Luke 8:26-39 (Galatians 3:23-4:7)
Unchained
We all operate with a certain level of autonomy. We can make choices for ourselves, decide what we want to do, eat, wear, and so on. Autonomy is actually believed to be a foundational aspect of what makes us human. The capacity to govern ourselves, that is, to have free will. However, we know that this isn’t exactly the same at all ages. We won’t let a two-year-old make the same decisions as a thirty-year old. We recognize that children aren’t capable of the same level of reasoning and consideration for all the possible outcomes of their actions. For this reason, there are many decisions which we restrict children from making, like drinking alcohol, driving a car, making important life choices, or the like. Instead, children are beholden to the decisions of their parents. In this way, we understand that autonomy is limited as children. Children must have other decide things for them because they don’t bear the ability to decide for themselves. However, what if I told you the same is true for adults? What if I told you that we ALL lack autonomy? At the very least, in the theological aspect, we must understand that we have no autonomy. As Lutherans, we believe that believing isn’t a choice that we get to make. It had to be made for us by another because like children, we lack the capacity to decide. This is what Luther called the bondage of the will. Before faith comes, we’re all bound to sin and death. We have no capacity to decide to believe or to save ourselves. Yet, it’s this very aspect that makes the gospel all the sweeter.
Today, I want to try to consider both our Epistle and Gospel readings. Paul reminds us that we’re all bound to the law because of our sinful flesh. At the same time, we encounter a man who is literally captive to evil because he’s been possessed by demons. Yet, in both instances, freedom doesn’t come from our choice, but from the one who chose them. As we learn today:
ALL WHO ARE HELD CAPTIVE FIND THEIR RELEASE IN JESUS!
I.
This is the tragedy of the demon-possessed man whom Jesus meets. He has no autonomy. He’s completely taken over by demons to the extent that he runs around naked in a cemetery (Luke 8:27). The man himself has no say in what he does, what he wears… or not wear. He’s a prisoner in his own body because the demons are the ones in control. But this isn’t the only way in which he’s a prisoner, as we read, “For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert,” Luke 8:29. Because the fellow villagers were afraid of him and the demons, they bound him with chains and put him under guards like an actual prison. Yet, the demons would break these chains to drive him to a worse fate. It’s not enough that he’s a prisoner in chains… though he breaks out of them. But he even dwells in the place of death. It’s a symbol of the fate he faces in his current condition.
The demon-possessed man isn’t the only one lacking autonomy. This is a general truth we must know when it comes to belief. As Paul lays out, “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed,” Galatians 3:23. It doesn’t take demons to make us prisoners. The truth is, this is the natural state into which we’re born. From the oldest to the youngest, we’re all imprisoned to the law, that is to sin and even to death. Before faith comes, the state of our body and soul is sitting among the tombs, destined to die. We’re all trying to work our way into heaven while running on a treadmill and actually moving nowhere. This is why baptism is necessary for even infants. We don’t have the capacity on our own, at any age, in which to choose God. It’s not within our power or capability. Rather, it’s a decision that must be made for us by another. This is why parents must raise their own children in the faith. It’s not to be left up to choice, for it’s not a choice they can… or will make on their own. Thus, we all struggle with the shackles of sin and death which hold us down.
II.
There’s no release without faith. And faith comes from only one person… Jesus. It was Jesus who showed up to meet the demon-possessed man, telling the demons to be gone. The man had no capacity to change his own position. He had no chance to choose his own fate. Rather, Jesus chose him. For consider the condition of the man after Jesus comes, as we heard, “Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid,” Luke 8:35. Jesus had expelled the demons, cleansed the land of sin and death by his presence, and brought freedom through faith to him. This man finds his release, his freedom not apart from Jesus, but in Jesus. In the same way, so do we all. For Jesus had to come to us. God had to choose us… and that’s exactly what he did. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons,” Galatians 4:4-5. This is baptism… just as we witnessed with precious Beaux this morning. God has chosen you through the waters of baptism, releasing you from chains of sin and death, and making you his own precious child.
Thus, to all who are captive to sin and death, all who find themselves shackled to the demands of the law, look to Jesus who sets you free by faith in him! There’s no autonomy in death, but rather in faith and life. Thus, we understand that salvation is not our choice, but God’s. Indeed, it was God’s choice to send Jesus to become incarnate for us. It was God’s choice to hand him over to sinful men. It was God’s choice to have him suffer our punishment, and die in our place upon the cross. It was God’s choice to save you by giving us Jesus to be our release from bondage and our freedom to life everlasting! “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God,” Galatians 4:7. Our joy in the Gospel is that God has chosen us to redeem, to justify through Christ’s body and blood, to sanctify by the work of the Spirit, to give to us new and everlasting life! Now, we have freedom in Christ… freedom to do good, to love one another as Christ has loved us, to forgive, and to worship and praise God for all he has given to us!
Let the shackles fall from our hands and feet. May sin and death no longer weigh you down, for Christ is your release. It’s faith in Jesus, the adoption by grace in baptism, a new birth of the Spirit that gives us true freedom… freedom to share Christ! In Jesus’ name! Amen!