There was a little old lady who would come out every morning on the steps of her front porch, raise her head to the sky and shout out, “Praise the Lord!” Thank you, Jesus!
One day an atheist moved into the house next door. Over time he became more and more irritated and perturbed with the little old lady.
Every morning he would step out onto his front porch and yell in her direction, “There is no Lord,” there is no god. Get over yourself!
Time passed, and the two of them carried on that way every single day…non-stop! Day-after-day…week-after-week, month-after-month…
One morning in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and yelled out, “Praise the Lord! Lord, I have no food and I am starving to death over here. Please help me, oh Lord!”
The very next morning she stepped out onto her porch again and this time – there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there. She was overjoyed, ecstatic, thrilled beyond belief…
“Praise the Lord!” she cried out. “He has provided groceries for me!”
That’s when the neighbor jumped out of the hedges and bushes and shouted, “There is no Lord there is no god. I bought those groceries for you!” I bought and paid for them, not your silly God.
The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted all the louder, “Praise the Lord! He has provided me with groceries, and he made the devil-himself pay for them!”
Making the devil pay…making evil pay getting a leg up” on all that is bad or evil or wrong in this life, is what this gospel text is about…
God does prevail!
Jesus puts a form of evil in his day and time, in its proper place.
Good wins out! He always does!
There is a popular television show called “Extreme Makeover – Home Edition”. It is a show where a construction crew comes into a home and does a complete renovation, usually for a “low income family” or a family that has “seen and faced many other hardships in life.” There is nothing new about “extreme makeovers.” As a matter of fact, Jesus performed many “extreme makeovers” during his ministry. We just heard about “one such makeover” in the gospel text from Luke 8 just tonight!
Jesus acts.
He shows compassion.
He shows love and caring…to one who has been wronged and harmed by what was believed to be an evil possession.
The poor man was possessed by an unclean spirit.
It was as if, he was attacked through no fault of his own…and Jesus could right that situation. He could bring about real change. He could help. He could do something. He could make the man whole again!
So without fanfare… Without Hollywood lights… Without horns blowing…Jesus very quietly restored the man to wholeness and health.
He permitted the demons to enter into the swine, and with his permission, they did so. Who commands demons? Who can give demons permission? The demons do as he suggested…without question. Did they know of their ultimate fate? And still they obeyed him…
Who can restore a man to wholeness after everything he had been through?
When next we see him… He sits at Jesus’ feet. The place of a disciple… The place of a student… He sits there, learning from his master. (Almost as if nothing had taken place.) Business as usual…
And then, there is “the big line”…a key line, an all-important line…“Return to your home and declare how much “God” has done for you!”
The problem was, he did go home as directed…but he couldn’t stop talking about Jesus and what Jesus had done for him. For him, it was all about Jesus. For him, he witnessed what Jesus had done. He saw, firsthand how the demons obeyed Jesus. He saw the fate of those who are opposed to God.
He saw the power of the most high. But he saw it, in and through the person of Jesus. And that – was all he could talk about…
Now what about you?
When was the last time you shared with anyone, the wonderful things that God has done in your life…?
That was the point of the Luke! This stuff needs to be shared with others…and we need to be the ones to share it! Amen.