Real Freedom—Matthew 8:28-9:1

We’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose comforts. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

And we’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose connections, even dear ones: “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

But we’ve also seen that followers of Jesus gain true safety. He calmed a storm with a word. What can he not do? If you’re with him, even if the waves look rough, you are truly safe.

And now, in these verses, we see that followers of Jesus gain real freedom. Bondage is the opposite of freedom, and I’d like to meditate on three cases of bondage: the bondage of the demon-possessed men, the bondage of the Gadarenes, and our own bondage.

The Bondage of the Demon-Possessed Men

Let’s start with the bondage of the demon-possessed men. When Jesus came to the country of the Gadarenes, these two men came to him. They came out of the tombs. Do you know anyone who lives in a graveyard? I don’t. These men were worse than crazy. They chose to live with the dead, and they hated the living. No one could come there to leave flowers on their loved one’s grave: the demon-possessed men let no one pass by.

But they did not live this way of their own free will. They were slaves of the spirits that indwelt them. They could not even speak for themselves: the spirits spoke from the mouths of the men. “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” they asked. “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” The demons knew who Jesus was, though his disciples didn’t. They knew he was the Son of God who would judge the world and throw them into hell. But they knew that day was supposed to be far off. Why had their enemy shown up early?

He had not shown up for judgment, but for liberation: not to torment the demons, but to set their prisoners free. So, the demons say, if all we have to do is leave these men, why not let us go off into the pigs? So Jesus says, “Go,” and they run off into the herd of pigs. And then you get a deeper sense of the turmoil these men were filled with, because you see how the pigs respond to the same demons: “and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.” That’s the bondage, and now, the two men were free at last.

The Bondage of the Gadarenes

But there is another sort of bondage in the story. And Matthew skips over some details that other Gospel writers include to focus on this second case of bondage. It doesn’t look as bad on the outside, but it’s a bondage worse than the slavery of the tomb-dwellers.

“The herdsmen fled,” says Matthew, “and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.”

What is going on here? Two men who have been oppressed by demons, lived among the tombs, have been set free of the horrible power that controlled them. And all the city comes out to the liberator and asks him…to leave! It is not the demon-possessed men they care about. It is not the arrival of a man who can cast demons out. It is the pigs. It is the wealth that the pigs represent, the wealth lost. It is fear of the damage that may be done by a man who traded the lives of so many valuable pigs for the souls of two feared and isolated men.

This is true slavery. To see the Son of God, who has come in the flesh to bring the power of heaven to bear on the plight of man, and to care more about money and the status quo -- this is a slavery worse than that of the tomb-dwellers. And this is the slavery under which our whole world lies. But how much better to be a demon-possessed man, frothing at the mouth, yet running to the feet of Jesus to find deliverance, than to be a successful, reasonable businessman, the owner of many pigs, and to miss the arrival of the Son of God.

Our Bondage

We have not all suffered what these men among the tombs suffered. We have not all foamed at the mouth and felt our limbs and speech controlled by a foreign power. But we have all been in bondage of the deepest sort: the bondage of sin. The plight of these two men is a pretty good picture of the bondage of sin. When you are in the bondage of sin, the head demon does not simply influence you. He rules you. He does not say, “You may.” He says, “You must.”

Jesus came to break this bondage. He broke it by putting himself in our place. He who was free from sin suffered, in our place, the punishment that sin deserves. He died on the cross as our substitute, to pay our ransom price. It was against the devil’s wishes, but, like the demons in our passage, he had no choice in the matter. God set the price, and God paid it.

On the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. He was free at last, himself, from his own bondage: the bondage of suffering, humiliation, and death which he had willingly accepted. And now he has sent out an offer to all the world, Norristown included: believe in me, and you will be really free.

Don’t be like the Gadarene herdsmen and city dwellers. Don’t miss the arrival of the Son of God in merciful power. Don’t ask him to go away. Ask him to stay, to stay with you, to stay with you forever, and you will be truly free.

You who know him have true freedom, even if you don’t have what other people want: riches, popularity, a herd of pigs. You have a Savior who cares for the people everyone else has given up for lost, even two graveyard-haunting demoniacs. He’ll care for you.

Pastor Nate Jeffries