+ 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost – June 22^nd, 2025 +

Series C: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-4:7; Luke 8:26-39

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

“A Gerasene Great Reversal”

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Most stories you read or movies you watch have what’s called a character arc; the change that happens in any given character from the beginning to the end of the story. Like how Han Solo goes from being a greedy, stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerf herder to a selfless hero of the Rebel Alliance. Or Ebenezer Scrooge, who is changed from being a cold, cruel, curmudgeon full of humbugs into a warm, joyful, gracious giver full of happiness.

You see this in the true stories of the Scriptures as well. Peter goes from being stubborn, foolish, and denying Jesus three times, to being restored, reconciled, and boldly confessing Christ. Saul goes from being a zealous persecutor of the church to being a steadfast preacher of the Gospel.

There’s a Gospel, Christ-centered character arc in today’s reading from Luke 8 as well. Luke is a good journalist and historian, and storyteller as well. He carefully sets the scene: Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,^[c] which is opposite Galilee.²⁷ When Jesus^[d] had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.

When you first meet this man you don’t know his name, but you know he’s not an Israelite. He’s from the Gerasene region, opposite Galilee. He’s an unclean man held captive by unclean spirits…He has demons. Not one. Plural. Legion. He’s enslaved. A captive of darkness. In bondage to the beast. To make matters worse, he has no clothes, no home except the quaint comforts of the graveyard, and the chaos that clouds his heart and mind.

By the end of this story everything has changed for this man. It’s a great reversal. The Gentile becomes a disciple and student of Jesus. This non-Israelite becomes a member of the true Israel who believes in and confesses Jesus as Lord. He goes from being unclean to being cleansed. From captivity to freedom; from bondage in sin to and darkness to liberation and new life. At the end, Luke tells us, this man is no longer naked and full of raging madness. He is clothed and in his right mind, siting at the feet of Jesus. He went from living in gloom, chaos, and paranoia to heading home proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

What could possibly bring about such a dramatic change? Was it his moral improvement? Fortitude? His good behavior, positive attitude, or his good feelings? No. This man brought the same thing we bring to our conversion and Christian life and salvation…nothing but the shackles of our sin and the darkness of death.

So what was it? Not a what. But a who. A Voice. A Person. A Healer and Preacher of Good News who is the Good News in the flesh. This man is changed not by something he does but by what Jesus does and says for him.

Jesus speaks and wickedness and darkness are undone. The God who broke the darkness of creation by his word of “Let there be light” does the same for this Gerasene man. Jesus commands the unclean spirits by his word. Jesus casts out and conquers the demons by his word. Jesus restores this man and gives new life by his word. Jesus teaches and sends this man home healed, cleansed, and holy by his word. Jesus gives this man a vocation. Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.

And this same Jesus, whose word and life brought about this great reversal for the Gerasene man, speaks his healing, saving, death conquering, demon destroying, sanctifying word to you. The Gerasene man in Luke 8 isn’t the only one with a character arc that ends with the Gospel. This is your story as well.

Jesus comes to make you who are unclean clean. Jesus come to make you who are unholy holy. Jesus comes to set you, who are enslaved to sin, set free. Jesus comes to you in your dead, naked and shamed life in Adam, clothed in your own flesh, hanging naked on the tree of the cross, hanging out in the place of the dead, resting in the tomb, surrounded by the chaos and darkness of sin all so that he can raise you up from the dead. Clothe you in his righteousness. And bring you home to him. And fill your mouth with his word, that you too would declare how much God in Christ has done for you.

This is what our Lord Jesus did for David this morning. What he did for you and does for you all, not in the waters of the sea of Galilee, but in the waters of baptism. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

When that water came pouring over you, as it did for David this morning, all of Christ’s promises come with it. What Jesus did in the fullness of time flows over you in the font. Jesus is born of woman so you are born again from above. Jesus is born under the Law to redeem you who were under the Law and unable to keep the Law. Jesus, the Son of God is also the Son of Mary so you can receive adoption as sons.

Everything has changed for you, as it did for that Gerasene man. Jesus brought a great reversal in the Gerasenes, and he does so for you too. And he does it in the same way. All by his word and promise delivered and given to you.

You are no longer slaves but sons and daughters of the King. You are cleansed. Holy. Set free. Raised from the dead. Clothed and in your right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus here in his house. And in our Lord’s house the gifts always keep on coming…like Christmas morning with Ebenezer Scrooge. Like Paul proclaiming the Gospel. Like this Gerasene man returning home rejoicing in all that Jesus had done for him. As it was for him, so it is for you.

Jesus speaks and the darkness flees. Jesus speaks and chaos and unclean spirits are conquered. Jesus speaks and delivers you by his word. Jesus speaks and you are cleansed and washed and brought to his table, where once again he speaks and delivers healing to you. By his word bread holds his body broken for you to make you whole and holy in him. By his word a cup of wine holds his blood shed for you that overflows and gushes with grace and goodness and good news, for you.

And having sat at Jesus’ feet, having been clothed by Christ, having received his word, having been fed in forgiveness, having the author of the story step into history and rewrite your ending in his grace, he says to you as he said to the Gerasene man.

Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.