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| The hill country of Gadara |
I hope the sermon Sunday on the healing of the demon-possessed man was helpful to you. Working on it and thinking through the passage was a personal blessing to me. Sometimes laboring over a sermon is a battle between the Word on the one hand and the world, the flesh, and the devil on the other hand. On other occasions, the labor is a pure delight.
Since Sunday, I have continued to think about the passage from Mark 5. I have recently been reading sermons by Pator Philip Graham Ryken. Dr. Ryken was pastor of 10th Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, but is now president of Wheaton. (My interest is his writings has increased of late.) Dr. Ryken always brings his sermons back to the saving work of Christ. While I believe that I emphasized just that sort of message Sunday, I want to share a further insight on this passage and the salvation we have through Christ Alone.
As we know, Jesus took our place on the cross. He became a man and took our sins. Paul sharpens the language of subsitutionary atonement in 2 Corinthians 5:21 when he says, "For our sake, He made Him to be sin."
The story of the wild demon possessed man of the Gadarenes is a picture of what Jesus becomes for us. That man received a "partial" salvation in that story. The full story of his salvation is the cross. Jesus Christ took on the wild and savage elements and condition of that man on the cross.
Consider:
1. The wild man lived in the tombs or cemetary of a barren and hostile land. Jesus went to the cross on the barren and death-like hill of Golgatha. Golgatha possibly means "skull," which indicates the harsh and frightening place that it was.
2. The wild man was bound by chains, which he broke loose from. Jesus was bound by soldiers and later bound on the cross. He had the strength to break loose. Legions of angels were ready to attack. Unlike the wild man who would break the bounds, Jesus submitted to them.
3. The wild man screamed and cut himself and suffered many agonies. Christ was tortured before and during the execution on the cross. He was, in contrast, like a lamb before the slaughter.
4. The wild man wore no clothes. Jesus was stripped of His garments when He was crucified.
5. Judgment fell on the demons in the Bible narrative. Judgment fell on Christ at the cross.
6. The demons entered the herd of pigs who plunged into the sea. Christ took on the sins of the world and, as we say in the Creed, descended into Hell.
7. The ordeal ends with the wild man being restored, clothed, and sitting with Jesus. The cross leds to the resurrection. Christ is clothed in glory and sits, as we affirm each week, at the right hand of God the Father.
8. The healed man then goes out to the region proclaiming the salvation. Jesus Christ, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, goes out to the nations.
As I emphasized Sunday, this story from Mark 5 is not merely an account of Jesus reaching a really warped and twisted individual. This is an account of Jesus reaching us. Jesus became the wild man of the Gadarenes, in a sense. He became the sinful people we are. We gather to worship, robed in His righteousness, and in our right minds only because of what He did for us.
This should fill us with great joy as we gather this Sunday to celebrate the next Sola of the Reformation: Grace Alone.
Pray for all in our midst who are hurting, struggling, and stumbling. Encourage one another as you see the day approaching.
