-Catholics among us, but I don’t know that many of us would really be threatened by the loss of Communion.  I often think we are Protestant enough that most of us would shrug off ex-Communication and promptly head to another church.  NBD.  But really it is.  It is a cutting off, a declaration that the one ex-communicated is outside the covenant, outside the people of God, excluded from fellowship, no longer part of the Body of Christ.  If we understood communion and threat of ex-Communication well, we would better understand what is happening in this passage and the reason for the critique.

     Israel is outward sign of the spiritual and inward grace, to use our Prayer Book language, is possession of the Land.  How do they know God is in charge?  Because they are in their Land?  How do they know God cares for them?  Because God keeps the family in the Land?  If you can make that jump between real estate and communion, you can begin to understand the importance of the hereditary land claims of Israel.  That’s why the Exile was so tough.  Being dispossessed of their Land made them worry whether Yahweh had lost in the celestial battles or whether He had simply given up on them for their unrighteous behavior.  It gives us understanding about their inheritance practices and economic practices.

     We might look upon levirate marriage as barbaric or nuts, but the Jews looked upon it as keeping the family alive and in possession of the family inheritance.  If a family died out, clearly there was a problem, right?  Surely it signified God’s displeasure with that family, right?  You can imagine the discussions.  Plus, who gets the land?  If the land belonged to the Smith’s, should it transfer to their neighbors, the Jones’ or the Martin’s?  Can you imagine the fights over good pieces of land?  Economically, the people of Israel were forced to redistribute the wealth, to a limited degree, every seventh year.  If I was doing a bad job of running the farm or winery or business on my west forty, I could sell myself and my land to Hunter or Gregg or someone else as an indentured servant.  Whoever was buying me really was only buying my time—you and I would call it renting.  The next year of the Jubilee, which occurred every seven years, my land would revert to me, and I would be freed of my debt.  Perhaps you are beginning to understand why moving a field marker, a boundary line, was a subject of the torah.  It was not to be done.  Now, maybe, you understand why Naboth refused to part with his land.  Perhaps you get an idea as to how Israel should have heard this story.  It is not merely a theft of property; it is an attempt to cut a family off from its inheritance from God!

     Ahab, we are told, goes into a funk.  He goes to bed and faces the wall.  Jezebel walks in to see why he is pouting.  Ahab explains his situation.  Jezebel reminds him he is king and promises to take action on his behalf.  We are given the important details of her plot.  Naboth is lured to a dinner where two scoundrels testify that Naboth blasphemed both the king and the Lord.  Here, of course, because it is to their advantage, the king and queen use the testimony of the scoundrels to have poor Naboth stoned.  Ahab gets the plot of land.  And everything seems normal to Americans living in the 21^st Century, right?  We are used to the powerful getting their way at the expense, and sometimes death, of those less fortunate themselves.  We have prison companies that depend on institutionalized racism and social behavior of minorities to enrich themselves, don’t we?  Were any of us really surprised at the news about Flint, MI?  Are we ever surprised when the rich and powerful avoid justice?

     Thankfully, God cares a great deal about justice.  In fact, Scripture reveals to us that justice is one of the virtues to which He really pays attention.  We can rightfully say that God is love, that God is holy, that God is just, that God is light, that God is mercy, and so on.  God sends His prophet Elijah to the vineyard of Naboth to pronounce judgment on Elijah.  Think about this for a second before we consider the message for us.  Naboth is a nobody in the eyes of Ahab and Jezebel and all those who conspired to kill him.  Yet God knows Naboth.  More importantly, God knows what Ahab and Jezebel and the others have done.  He commands Elijah to go and give a death sentence to the king.  We have skipped over a bunch of the readings, but Ahab and Jezebel have plotted Elijah’s death on more than one occasion.  They despise his voice.  It gets so bad that Elijah goes into a snit over God’s unwillingness to punish them for their sins.  He whines that he is the only one who is faithful and demands to see God face to face.  In effect, Elijah wants to judge God.

     Elijah’s encounters with God, of course, change him.  Elijah walks through the mountain top experience of the battle of the gods and the slaying of 450 priests of Baal.  Elijah has the privilege of calling a dead son back to life.  Elijah even gets a personal theophany.  But, much of his work is not so glorious.  Much of his work is what you and I would call the daily grind of serving God.  He is ridiculed.  He is harangued.  He is threatened.  Worse, sometimes he is ignored.  But his walk with God has taught him much about God.  And now, in the face of certain death, he goes to the vineyard as commanded, trusting that God will redeem the situation.

     Lest you feel sorry for Ahab, and we should a bit because he was descended from David and should have known better, look at how God’s king greets the prophet of God.  “Have you found me, O my enemy?”  If you had any doubts that Ahab knew what he was doing, this should satisfy you.  If you worried that maybe he was being punished for the plot of Jezebel and plausibly deniably innocent, this should satisfy you.  Ahab thinks the prophet of God, the voice of God, is his enemy.

     Elijah’s judgment may not sound too harsh to our ears, so I will explain it a bit.  Dogs were not well loved in the ANE, but they were avoided by the Jews.  We have our Spots, and Fido, and Snoopy’s.  The ANE knew them mostly as wild animals, ranging in packs.  The big problem with dogs, of course, was their diet.  Dogs would eat anything, including dead animals.  Now I see it dawning in your expressions.  Yes, dogs were considered unclean.  If you petted Spot in Israel, you needed to be purified before you could worship again.  Now, listen to Elijah’s pronouncement one more time.  Ahab essentially tried to cut Naboth off from God.  Ahab tried to take Naboth’s inheritance from him, signifying his apartness from God.  God not only knows the intent of Ahab and Jezebel, but His punishment fits the crime.  If life is in the blood, as we like to think, Ahab and Jezebel are cut off from God for ever.  The punishment they devised in their scheming for Naboth is, instead, visited upon them.  All of Ahab’s male family members will be cut off. 

     This story, where the wealthy and powerful take advantage of the poor who are simply trying to live their lives, ought to be a strong counter-voice to the siren song of today.  The powerful ought not run roughshod over the weak.  The rich ought not scorn the poor.  The faithless ought to be careful in their dealings with the faithful.  Those lessons, though good, are not the primary lesson of 1 Kings, and they ought not be the primary lesson we take away from today.  Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles recognizes there is a problem.  Who will rule for God?  In the beginning of Samuel, the people do not have a king because God is their king.  But they nag God for a king.  Samuel reminds them that kings take their money, their daughters, and their sons for their own purposes, but the people refuse to listen.  So God gives them a king after their own heart: Saul.  Once Saul is cut off for his refusal to listen to God, David becomes king.  Now, for all his heart, David committed some terrible sins.  He even allowed the consequences of his sins to be visited upon the innocent that he ruled.  Unlike Saul, David repents of his sins.  When corrected by the prophet, David recognizes his sin, names it, and asks God to forgive him.  Those who follow in his footsteps, though, drift away from God.  Even though God swears this incredible covenant with David, his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons and so on continue to depart from him.  Josiah and Hezekiah stand out because they returned to the Lord in the midst of a family that forgot its roots, forgot God’s promises.

     We know, of course, that the Son of David who will rule for God will be Jesus.  We live on this side of the Cross and Empty Tomb, so we recognize that Jesus is the Prophet, the Priest, and the King of God.  Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles focus on that last rule.  Who will rule for God in a way that glorifies God?  Who will not make the mistakes of David?  Who will mete justice and mercy in a way that follows God’s heart?  Our Lord Christ.

     When we think of the different roles of Christ Jesus, particularly in America, I think there is an effort to de-politicize our Lord.  I know.  I know.  Democrats and Republicans both want to claim that He would be a member of their party.  But can you imagine the party elites, who struggled with a socialist and a television personality this election season, embracing the Son of God?  But rather than chuckling at them, let us look at our own thoughts and ideas.

     We might admit He was a good teacher.  We might like to think He tapped into God’s wisdom.  But how many of us treat Him as our King?  By that I mean how many of us believe that what He taught He meant?  Surely He did not mean we are to support widows and orphans?  When He said to pray for our enemies, He could not have meant ISIS, could He?  When He said to take a day off, He was only speaking to agrarians and not industrialized people, right?  To accept Christ as Lord is as much a political statement as a theological statement, as much a declaration of economic revolution as a declaration of salvation.  To accept that Christ is Lord is to accept the idea that He knows what is best for us, best for us economically, politically, salvifically, redemptively.  But do we put that understanding into practice in our lives?  More importantly, do we repent when we don’t?  Are we more like David, or are we more like Ahab and Saul?

     Do we run roughshod over the Naboth’s in our lives?  Some of us are business owners; many of us our supervisors of one degree or another.  How do we treat those over whom we have authority?  Do we pay our employees living wages?  Do we demand that they work unpaid hours to make up for our mistakes?  Do we demand that their jobs come first in their lives?  Do we rule as we would be ruled, with grace and mercy?

     Do we ignore God’s voice in our lives?  Do we think that God has command over us for sixty to ninety minutes on Sunday’s but that we know what is best for us in the workplace the other six days of the week?  Are we quicker to consult friends or Dear Abby or Reddit when we have a problem than we are to seek Him and His guidance in prayer?  Do we forgive others when they sin against us, or do we hold a grudge?  I see the squirming.  Maybe I should stop before I hit too close to home.

     Brothers and sisters, who is Lord of your life?  Who is the king seated upon your heart?  Is it a figure the world admires, or is it the God-Man who died for you and who empowers you to do incredible work in His name?  As you each know, Jesus was the solution to our problem.  Who would rule us as God would have us ruled?  To whom could we turn in trust, knowing that His King wanted only what was best for us?  Who would make it possible for us to bridge that chasm that existed between us and God because of our sin?  Why, given what we know about what He did for each one of us, are we slow to give Him the reigns to our life?  Why are we still so stubborn and unwilling to grant Him the authority He so magnificently earned?  Why don’t we trust the One who made sure we did not suffer the fate threatened to Naboth and earned by Ahab and Jezebel?

     Perhaps, sitting here today, you have thought of those places where you do not trust God’s authority in your life.  Perhaps, while listening to me blather on, you have heard the Holy Spirit speaking to you of matters close to your heart, of those places where you think you are in charge.  Why not trust Him even in those difficult spots?  Why not ask Him to help your own unbelief, that you might surrender your life to His Will, His promises, and His eternal hope!  This King Jesus, after all, is as just as He is merciful; as loving as He is uncompromising; as powerful as He is humble.  He, and only He, is fit to be King for God and in our lives.  It is that King to whom we should be pointing all people, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our subordinates, and even those we do not see or would rather wish we did not have to be near.

Peace,

Brian†