Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder
†
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
June 23, 2013 – Pentecost V

1 Kings 19:1-4, 8-15a; Psalm 43, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39

From the Old Testament:
And God said to Elijah, “What are you doing here Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians:
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
Now a large herd of swine was feeding on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

In our Gospel reading today, we have Jesus and His disciples arriving at Gadara, the country of the Gerasenes. They had just had a very traumatic boat ride across a lake and I think you all know the story: this is where Jesus had fallen asleep, and then a mighty storm came upon them and the disciples thought they were going to drown. They cried out to Jesus, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; and they ceased, and there was calm. And He said to them: “where is your faith?”

So once on land, Jesus was greeted by two demonized men, but one of them was the more forward and did all the speaking. Both were pitiful cases: naked, living in the tombs, violent, dangerous, a menace to the area, and controlled by a legion of demons. Now just to put this into context, a Roman legion could have as many as 6,000 men. Now I am not saying that was how many demons possessed these two men, but let’s say there were a lot.
Satan is the thief (John 10:10) who robs his people of everything good and then tries to destroy them. No amount of man-made authority or restraint can control or change the devil’s servants. Their only hope is in the Saviour.

The prophet Elijah had a test of faith. God had chastened His people with drought and famine but had cared for His special servant Elijah. God had sent fire from heaven to prove that He was the true and living God. Now He had answered the prayer of His prophet and had sent rains to water the land. You would think that Elijah would be at his very best spiritually and able to face anything, but he still failed the Lord and himself.

For three years, the prophet had been hidden by God, during which time he “waited on the Lord.” When the Lord sent him to Mount Carmel, He enabled Elijah to “mount up with wings as eagles” and triumph over the prophets of Baal. Elijah had hoped that his courageous ministry on Mount Carmel would bring the nation to its knees; that Ahab and Jezebel would repent and turn from Baal to Jehovah, but they didn’t.

Now he was running away in order to save his life because Ahab and Jezebel had threatened to kill him. As a result he considered himself a failure. But the Lord rarely allows His servants to see all the good they have done, because we walk by faith and not by sight, and Elijah would learn that there were 7,000 people in Israel who had not bowed to Baal and instead worshiped Jehovah. Where was his faith?

We may not realize it, but demons have faith (James 2:19), but it is not saving faith. The demons of the two men that welcomed Jesus as He came ashore, knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God with the authority to command them. They believe in a future judgment (Matt. 8:29) and in the existence of a place of torment to which Jesus could send them; sometimes this is referred to as the abyss (Luke 8:31). They also believed in prayer, for the demons begged Jesus not to send them to the abyss. They asked to be sent into the pigs, and Jesus granted their request. When this happened, the pigs went wild, hog wild. And the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

Did Jesus have the right to permit the legion of demons to destroy a herd of 2,000 swine and perhaps put the owners out of business? God owns everything and can dispose of it as He pleases. Furthermore, these two men were worth far more than many pigs. The community should have thanked Jesus for ridding their neighborhood of these two menaces, but instead, they begged Him to leave! They were terrified when they saw what had happened. Where was their faith?

What a transformation in these two men! You would have expected the people who saw the miracle to ask Jesus to stay and heal others who were sick and afflicted, but they rejected Him. Perhaps it was the loss of money from losing the 2,000 swine that upset them; perhaps it was the fear of the unknown, that this was some kind of magic or sorcery that caused their anger. Jesus offered them mercy and salvation and they rejected Him and asked Him to leave.

One of the men that had been possessed by demons kept pleading with Jesus to be allowed to travel with Him and help Him. What a noble desire from a newly converted man! He had more spiritual discernment and faith than all the other citizens put together. The man was not yet ready to become a disciple, but he could serve Jesus as a witness, starting at home among his Gentile relatives and friends. Jesus did not want Jews who had been healed to say too much about it, because He was on a divine timetable, but it was safe for the Gentiles to tell others what Jesus had done for them, and this is what he did.

Isn’t it amazing that when people see the miracles first hand and don’t connect the dots. They can’t see who Jesus really is. The demons had the faith. They knew exactly who Jesus was and the power and authority He possessed. Even Jesus’ disciples were amazed at the calming of the waters and couldn’t figure out who He really was. And now these Gentiles witnessed the removal of the demons from these two men and yet told Jesus to leave. Where was their faith?

Since the coming of Christ, Jews and Gentiles, have struggled with their faith in Jesus. They have struggled to know who He is and what He has to offer: salvation through grace.

St. Paul uses an illustration that was familiar to all his readers – a child guardian. We read in Galatians: So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. In many Roman Greek households, well-educated slaves took the children to and from school and watched over them during the day. Sometimes they would teach the children, sometimes they would protect and prohibit, and sometimes they would even discipline.

By using this illustration, Paul is saying several things about the Jews and their Law. First, he is saying that the Jews were not born through the Law, but rather were brought up by the Law. The slave was not the child’s father; he was the child’s guardian and disciplinarian. So, the Law did not give life to Israel; it regulated life. The early Jewish converts taught that the Law was necessary for life and righteousness, and Paul’s argument shows that it wasn’t.

But the second thing Paul says is even more important: the work of the guardian was preparation for the child’s maturity. Once the child came of age, he no longer needed the guardian. So the Law was a preparation for the nation of Israel until the coming of the promised Seed, Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal in God’s program was His coming (Gal. 3:22), but “before this faith [Christ] came,” the nation was “imprisoned by the Law.”

The Law separated Israel from the Gentile nations; it governed every aspect of their lives. During the centuries of Jewish history, the Law was preparing for the coming of Christ. The demands of the Law reminded the people that they needed a Saviour.

The Law has performed its purpose: the Saviour has come and the “guardian” is no longer needed. It is tragic that the nation of Israel did not recognize their Messiah when He appeared. God finally had to destroy the temple and scatter the nation, so that today it is impossible for a devoted Jew to practice the faith of his fathers. He has no altar, no priesthood, no sacrifice, no temple, and no king. All of these have been fulfilled in Christ, so that any man – Jew or Gentile – who trusts Christ becomes a child of God.

The Law cannot change the promise, and the Law is not greater than the promise. But the Law is not contrary to the promise: they work together to bring sinners to the Saviour.

With the coming of Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel moved out of childhood into adulthood. The long period of preparation was over. While there was a certain amount of glory to the Law, there was a greater glory in the gracious salvation of God as found in Christ. The Law could reveal sin and, to a certain extent, control behavior, but the Law could not do for the sinner what Jesus Christ can do.

To begin with, the Law could never justify the guilty sinner. “I will not justify the wicked,” said the Lord (Ex. 23:7); yet Paul states that God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that the sinner is justified – declared righteous – before God.

Furthermore, the Law could never give a person a oneness with God; it separated man from God. There was a fence around the tabernacle and a veil between the holy place and the holy of holies.

Faith in Jesus baptizes us “into Christ (Gal. 3:27). This baptism of the Spirit identifies the believer with Christ and makes him part of His body (1 Cor. 12:12-14). Water baptism is an outward picture of this inner work of the Holy Spirit.

The Law created differences and distinctions, not only between individuals and nations, but also between various kinds of foods and animals. Jesus Christ came, not to divide, but to unite.

This must have been glorious news for the Galatian Christians, for in their society slaves were considered to be only pieces of property; women were kept confined and disrespected; and Gentiles were constantly sneered at by the Jews.

A Jewish religious leader of that day would pray each morning, “I thank Thee, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, and not a slave.” Yet all these distinctions are removed “in Christ.”

This does not mean that our race, financial status, or sex is changed at conversion; but it does mean that these things are of no value or handicap when it comes to our spiritual relationship to God through Christ. The Law perpetuated these distinctions, but God in His grace has declared all men to be on the same level that He might have mercy on all men (Rom. 11:25-32).
Finally, the Law could never make us heirs of God (Gal. 3:29). God made the promise to “Abraham’s Seed,” and that Seed is Christ. If we are “in Christ” by faith, then we too are “Abraham’s Seed” spiritually speaking. This means we are heirs of the spiritual blessings God promised to Abraham. This does not mean that the material and national blessings promised to Israel are set aside, but that Christians today are enriched spiritually because of God’s promise to Abraham.

This section of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is valuable to us as we read the Old Testament Scriptures. It shows us that the spiritual lessons of the Old Testament are not for the Jews only but have application to Christians today. In the Old Testament we have preparation for Christ; in the Gospels, the presentation of Christ; and in the Acts through Revelation, the appropriation of Christ.

Your Christian life ought to take on new wonder and meaning as you realize all that you have in Christ. And all of this is by grace – not by Law! You are an adult son in God’s family, an heir of God. If demons can identify and know Christ, we certainly should be able to. May our faith not be determined by wonders and signs of miracles, but by our faith and trust in the sure promise of God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Through His Holy Spirit may we become excited and on fire; or should I say “hog wild” witnesses to the salvation and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:
O Lord, we beseech thee, make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name, for thou never fails to help and govern those whom thou hast set upon the sure foundation of thy loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
AMEN †

Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder
†
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
June 9, 2013 – Pentecost III

1 Kings 17:17-24, Psalm 30, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17

From the Old Testament:
And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians:
But when he was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up, and began to speak.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

The 7th chapter of Luke is about Jesus’ compassion towards the people. Last week we heard about how Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith and healed the Roman soldier’s servant from a distance. This time, there was no request for healing. Jesus simply had compassion on a grieving widow whose son had just died and it was an opportunity to bring glory to God.

Jesus journeyed to Nain, a small village about twenty-five miles from Capernaum, a good day’s journey away, yet Jesus went there even though He was not requested to come. Since the Jews buried their dead the same day, it is likely that Jesus and His disciples arrived at the city gate late in the afternoon of the day the boy died.

We can only marvel at the providence of God when we see Jesus meet that funeral procession just as it was heading for the burial ground. He lived on a divine timetable as He obeyed the will of His Father (John 11:9). The sympathetic Saviour always gives help when we need it most.
What a contrast between the crowd that was following Jesus and the crowd following the widow and her dead son. Jesus and His disciples were rejoicing in the blessing of the Lord, but the widow and her friends were lamenting the death of her only son. Jesus was heading for the city while the mourners were heading to the cemetery.

Spiritually speaking, each of us is in one of these two crowds. If you trusted Christ, you are going to the city (Heb. 11:10, 13-16); If you are “dead in sin,” you are already in the cemetery and under the condemnation of God (John 3:36). You need to trust Jesus Christ and be raised from the dead (John 5:24); a new life in Christ.

We have a contrast of two sons. One was alive but destined to die, the other dead but destined to live. The term only begotten as applied to Jesus means “unique, the only one of its kind.” Jesus is not a “son” in the same sense that I am, having been brought into existence by conception and birth. Since Jesus is eternal God, He has always existed. The title Son of God declares Christ’s divine nature and His relationship to the Father, to whom the Son has willingly subjected Himself from all eternity. All the Persons of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are equal, but the “economy” of the Trinity, each has a specific place to fill and task to fulfill.

We also have the contrast of two sufferings. Jesus, “the Man of Sorrows,” could easily identify with the widow’s heartache. Not only was the widow in sorrow, but she was now left alone in a society that did not have resources to care for widows. What would happen to her? Jesus felt the pain that sin and death have brought into this world, and He did something about it.

Jesus faced death, “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). When you consider the pain and grief that it causes in this world, death is indeed an enemy, and only Jesus Christ can give us victory. Jesus was tortured, scorned and hung on a cross and died. He conquered death by His resurrection and ascension. Through Him we can claim that same victory and have everlasting life. Through His power, Jesus had only to speak the word and the boy was raised to life and health.

The boy gave two evidences of life: he sat up and he spoke. He was lying on an open stretcher, not in a closed coffin; so it was easy for him to sit up. We are not told what he said, but it must have been interesting! He might have said, “What’s happening?” or “How did I get here?” or “Boy, do I have a story to tell you!” What an act of tenderness it was for Jesus to take the boy and give him to his rejoicing mother. The whole scene reminds us of what will happen when the Lord returns, and we are reunited with our loved ones who have gone to glory (1Thes. 4:13-18).

The response of the people was to glorify God and identify Jesus with the Prophet the Jews had been waiting for (John 1:21; Acts 3:22-23). It did not take long for the report of this miracle to spread. People were even more enthusiastic to see Jesus, and great crowds followed Him (Luke 8:4, 19, 42).

I wonder how many of us realize that this was not the first time in Scripture that someone was brought back from the dead. God, through the Prophet Elijah did just that. Elijah means “The Lord (Jehovah) is my God,” an apt name for a man who called the people back to the worship of Jehovah. Elijah wasn’t a polished preacher like Isaiah and Jeremiah, but was more of a rough-hewn reformer who challenged the people to abandon their idols and return to the Lord.

The scene takes place at Zarephath of Sidon, a coastal town located between Tyre and Sidon in the territory ruled by Jezebel’s father Ethbaal. Elijah is commanded to go and reside in the heart of the very land from which the Baal worship now being promoted in Israel had come. God commanded a widow in town to supply him with food and lodging. Elijah, as the bearer of God’s Word, was now to be sustained by human hands, but they were the hands of a poor widow facing starvation. She was, moreover, from outside the circle of God’s own people, a Gentile, in fact, she was from the pagan nation that at that time represented the forces arrayed against God’s kingdom.

The evidence seems clear that the widow’s son actually died and didn’t just faint or go into a temporary sleep. He stopped breathing and his spirit left the body. According to James (James 2:26), when the spirit leaves the body, the person is dead.

The mother’s response to her son’s resurrection was to feel guilty because of her past sins. She believed that her son’s death was God’s way of punishing her for her misdeeds. It isn’t unusual for people to feel guilty in connection with bereavement, but why would she point the finger at her guest? She recognized Elijah as a man of God, and perhaps she thought his presence in the home would protect her and her son from trouble. Or maybe she felt that God had informed her guest about her past life, something she should have confessed to him.

Elijah’s response and compassion was to carry the lad to his upstairs room, perhaps on the roof, and to cry out to the Lord for the life of the child. He couldn’t believe that the Lord would miraculously provide food for the three of them and then allow the son to die. It just didn’t make sense. Elijah placed the boy down and then stretched himself out on the boy. He didn’t do this in the hope that he could transfer his life to the lad, for he knew that only God can impart life to the dead. Certainly his posture indicated total identification with the boy and his need, and this is an important factor when we intercede for others. It was after Elijah stretched himself on the child for the third time that the Lord raised him from the dead, a reminder that our own Savior arose from the dead on the third day. Because He lives, we can share His life by putting our faith and trust in Him.

The result of this miracle was the woman’s public confession of her faith in the God of Israel. She now knew for sure that Elijah was a true servant of God and not just another religious teacher looking for some support. She also knew that the Word he had taught her was indeed the Word of the true and living God. During the time he lived with the widow and her son, Elijah had shown them that God sustains life (because the food didn’t run out) and that God imparts life (by raising the boy from the dead).

Jesus used this same story in the sermon He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). During the first part of the sermon, the listeners approved of what Jesus said and complimented Him on His “gracious words.” But then He reminded them of the sovereign grace of God that reached other nations besides the covenant people of Israel. The great Jewish prophet Elijah actually ministered to a Gentile widow and her son and had even lived with them, and yet he could have ministered to any of the many widows in the nation of Israel. This is because God’s saving grace is available to everyone: Jews and Gentiles.

Our Lord’s emphasis was on the grace of God. He wanted the proud Jewish congregation in the synagogue to realize that the God of Israel was also the God of the Gentiles and that both Jews and Gentiles were saved by putting their faith in Him. Elijah’s ministry to the widow and her son was proof that God is no respecter of persons and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Whether a person is a religious Jew or a pagan Gentile, the only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.

St. Paul was called by God to bring the Word of God to the Jews and the Gentiles. In a way, Paul had a “resurrection” experience. Saul was a Jewish rabbi who was persecuting the Christians. He “consented” to the murder by stoning of Stephen, and then proceeded to “make havoc of the church” by breaking up families and putting believers in prison.

Paul actually thought that Jesus was an imposter and His message of salvation a lie. Everybody knew that this brilliant student was well on his way to becoming an influential leader of the Jewish faith. His personal religious life, his scholarship, and his zeal in opposing alien religious faiths, all combined to make him the most respected young rabbi of his day. Then something happened: Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church “died,” and Paul the Apostle, the preacher of the Gospel was “raised.”

This change was not gradual; it happened suddenly and without warning (Acts 9:1-9). Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians; a few days later he was in Damascus preaching to the Jews that the Christians are right. What caused this change? It had to come from God!

No matter how you look at it, the conversion of Paul was a spiritual miracle. It was humanly impossible for Rabbi Saul to become the Apostle Paul apart from the miracle of God’s grace. And the same God who saved Paul also called him to be an apostle, and gave him the message of the Gospel.

Paul’s experience reminds us of young Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4-10) and also John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-17). Salvation is by God’s grace, not man’s efforts or character. Grace and called go together, for whomever God chooses in His grace He calls through His Word (1Thes. 1:4-5). The mysteries of God’s sovereign will and man’s responsibility to obey are not fully revealed to us. We do know that God is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), and that those who do trust Christ discover they have been “chosen…in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).
When a sinner trusts Christ and is born again (John 3:1-8), he is “born free.” He has been redeemed – purchased by Christ and set free. He is no longer in bondage to sin or Satan, nor should he be in bondage to human religious systems (Gal. 4:1-11). “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). May we all be resurrected in Christ and claim His power and victory over death and the sure promise of everlasting life.

Let us pray:
O God, from whom all good, proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
AMEN †