Festival of St. Michael and All Angels at Epiphany on September 28, 2008

Mark 5:1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. ² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. ⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!" ⁹ Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. ¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." ¹³ He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. ¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man-- and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. ¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Deliver us from evil

If there’s one man in the gospels I think we should understand, he’s the one who tried to get into the boat with Jesus.

This is that Bible story that makes the hairs on your arm stand up. The man shared his skin with demons. He lived his nightmare among the tombs. He screamed all night, every night. He cut himself with stones. Then one day he spoke those chilling words to Jesus with a voice not his own: “My name is Legion, for we are many.” If you don’t think these words are scary, I dare you to imagine someone saying them in the darkness tonight as you climb the basement stairs.

These evil spirits, of all creatures, knew the “Son of the Most High” when He stood before them. They knew that who-do-you-think-you-are look on the Son of God’s face, that exquisite anger when someone evil has touched one dear to Him. They knew when they weren’t wanted, and they just went away. Why? Jesus told them to.

Imagine you are that man. No more chains that can’t keep out the horror. No more nights spent alone with evil. No more torturous fear that no one can touch. It’s over. Because of Jesus. It’s enough to make you wade out over the side of an old fishing boat, spending not a single thought on where the boat is going. Anywhere with Jesus is fine with you. You’ve never been more sane than at this moment, locking eyes with Jesus, begging, “Take me with you.”

Jesus’ answer is not “no;” it is “not yet.” “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”

Today as we thank God for sending us His angels, we need to spend some time talking about the leader of the angel rebellion – the devil. As we discuss the devil this morning, there is going to be a lump in your throat – not out of fear, but out of gratitude. Your eyes will be damp, not from apprehension, but appreciation. Your lips will be moving in silent prayer, thanking God for His great mercy. Today we realize the difference between the One who has you and the one who had you before.

Satan and his demons began to rage because Jesus had dared to come to earth to claim it back. They counterattacked in force as demons from hell were actually taking over the bodies of people and tormenting them, throwing them and abusing them.

This seems to be rather counterproductive, if you ask me. It’s rather elementary that if the devil is shown to be real, Jesus must also be real. By howling at you in your bed, Satan is going to accomplish nothing more than to chase you closer to Christ. That’s why Satan often does his best work among us when he bribes with adultery, money, fame, treats, Hollywood and DC. Satan is often most effective when he can slip his message into music, movies, and the very fabric of a nation’s culture.

Though Satan may not often unmask himself in overt supernatural displays, it is clear he’s been busy. Some things can only be evil. Horrid fascination with the occult steadily grows. People enjoy the chill of a séance. People still look for the thrill of seeing the pointer move by itself on a Ouija board. Stephen King novels and movies like Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Saw are still terrifying and popular. Why? Just as humor isn’t humorous unless there is some grain of truth, so there is also truth behind the terror.

That truth is evil. I’ve seen video of a rock star yelling, “Who wants to go to hell?” and ten thousand teenagers chanting, “We do.” Some of those teens will kill themselves, not because they’re desperate or scared, but because they aren’t scared enough. For goodness sake, they’re curious!

Beneath the sounds of human wreckage – another family torn to pieces; another woman undone by her desires; another teenager’s life ruined; another little boy destroyed by another sick man – you can almost hear the sound of Evil laughing.

There are people who would kill God (again) if they could. What they do is kill Christians. More Christians have been killed in the past century than all the other centuries combined. (You didn’t know that did you?) There are people who take pleasure in the pain they cause others. The commandment of Satanism, “Do what you will is the whole of the law,” has become an acceptable personal philosophy. The end-times prophecy that “people will be lovers of themselves,” (2 Tim 3:2) rings true as more and more people celebrate pride and self-occupation as virtues. And Christ is still the name most often taken in vain. People have learned these things from one who usually wishes to remain anonymous, but whose fingerprints are unmistakable.

The devil is very real. Satan was created as a creature of light, beauty and holiness. And when he went ugly and rebelled against God, he was not allowed to remain in heaven. He is no longer Lucifer, the light-bearer, the angel of beauty. He is now Satan, Aramaic for “adversary” and “enemy.” He is now the devil, diabolical, the “accuser,” who leads the whole world astray. He is a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He is the red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns, who was hurled to the earth.

But let’s be very clear about how the Scriptures consistently portray Satan. Don’t think of the devil as the opposite of God. He’s bad enough to be that, but he’s not big enough. The devil is powerful, but he’s not a god; he’s not even close. He’s not all-powerful; not all-knowing; not all-present. He’s merely another creature. By the way, hell is his prison cell, not his home.

The Bible calls Satan, the leader of the evil angels, the great dragon, the ancient serpent who leads the whole world astray. St. Michael, the archangel, the five-star general of God’s angels, fought Satan and his demonic angels and kicked them out of heaven.

But the real battle didn’t take place in heaven. That battle between good and evil, between God and Satan – the battle for humanity’s souls – took place on Calvary’s crest, upon the cruel cross, where Christ conquered. The message God sent to his children was, "Yes, there is a dragon out there. But, whether you can see it now or not, Christ has conquered the dragon. The devil has gone down in defeat. Satan has been stopped."

Jesus conquered the dragon of sin by living a perfect life. He conquered the dragon of the devil by resisting every temptation. He conquered the dragon of death by his physical resurrection on the third day.

Jesus has defeated the Great Dragon on the bloody cross and the open grave. The war is over. Jesus has seen Satan fall like lightening from the sky. (Luke 10:18) The war is over, but Satan isn’t going away without a fight. He and his legions are still battling. They are going to tempt and tease and torment you. They will try to lead you to despair, doubt, and depression.

Ever since he fell, Satan has been focused on taking you with him to hell, possessing you – although not in the overtly terrifying way we see in the gospel accounts. He wants to keep you in the spiritual darkness he has authored. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The devil will do anything, say anything, promise anything, to obscure the lovely face of Christ, to keep us blind to our soul’s only treasure. In this he is tireless. He knows no mercy, and he will not stop. From all around, day in and day out, come messages meant to deceive you about God – He isn’t what you need; He can’t forgive that sin; He can’t be trusted; He can’t take care of you; He isn’t good; He isn’t even real. This is satanic language from the “father of lies.” (John 8:44) And the really chilling thing is that the brainwashed don’t know they are brainwashed.

Saint Augustine, a Christian bishop from the early fifth century, for a time felt the devil’s claim on his own soul. Although as a young man he had given himself over to sexual immorality many times, that wasn’t what brought him the fiercest terrors of conscience. Instead, it was the fact that he had once stolen some apples. While his sexual sins could be explained by his physical desire for pleasure, there was something else in his theft of apples. The plain fact was that he didn’t really want them. What he wanted was the sheer malevolence of taking them and destroying them. Augustine saw in himself a satanic love of being bad, an unholy pleasure in despising God and rebelling against good. It scared him to death. What about you? Doesn’t it strike you as ominous that every Sunday we pray, “Deliver us from evil?”

Your cry for deliverance has been heard. Your prayer was answered long before you prayed it. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:31) Jesus proclaimed this shortly before He died. Even as He hung on the cross, as Satan’s defeat was being written in holy blood, the “drawing” had begun. As if a spell was being broken as a dying thief begged, “Jesus, remember me,” and a murderous centurion said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”

When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” He was saying, “Satan, you’re finished. Since you can’t lay a glove on God, you are like a big bully trying to terrorize God’s children, but it won’t work. The power you have over my children’s bodies is limited. But even better, the power you have over their souls is ended. They belong to me now. I can rebuild their bodies. I can replace whatever health they’ve lost. I have reclaimed them as my own through my gruesome death and glorious resurrection. I have remade them as my own through Holy Baptism. I have restored them through my body and blood in my Holy Supper. The fact is, I now have them back.”

God designed the powerful and wise angels to serve his Christians on the spiritual killing fields versus the Enemy who is rugged and relentless. The angels were there to shut lions’ mouths, walking with men in the fiery furnace, and busting God’s apostles out of prison. They minister to God’s people as they did to Jesus in the wilderness and in the Garden of Gethsemane. The angels were there announcing Jesus’ birth and announcing his resurrection from the grave.

When your parents brought you to the baptismal font, you were brought as a child of Satan. Yet when those cleansing baptismal waters flowed over you, the devil was dispossessed. Then God’s mighty warrior angels, dressed in their full battle gear and holding their flaming swords gathered around you, to protect you from the Evil One.

Through the bumps and scrapes, the falling out of trees and car accidents, through the hospital stays and time in the nursing home we were protected, for God “will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Ps 91:11) Because God loves us so much, he sends his holy angels to guard and protect those whom he has redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus.

When a missionary succeeds, Satan falls like lightning. When a sinner repents, angels rejoice. We prompt an angel pep rally in heaven for Jesus tells us, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)

As our life comes to a close, we are comforted that just as the angels escorted poor Lazarus to heaven when he died, God has commissioned his angels to escort each believer to heaven and to give us a royal welcome as we enter the eternal presence of God.

When God calls angels to protect you, they will protect you; when God calls them to rescue you, they will rescue you; when God calls them to bring your soul to heaven, they will bring your soul to heaven.  Nothing will hinder them in their service to the Lord. With Christ and with His angels, we are delivered from the Evil One.

We agree with the formerly demon-possessed man – anywhere with Jesus is fine. You are looking to Jesus, begging, “Take me with you.” Jesus’ answer is “not yet.” “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” Amen.

“Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me!” Amen.