Luke 8:26-39 (Pentecost 2C)

St. John, Galveston 6/22/2025

Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

There was an advertisement that was sent out by mail. A postcard really. The card had pictures lining the top and the bottom of it. There were twelve sets of pictures. Each had a “before” and “after” picture of an individual man or woman. The person in the “before” picture was overweight, flabby, and unprepared for the summer swim season. They all looked unhappy. But next to the “before” picture was an “after” picture of the same person. The person in the “after” picture was hardly recognizable. They were thinner, stronger, happier, and ready for the pool. The company that sent out the card, Extreme Body Shaping, was starting a ten-week kickboxing, strength-training, and nutrition challenge at a local gym. The pictures, of course, to entice you to join.

I’m sure you’ve seen these kinds of advertisements before. They’re especially common after the holidays and before summer. There is something about the juxtaposition of two different images of the same person which grabs our attention. Maybe we like seeing things can change. Maybe it is because, deep down, we all have things in our own lives we would like to change. Whatever the reason, before and after images tend to resonate with us.

As it turns out, there are plenty of “before” and “after” illustrations in the Bible too. For instance, there are “before” images of St. Peter in the Gospels, images that culminate in him denying Jesus three times. And then there are “after” images of him in the Book of Acts, images where he preaches powerful sermons without any fear of consequence. There are “before” images of St. Paul early on in the Book of Acts, when he persecuted Christians. And then there are “after” images of him later in the book, as well as, throughout the remainder of the New Testament, where he proclaims the Gospel he once tried so hard to destroy. And there are plenty of other before and after examples in the Bible, both in the Old Testament, as well as, the New Testament.

It is hard to imagine though, a starker contrast between a “before” and “after” image in the Scriptures, than the man in the Gospel reading for this morning. Notice how Luke describes the “before” picture of the man. He was out of his mind. He was dangerous, unfit for society. He was possessed, but not by a single demon. No, this man was possessed by a legion of demons. By the way, that means thousands of demons. As a result, he wandered among the tombs of the dead in isolation, without clothing, without a home, or community. The town would not tolerate him. They would chain him up and lock him down. But even then, he would break loose and be driven into the wilderness by the demons. The “before” picture of this man is tragic. We can only imagine the pain in his family, the fear of his neighbors, the shame, and the sorrow he himself experienced. 

The “after” picture of the man, read about it in verse 35 of the Gospel reading for today. In the “after” picture, people didn’t avoid the him anymore. Instead, they were coming out to see him. He was a completely different man in a completely different situation. He had no more demons and there was no more running out into the wilderness. He was fully clothed, restored to community, and, as he was now in his right mind, he sat at the feet of Jesus. Chaos, isolation, and despair had given way to calm, community, and hope. The difference, of course, was not a ten-week self-help challenge. The difference was Jesus. Jesus came to the man, who was in such dire straights, and He remade his life and his world. It was truly a miracle. 

All of the miracles in the Bible reveal God’s power to control the forces that are outside of our command. In fact, by it’s very nature, a miracle involves the suspension of the very laws that guide and control the universe. Sometimes the suspension of those laws is quite evident. For instance, when Jesus calmed the seas, or when He raised the dead, or when He multiplied meager means of fish and bread to feed multitudes, that is, thousands of people. 

Today’s miracle though is quite different, in that, Jesus commanded, not the laws of nature, but the forces of evil. Indeed, He commanded and controlled the prince of darkness himself. The demons came out of the man and Jesus told the him to “return to his home and declare how much God had done for him.” Perhaps like the man that Jesus healed of blindness, this man too went his way, “laughing and leaping and praising God.”

For us, these “before” and “after” images of the man in the Gospel reading, give us ample reason to consider our own lives “before” and “after” Jesus. In doing so, you could, of course, look at your life subjectively, that is by looking at the personal changes that have taken place in you and in your life. For instance, you might note that “before” Jesus brought you to faith in Him, you really didn’t love your neighbor as you should. Whereas, now, “after” Jesus, you do more to care for your neighbor. Or, perhaps you find yourself more giving “after” Jesus than you were “before.” Those sorts of things are, of course, good, but they are nonetheless, subjective. 

The Scriptures primarily call us to consider our lives “before” and “after” Jesus objectively. In other words, they call us to consider the changes in our lives in those things that are true, regardless of what we do or don’t do. For instance, “before” Jesus, “you were you were,” as the Bible says, “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” You were, as was said of the Gentiles, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. You were without hope and without God in the world.” As such, your future, objectively speaking, was quite bleak, since Jesus will say to the goats, those who are without in Him, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’

But then Jesus came to you in Holy Baptism, and He redeemed you. He bought you with the price of His blood. He remade your life and your world. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourself. It is the gift of God.” Indeed, “Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God…We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Therefore, on the last day, Jesus will say to you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Jesus truly has remade your life and your world. 

“Oh that I had a thousand voices

To praise my God with thousand tongues!

My heart, which in the Lord rejoices,

Would then proclaim in grateful songs

To all, wherever I might be,

What great things God has done for me.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +