The New Man For Our Time
Sermon
Sermons On The Gospel Readings
For Sundays In Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany
This is the time of the year when new cars are unveiled. The latest models are out and people excitedly inspect the looks, the performance, and the mileage of Detroit's newest automobiles. During this feverous season when many of us are considering the new car for our time, it might also be a good idea to consider God's new man for our time. And here in our text we catch a glimpse of the new person Christ is engineering for such a time as this. This new person is so important his story is told in two pieces -- Mark 5 and Luke 8. Let's look carefully at him.
The God Relationship
In the text we meet our new man. His name is Legion. You will notice his relationships. Pay close attention to them, for his relationships are the keys to understanding what Christ is doing in our world.
First there is Legion's God relationship. The text says that Jesus drew near the man Legion. And Legion, afraid, threw himself at Christ's feet and cried out, "I beg you, don't torment me." This is the old man. The old man is afraid of God. The presence of the holy for him is a tormenting thing. But in the later part of our text we see the new man. Legion is healed. He is sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's conversing in a relaxed manner. No longer is he fearful of God. He is comfortable in his presence.
In our world today many are like Legion before salvation. They aren't comfortable with God. He is a fearful thought to them. Yet in our society today there are many who are seeking to establish better relations with God.
Just look about you! Notice how religious people are. People are into gurus, transcendental meditation, Scientology, and such kinky cults as voodoo, witchcraft, and drug fests. The very fact that people are searching is proof that they've lost God, for no one seeks for what he already has.
The word "religion" is a Latin word. It comes from the root, "to bind back." Thus, when a man is religious he is attempting to bind himself back to God, to patch things up. But do you realize that the Bible teaches that man cannot by his own work right himself with God? The book of Genesis teaches that there was a time when God and people were close. But man sinned and God moved us from his presence in Eden. And to keep us from re-entering Eden on our own terms, God stationed an angel at the entrance. And this angel wielded a sword to guard the entrance and keep man out. This is how scripture makes it clear that from the human point of view there is no way back to God. Indeed, if we are to be put right with God, God himself must do the work.
A man driving along the highway heard a strange clang, but he ignored it and continued on. When he got home he found that one of his hubcaps was missing. Two weeks later while returning home along that same stretch of highway he spotted his hubcap propped up on the side of the road. Stopping to retrieve it, he found a note attached. It said, "I've been looking for you!" Biblically, the human race is like that lost hubcap. We have no ability to bind ourselves back to God. Unless he comes looking for us, unless he picks us up out of our lostness and binds us back, then there is no hope. And this is precisely the good news of the text. Jesus Christ is God. And he comes looking for the man Legion. He binds him back to God, and now Legion is no longer estranged. He sits relaxed and attentive at Christ's feet.
The new man for our time is a man that God is searching for. He is a man that God has found and bound back by Calvary's grace. And, yes, the new man for our time sits at the feet of Christ.
The Self Relationship
The text speaks about Legion's relationship with himself: he was nude and unwashed. He bruised himself with stones. And likely he entertained the thought of suicide. But in binding him back, Christ changed all that.
In the later part of the text we see Legion bathed, properly dressed, and begging for a future, a chance to be Christ's companion and disciple.
Many in our world this day are akin to Legion in his self-loathing. A news story told of a British gentleman who committed suicide. True to his class, the man got out his "game book" in which real sportsmen keep a record of every animal they shoot and entered his own name under the category "various." Then he pulled the trigger on himself. Man is a hunted species. And man is often his own predator. U.S. statistics for one year showed there were some 21,000 murders in the United States. But there were 30,000 suicides!
Certainly for every person who kills himself there are thousands of others who at least think about it. And though they cannot work up the courage to slay themselves, they do, like Legion, commit slow self-murder. They "bruise themselves with stones." Ours is a generation of self-inflicted wounds. Overeating, workaholism, smoking, and drinking -- these are our killers.
Norman Rockwell has a painting of a little girl seated before a mirror. A movie magazine in her lap is open to the picture of her favorite Hollywood starlet. The child has her hair up like the starlet's. And as she compares what she sees in the mirror with what she sees in the magazine she frowns. So many are like her today. They don't like the way they are. Their face is too plain. Their feet are too big or their figure is too short or tall or plump or skinny.
They feel their talents are not worthwhile. If God were to announce that he would do alterations on people at such and such a time and place, the line would be endless!
Obviously it is not good to go through life disliking oneself. Not only is it depressing to the individual, it is insulting to God! It is to shake an angry fist in his face and say, "You didn't know what you were doing when you made me! You blew it!"
In our text, salvation for Legion not only meant a new relationship with God, it meant a new relationship with himself. When God accepted Legion, then Legion began to accept himself. His self-inflicted bruises began to heal.
And the new man for our time? What does he look like? He is a person who loves himself. Because God has accepted him, so he accepts himself.
The People Relationship
Now let us turn to Legion's relationship with other people. According to the text, Legion once was a kind of town freak. He lived alone in a cemetery, chained there by townspeople who were at their wits' end with how to deal with him. But Christ came and brought deliverance. He changed Legion from a lonely outcast to a friend seated amidst the disciples. And in the end, our Lord sent him home to tell them how much the Lord had done for him. Do you see how Christ's religion bound Legion back, not only to God and self, but to his neighbors as well?
Still, today is the world Legion in its human relationships. Loneliness, crime, war, divorce, injustice, oppression -- which of us hasn't felt the blight of such horrors in our dealings with others?
Let me invite you to peer through a microscope for a moment. There magnified is an invisible jungle of creatures! And one of them is the amoeba. He is a clear jelly-like organism with dark spots for a mouth, a shapeless body, and an insatiable appetite. Each amoeba oozes through life, a self-contained little packet. He eats and reproduces, excretes, and eventually dies. The amoeba may travel only a foot or so during its entire life. But that doesn't seem to matter.
Another tiny being in that invisible jungle brought to view under a microscope is the white blood cell. They, too, are tiny self-contained packets of life that eat, reproduce, and die. Yet, unlike the amoeba, they work along with millions of other white blood cells in the body to accomplish a very important goal. They patrol the blood stream cleaning it of any alien germ or infection.
Under the microscope both the amoeba and the white blood cell look very much alike. But in terms of what they do they are world's apart! The amoeba is concerned only with itself. It's only purpose in life is to keep itself well fed and healthy. But the white blood cell has another purpose in life. It is a guardian against infection. And into the battle to keep others well it daily marches.
It seems to me that people are rather like amoebas and blood cells. Except we get to choose our lifestyle. We can be self-centered little grabbers or giving, healing servants. We can be selfish amoebas or servant white blood cells.
In the text we see that Christ's salvation had to do with Legion's relationship with others. Yes, it had to do with God and self. But that was not all of it! Christendom is not just "me and my God," as some are saying these days. It is also "my neighbor, too"! You see, salvation binds us back to our neighbors in servant roles. It changes us from amoebas into white blood cells.
Just as Legion went home and served his neighbors as an evangelist, so God directs his converts to go back into their neighborhoods and serve people with their gifts as well.
The new man for our time has Christ's religion. He is a man bound back to his neighbor by God. He is a man vitally interested in his companion's well-being. He is interested in how government is done. He is interested in human rights, equitable food distribution, evangelism, education, and justice. The new man for our time is like white blood cells. He patrols society on constant guard against the things that harm people.
The Creation Relationship
A final look at the text is now in order. And here we must notice Legion's relationship to the environment. Legion before Christ was a walking pollutant. He was nude and unkempt. That's visual pollution. He cried out night and day. That's noise pollution. And he must have smelled horribly. That's odor pollution. But after Christ saved him, Legion obviously began to practice better hygiene. He had no doubt bathed, for we see him in the end clothed and in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus. His loud, chaotic cries are turned into preaching as he goes home to tell them there of God's grace.
Still, today is our world Legion. Our environmental hygiene is poor, for we are polluters. One wag has even suggested that we rewrite, America the Beautiful to say,
O beautiful, for smoggy skies,
For insecticided grains,
For strip-mined mountains majesty,
Above the asphalt plains,
America, America!
Man sheds his waste on thee,
And crowns thy good with homicide
From sea to oily sea!
Fifty years ago the Reverend George Buttrick commented on our greedy, you-only-go-around-once, grab-for-all-the-gusto-you-can-get oriented society. Speaking about what we call the "high standard of living," he said, "First of all, it's not high. Secondly, it's no standard. And finally, it's certainly not living!" And his words have proven prophetic. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 85 percent of all cancer in human beings is caused by pollutants introduced into our environment. The National Cancer Institute estimates that between sixty and ninety percent of cancer in humans is environmental in origin. The picture is more and more coming into focus. Our "high standard of living" is killing us.
What are we to do? The answer comes from God's word. Salvation has also to do with our relationship with creation. As Legion began to walk in harmony with the environment, so must we. And for all of us, it will mean that our "high standard of living" is modified, simplified, brought in harmony with God's will. Don't let this alarm you! Less can mean more. Simple can mean better. Years ago John Stuart Mill wrote, "I have learned to seek happiness by limiting my desires, rather than attempting to satisfy them." And if you embark on a more simple lifestyle, I think you'll find yourself happier, too. And God knows, the earth will breathe a little easier.
Some years ago Gandhi met the King of England. As usual Gandhi wore only a loin cloth. And as usual the king was dressed to the chin! "Why don't you put on some clothes?" the King snorted. "And why don't you take some off?" Gandhi replied. "You've got on enough for three men." And the new man for our time? He is not the man who owns enough for an army. He is not the person who eats enough for three men. His is a simpler lifestyle. His is a life of basic harmony with creation. His standard of living is not set by peer pressure, by the more-is-better syndrome. His is a standard set by God.
Thorough Conversion
Back in 1971, I visited Oxford, England. And since C. S. Lewis is a favorite writer of mine, I sought out the college where he used to teach. An old gardener was there and I queried, "Did you know C. S. Lewis?" The man's face lit up and he said, "C. S. Lewis! Sure I knew him. He was one of the most thoroughly converted men I've ever known!" That's the kind of compliment Legion deserves, too. Christ's religion in him brought salvation to his every relationship: God-man, man-self, man-to-man, and man-environment. That's thorough conversion!
Today a great theological debate is going on between the fundamentalists on the one side and the liberals on the other. The fundamentalists say that the gospel is only to get you right with God so you can go to heaven. Liberals say, "No! No! That's all wrong. The gospel has only to do with people and justice!" But I submit to you that they are both wrong! It's not either/or! It's both! The gospel is concerned with both God and people, with both heaven and earth! You can see this so clearly in the great commandment. "You shall love the Lord your God ... and your neighbor as yourself." And here in the text we see salvation at work in Legion's life in each of these ways.
Conclusion
Do you recall the nursery rhyme about a crooked man who had a crooked cane, who walked a crooked mile, and who lived in a crooked house? Such is the condition of our world today. It's crooked! It's disjointed, out of kilter. It's broken in its basic relationships. Author Truman Capote once showed up for a television talk show interview bleary-eyed, obviously intoxicated, and claiming not to have slept in 48 hours. He told the interviewer that his anxiety problem caused him to mix drugs and alcohol "like some sort of cocktail." Later Capote confessed for a lot of us when he stated, "I see it as chronic ... there's just something about me ... that doesn't work."
What about you? Are you a crooked man walking a crooked way? Is there just something about you that doesn't work? Let it be a comfort to you to realize that others have been there, too. Legion certainly had been there. But it was the religion of Christ that brought him back! And this same Jesus is here looking to do it all for you today. Do you believe this? Will you call out to him by faith? Will you ask him to thoroughly convert you? Go fall at his feet as Legion did! "What have you to do with me thou Son of the most high God? I beg you! Have mercy on me!"
The God Relationship
In the text we meet our new man. His name is Legion. You will notice his relationships. Pay close attention to them, for his relationships are the keys to understanding what Christ is doing in our world.
First there is Legion's God relationship. The text says that Jesus drew near the man Legion. And Legion, afraid, threw himself at Christ's feet and cried out, "I beg you, don't torment me." This is the old man. The old man is afraid of God. The presence of the holy for him is a tormenting thing. But in the later part of our text we see the new man. Legion is healed. He is sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's conversing in a relaxed manner. No longer is he fearful of God. He is comfortable in his presence.
In our world today many are like Legion before salvation. They aren't comfortable with God. He is a fearful thought to them. Yet in our society today there are many who are seeking to establish better relations with God.
Just look about you! Notice how religious people are. People are into gurus, transcendental meditation, Scientology, and such kinky cults as voodoo, witchcraft, and drug fests. The very fact that people are searching is proof that they've lost God, for no one seeks for what he already has.
The word "religion" is a Latin word. It comes from the root, "to bind back." Thus, when a man is religious he is attempting to bind himself back to God, to patch things up. But do you realize that the Bible teaches that man cannot by his own work right himself with God? The book of Genesis teaches that there was a time when God and people were close. But man sinned and God moved us from his presence in Eden. And to keep us from re-entering Eden on our own terms, God stationed an angel at the entrance. And this angel wielded a sword to guard the entrance and keep man out. This is how scripture makes it clear that from the human point of view there is no way back to God. Indeed, if we are to be put right with God, God himself must do the work.
A man driving along the highway heard a strange clang, but he ignored it and continued on. When he got home he found that one of his hubcaps was missing. Two weeks later while returning home along that same stretch of highway he spotted his hubcap propped up on the side of the road. Stopping to retrieve it, he found a note attached. It said, "I've been looking for you!" Biblically, the human race is like that lost hubcap. We have no ability to bind ourselves back to God. Unless he comes looking for us, unless he picks us up out of our lostness and binds us back, then there is no hope. And this is precisely the good news of the text. Jesus Christ is God. And he comes looking for the man Legion. He binds him back to God, and now Legion is no longer estranged. He sits relaxed and attentive at Christ's feet.
The new man for our time is a man that God is searching for. He is a man that God has found and bound back by Calvary's grace. And, yes, the new man for our time sits at the feet of Christ.
The Self Relationship
The text speaks about Legion's relationship with himself: he was nude and unwashed. He bruised himself with stones. And likely he entertained the thought of suicide. But in binding him back, Christ changed all that.
In the later part of the text we see Legion bathed, properly dressed, and begging for a future, a chance to be Christ's companion and disciple.
Many in our world this day are akin to Legion in his self-loathing. A news story told of a British gentleman who committed suicide. True to his class, the man got out his "game book" in which real sportsmen keep a record of every animal they shoot and entered his own name under the category "various." Then he pulled the trigger on himself. Man is a hunted species. And man is often his own predator. U.S. statistics for one year showed there were some 21,000 murders in the United States. But there were 30,000 suicides!
Certainly for every person who kills himself there are thousands of others who at least think about it. And though they cannot work up the courage to slay themselves, they do, like Legion, commit slow self-murder. They "bruise themselves with stones." Ours is a generation of self-inflicted wounds. Overeating, workaholism, smoking, and drinking -- these are our killers.
Norman Rockwell has a painting of a little girl seated before a mirror. A movie magazine in her lap is open to the picture of her favorite Hollywood starlet. The child has her hair up like the starlet's. And as she compares what she sees in the mirror with what she sees in the magazine she frowns. So many are like her today. They don't like the way they are. Their face is too plain. Their feet are too big or their figure is too short or tall or plump or skinny.
They feel their talents are not worthwhile. If God were to announce that he would do alterations on people at such and such a time and place, the line would be endless!
Obviously it is not good to go through life disliking oneself. Not only is it depressing to the individual, it is insulting to God! It is to shake an angry fist in his face and say, "You didn't know what you were doing when you made me! You blew it!"
In our text, salvation for Legion not only meant a new relationship with God, it meant a new relationship with himself. When God accepted Legion, then Legion began to accept himself. His self-inflicted bruises began to heal.
And the new man for our time? What does he look like? He is a person who loves himself. Because God has accepted him, so he accepts himself.
The People Relationship
Now let us turn to Legion's relationship with other people. According to the text, Legion once was a kind of town freak. He lived alone in a cemetery, chained there by townspeople who were at their wits' end with how to deal with him. But Christ came and brought deliverance. He changed Legion from a lonely outcast to a friend seated amidst the disciples. And in the end, our Lord sent him home to tell them how much the Lord had done for him. Do you see how Christ's religion bound Legion back, not only to God and self, but to his neighbors as well?
Still, today is the world Legion in its human relationships. Loneliness, crime, war, divorce, injustice, oppression -- which of us hasn't felt the blight of such horrors in our dealings with others?
Let me invite you to peer through a microscope for a moment. There magnified is an invisible jungle of creatures! And one of them is the amoeba. He is a clear jelly-like organism with dark spots for a mouth, a shapeless body, and an insatiable appetite. Each amoeba oozes through life, a self-contained little packet. He eats and reproduces, excretes, and eventually dies. The amoeba may travel only a foot or so during its entire life. But that doesn't seem to matter.
Another tiny being in that invisible jungle brought to view under a microscope is the white blood cell. They, too, are tiny self-contained packets of life that eat, reproduce, and die. Yet, unlike the amoeba, they work along with millions of other white blood cells in the body to accomplish a very important goal. They patrol the blood stream cleaning it of any alien germ or infection.
Under the microscope both the amoeba and the white blood cell look very much alike. But in terms of what they do they are world's apart! The amoeba is concerned only with itself. It's only purpose in life is to keep itself well fed and healthy. But the white blood cell has another purpose in life. It is a guardian against infection. And into the battle to keep others well it daily marches.
It seems to me that people are rather like amoebas and blood cells. Except we get to choose our lifestyle. We can be self-centered little grabbers or giving, healing servants. We can be selfish amoebas or servant white blood cells.
In the text we see that Christ's salvation had to do with Legion's relationship with others. Yes, it had to do with God and self. But that was not all of it! Christendom is not just "me and my God," as some are saying these days. It is also "my neighbor, too"! You see, salvation binds us back to our neighbors in servant roles. It changes us from amoebas into white blood cells.
Just as Legion went home and served his neighbors as an evangelist, so God directs his converts to go back into their neighborhoods and serve people with their gifts as well.
The new man for our time has Christ's religion. He is a man bound back to his neighbor by God. He is a man vitally interested in his companion's well-being. He is interested in how government is done. He is interested in human rights, equitable food distribution, evangelism, education, and justice. The new man for our time is like white blood cells. He patrols society on constant guard against the things that harm people.
The Creation Relationship
A final look at the text is now in order. And here we must notice Legion's relationship to the environment. Legion before Christ was a walking pollutant. He was nude and unkempt. That's visual pollution. He cried out night and day. That's noise pollution. And he must have smelled horribly. That's odor pollution. But after Christ saved him, Legion obviously began to practice better hygiene. He had no doubt bathed, for we see him in the end clothed and in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus. His loud, chaotic cries are turned into preaching as he goes home to tell them there of God's grace.
Still, today is our world Legion. Our environmental hygiene is poor, for we are polluters. One wag has even suggested that we rewrite, America the Beautiful to say,
O beautiful, for smoggy skies,
For insecticided grains,
For strip-mined mountains majesty,
Above the asphalt plains,
America, America!
Man sheds his waste on thee,
And crowns thy good with homicide
From sea to oily sea!
Fifty years ago the Reverend George Buttrick commented on our greedy, you-only-go-around-once, grab-for-all-the-gusto-you-can-get oriented society. Speaking about what we call the "high standard of living," he said, "First of all, it's not high. Secondly, it's no standard. And finally, it's certainly not living!" And his words have proven prophetic. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 85 percent of all cancer in human beings is caused by pollutants introduced into our environment. The National Cancer Institute estimates that between sixty and ninety percent of cancer in humans is environmental in origin. The picture is more and more coming into focus. Our "high standard of living" is killing us.
What are we to do? The answer comes from God's word. Salvation has also to do with our relationship with creation. As Legion began to walk in harmony with the environment, so must we. And for all of us, it will mean that our "high standard of living" is modified, simplified, brought in harmony with God's will. Don't let this alarm you! Less can mean more. Simple can mean better. Years ago John Stuart Mill wrote, "I have learned to seek happiness by limiting my desires, rather than attempting to satisfy them." And if you embark on a more simple lifestyle, I think you'll find yourself happier, too. And God knows, the earth will breathe a little easier.
Some years ago Gandhi met the King of England. As usual Gandhi wore only a loin cloth. And as usual the king was dressed to the chin! "Why don't you put on some clothes?" the King snorted. "And why don't you take some off?" Gandhi replied. "You've got on enough for three men." And the new man for our time? He is not the man who owns enough for an army. He is not the person who eats enough for three men. His is a simpler lifestyle. His is a life of basic harmony with creation. His standard of living is not set by peer pressure, by the more-is-better syndrome. His is a standard set by God.
Thorough Conversion
Back in 1971, I visited Oxford, England. And since C. S. Lewis is a favorite writer of mine, I sought out the college where he used to teach. An old gardener was there and I queried, "Did you know C. S. Lewis?" The man's face lit up and he said, "C. S. Lewis! Sure I knew him. He was one of the most thoroughly converted men I've ever known!" That's the kind of compliment Legion deserves, too. Christ's religion in him brought salvation to his every relationship: God-man, man-self, man-to-man, and man-environment. That's thorough conversion!
Today a great theological debate is going on between the fundamentalists on the one side and the liberals on the other. The fundamentalists say that the gospel is only to get you right with God so you can go to heaven. Liberals say, "No! No! That's all wrong. The gospel has only to do with people and justice!" But I submit to you that they are both wrong! It's not either/or! It's both! The gospel is concerned with both God and people, with both heaven and earth! You can see this so clearly in the great commandment. "You shall love the Lord your God ... and your neighbor as yourself." And here in the text we see salvation at work in Legion's life in each of these ways.
Conclusion
Do you recall the nursery rhyme about a crooked man who had a crooked cane, who walked a crooked mile, and who lived in a crooked house? Such is the condition of our world today. It's crooked! It's disjointed, out of kilter. It's broken in its basic relationships. Author Truman Capote once showed up for a television talk show interview bleary-eyed, obviously intoxicated, and claiming not to have slept in 48 hours. He told the interviewer that his anxiety problem caused him to mix drugs and alcohol "like some sort of cocktail." Later Capote confessed for a lot of us when he stated, "I see it as chronic ... there's just something about me ... that doesn't work."
What about you? Are you a crooked man walking a crooked way? Is there just something about you that doesn't work? Let it be a comfort to you to realize that others have been there, too. Legion certainly had been there. But it was the religion of Christ that brought him back! And this same Jesus is here looking to do it all for you today. Do you believe this? Will you call out to him by faith? Will you ask him to thoroughly convert you? Go fall at his feet as Legion did! "What have you to do with me thou Son of the most high God? I beg you! Have mercy on me!"
