When we battle against God we cannot benefit from His power. When God healed the Gergesene Demoniacs, the crowed was angry with God. Instead of thanking God, they fought against Him. God has the power to protect us even from demons, but only if we stop fighting against Him.
My brothers and sisters, we just heard in the Gospel today the story of the two demoniacs who went to Christ, and there are different parts of this story that we could preach about. We could preach about the reality of demons. We do believe in the reality of demons. We could preach about the authority of God not only over life, but over the demons because they could not even enter the pigs without God’s permission. We could also speak about the reaction of the crowd, and my brothers and sisters, that’s where I want to spend some time this morning, is the reaction of the crowd. We can presume that these two men were known by the people. They were not strangers. They were not from some far-off land. These were their own people that had been tortured by demons so wild that they lived out in the wilderness outside of the town.
But we can presume they knew them, and yet instead of being thankful to God that they were healed of their demons, they got mad at God because they lost a herd of pigs. The reaction to God’s love and power, my brothers and sisters, is a strange one. If we’re honest with ourselves, would we have been thankful or would we have been a little put off if we lost a herd of pigs, our livelihood? Imagine how long it would take for the herd to come back and replenish itself and all of the value and all of the money that these people had lost by the pigs dying. Now, I know it might sound strange that I would suggest that we would side with the crowd, but let’s be honest with ourselves for just a moment. Every time something doesn’t go our way, we blame God. Just like the crowd blamed God in this story.
You see, my brothers and sisters, when we pray to God, he always gives us what is best for us. I know for myself, I don’t always know what is best for me, and when God gives me the answer to what I’m praying for, more often than not, I have to, “Okay, God, I get it. You know better than me.” But that only happens when we’re honest with ourselves. Our initial response is to fight against God, and this, my brothers and sisters is much more dangerous than any demon. You see, because God has the power over the demons, but if we’re fighting against God, we will not benefit from his power over the demons. We get so consumed in thinking we know better that we will not even consider that it’s better to lose a herd of pigs to gain two human beings because we get so narrow focused into our own agenda.
It’s very easy in our world today, whether it is the social networks and the various platforms or the various news agencies, we are always being forced to take sides on something. And I’m here to tell you that the world is not taking God’s side. That’s up to us. It’s up to us to side with God and thank him for his blessings and thank him for his actions instead of fighting against him. Now, that is, as always, easier said than done, but I want to remind you of the dialogue of the demons for just a moment. When the two men went up to Christ, the demons said to Christ, “What have you to do, Jesus, you Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” You see, the demons knew what was about to happen. The demons knew their days were short.
We spend every day like we have eternity to choose God, but we may not even have tomorrow. We have to choose him today. Now, if you’re worried about demons, don’t be afraid. Just be cautious. God controls the demons. God will keep the demons away from us, but only if we’re willing to lose a few pigs. That part is on us. That’s the challenge of this morning’s Gospel and our daily struggle against the world, choosing God over the world each and every time, but especially when it hurts us in the worldly way. Glory to God for all things.
