Salvation Through Judgment

Psalm 43               Isaiah 65:1-9             Luke 8:26-39

Salvation Through Judgment

I think that one of the saddest statements in Scripture is found in the Gospel of John 1:11. John reported that when Jesus came to his own, his own did not receive him. This is the tragedy of the Gospel story. Those who claimed to worship the one true God failed to recognise him when he came to live among them. 

One of the causes for this was that they had muddled the Word of God by adding their own rigid explanations and unchallengeable traditions. We see Jesus correcting the misapplication and misinterpretation of Scripture time and again throughout his ministry. “You have heard that it was said,” Jesus told the crowds…please notice he did not say you have read that it was written…You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” Jesus was challenging the oral law of the Jewish leaders. 

And then to the Jewish leaders he said, “You disregard the Word of God because of your tradition.” It was this repeated challenge to the status quo that eventually led to the crucifixion. Jesus came to his own people and his own people, not only refused to receive him, but they rejected him and simply got rid of him. “…the reason many of the leaders would not see was because they could not see…they had ears, but they did not listen…they had eyes, but they did not see…their hearts were closed, not open…they could not receive anything.”  They were completely unteachable and consequently unreachable and unchangeable. Jesus had come to his own, but his own were not willing to come to him…and judgment would surely follow this rejection.

But this was not the first time that God levelled this charge of pig-headedness against his people. In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 65 we read that God held out his hands all day long to an obstinate people who had chosen to disregard God’s Word and to live by their own set of rules…rules that mirrored the beliefs and practices of the other nations around them…the offering of incense to foreign gods and goddesses, the practice of necromancy, and an outright rejection of the purity and dietary laws. 

In many ways, John was simply echoing Isaiah and many of the other Old Testament authors when he said: He came to his own and his own did not receive him. 

But the triumphant beauty of the Gospel is that it doesn’t end there. John went on to say, “But to all who did receive him, to those who believed on his name, he gave power to become children of God.” Or, to return to the words of Isaiah, God chose to reveal himself to those who did not ask for him. He chose to be found by those who did not seek him. To a nation that did not call on his name God said, “Here I am.”

We see this rejection/acceptance or the judgment/salvation theme throughout Scripture. Right from the moment sin first entered the world, salvation has always come through judgement. Paul repeatedly stated that salvation came to the Gentiles as a result of God’s judgment of those who rejected him.  Speaking of the refusal of some Jews to believe in Jesus, Paul said in Romans 11:11, “because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.” What is mind-blowing about this statement is that it is an allusion to what God said through Moses in Deuteronomy 32:21. “They made me jealous,” God said, “by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.” The Gentiles who once were not considered a people, became the people of God…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…everything the Jews had once been called prior to their rejection of Jesus.

It is interesting to note as one reads through the Gospels, that while Jesus was often tested and rejected in his own country, the moment he crossed into pagan territory people received Him and believed in Him. The Samaritan woman and her village is one good example, as is the Canaanite woman in Phoenicia. The Gadarene demoniacs and their people are another good example. 

As we read in our Gospel lesson: After a day of challenges and teaching, Jesus told his disciples to cross over the Sea of Galilee to the territory of the Gadarenes. Out of sheer exhaustion, Jesus fell asleep in the boat. But as they were crossing the lake, a storm suddenly blew up, as it often does in this area…a storm so powerful that even these experienced fishermen panicked. Jesus, of course, did not, as he knew who held his life in his hands, so he continued to sleep. Peter’s hysterical rebuke earned him a composed rebuke in return. After calming the storm, Jesus simply asked, “Where is your faith?” It is the same kind of statement Jesus made later to Philip. “Have I been with you so long, Philip and still you don’t know me?” 

But try to put yourselves in the sandals of these disciples. You know, it is one thing to heal people…another to drive out a demon…even another to bring a dead person back to life. But to command the unpredictable and uncontrollable forces of nature? Who could do that? Only one who was greater than the created order itself. 

But then, as they were still trying to wrap their minds around what they just witnessed, an unearthly scream shattered their reflections. In Matthew’s account of this story, there were two men, not one. I think that perhaps the reason Luke only mentioned one man is because the other demoniac was silent. Be that as it may, let’s get back into those disciples’ sandals and try to sense what must have been going on in their thoughts. We are told that the man was so riddled with demons that he was called legion. Now think on that. A Roman legion was 6,000 men strong! This is not just one solitary bothersome fallen angel inhabiting this man. This was a formidable army of dark powers!

And yet…the voices coming out from this man were pleading for mercy! Jesus, on the other hand, was composed and not at all alarmed. He was in total control of the situation, just as he had been with the storm. And then, according to Matthew, with a single word, “Go!”, the demons were cast out into the herd of pigs. 

Now, we’ve heard this story so many times that it has lost some of its impact. Again, try to put yourself in the place of the disciples. What had they just witnessed in a very short space of time? The storm was one thing – that was natural. The Gadarene demoniacs presented them with a storm of an altogether different type. This was unnatural or supernatural. Who was this man who could calm a raging storm, but also cast out raging demonic forces? What kind of power did he possess? 

It is interesting to note at this point, that these Gentile men quite literally lived among the dead in the tombs and, no doubt, fed on swine’s flesh…an intriguing connection with our Isaiah passage…only these were not insolent Jews…these were ignorant pagans.

Now, I want to draw your attention to the fact that when the townsfolk asked Jesus to leave the area, the freedmen asked if they could go with Jesus. But Jesus said they needed to return home and tell their families what God had done for them. At this point, I’d like to fast-forward to the feeding of the four thousand, an event that happened in the same general area as this story. As we read that account, we are amazed to find that the same crowds who had once asked Jesus to leave a few months back, now flocked to see him. This can only be a result of the faithful witnessing of the two freed men. This story is reminiscent of the Samaritan Woman story. Non-Jews responding to Jesus in a way his own people had largely not responded. 

He came to his own and his own did not receive him, but…as many as received him, to those who believed on his name, he gave power to become children of God. 

The stubborn resistance of the unbelieving Jewish leaders, and the ever increasing reception of believing Gentiles into the Church, is spelled out in painful detail in the book of Acts. This Jewish resistance and rejection of Jesus and his faithful witnesses ultimately culminated in the destruction of their city and their temple in AD 70. But judgment led to salvation…for both the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles as the New Jerusalem continued and continues to spread throughout the world.

This is still true today. When people of faith begin to replace God’s Word with philosophies and ideologies of their own, they inevitably begin to slide down into insignificance and eventual oblivion. What is dead cannot offer life. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life…reject him and you have nothing to offer. In fact, you shackle yourself to the forces of darkness as you deliberately choose to live among and embrace the spiritually dead. 

It is only when you are confronted with the living Christ…it is only when you come under his merciful judgment…it is only when the words “Be still” and “Go” are spoken…it is only then that you are saved from slavery to sin and Satan and are brought from death to life. Salvation can only come through judgment. You cannot hold onto grace and sin at the same time. Pretence is meaningless. The Jewish leaders had a form of godliness…to all around them they looked so pious and so holy…but inside they were full of death. It is judgment that breaks open the tomb and raises the captive to freedom. 

Now, I understand that I am preaching to the choir here. You are not among those who have not received or believed in Jesus. So, I am not about to issue an altar call here.

But I am going to challenge you by asking if you are like the freed Gadarene men…are you telling those who have not yet received or believed in Jesus how much God has done for you? Are you witnesses to his awesome greatness and power? You may not have seen a storm stilled…you may not have witnessed an exorcism…or a miraculous healing…or a resurrection…but you have witnessed his ability to open spiritually blind eyes, to unstop spiritually blocked ears, to break up the fallow ground of spiritually stony hearts, and to fill a spiritually dead tomb with his lifegiving Spirit. You have witnessed the judgment of your sin and have received salvation by responding to that conviction with surrender…and you are now numbered among those who are children of the living God.

Surely, that is a story worth repeating.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl June 2022