The demoniac that Jesus met after crossing the sea was in a state of perpetual, growing death. Luke represents this for us in several ways in his descriptions. This man abides among the tombs with the dead. He is possessed by an unclean spirit; the breath of Satan animates him. He is naked, stripped of all glory. He is separated from home and community, being driven in the desert. He is a walking dead man.
This death, as mentioned, is not static. It is growing. In the beginning, when God created the man in his image, the intention was that man would progress in a fruitful life. Life would move from one stage of glory to another. But when death came into the world through sin, that process was reversed. Instead of growing in life, man initially dies and then continually dies unless God moves him from death to life through resurrection. This demoniac was dead and was growing in death. Satan and his minions were destroying him day by day as he roamed and cried among the tombs. This is Satan’s glorious plan for man’s life under his control: to move you from death to death.
What this man needed at this time was not a little helping hand. He needed resurrection. He needed to be cleansed and delivered or, in short, given new life. So it is with all of us who are sons of Adam, born into this world dead in our trespasses and sins. Our need goes far beyond just a little help. We need resurrection. Jesus came to provide for this need through taking on our death and subsequently being raised from the dead. In him we are cleansed. In him we are given life instantly and that life grows and grows until it comes to full flower in the resurrection of our bodies on the last day.
This is glorious news, but it is news that is difficult to accept for some and out-right rejected by others. Each of us knows that he is guilty. But instead of turning and submitting to the one who forgives and, through that forgiveness, gives life, we would rather find other ways to justify ourselves; that is, we want to find ways to deal with our guilt and the guilty feelings that are the consequence of that actual guilt. People will bury their guilt through abuse of substances or even resorting to self-mutilation in one form or another. We must deal with our incessant uncleanness.
This attempt at self-cleansing also dresses up in more respectable ways. We can bury ourselves in work, lose ourselves in material possessions, or even dedicate our lives to causes that make us feel good about ourselves. We long to be clean.
Many times, however, we love our death. It is familiar. It is a friend. It is destroying my life and eventually carrying me on dragon wings to hell, but it is what I like; it is what I know. Besides all of that, I hate God. Submitting to him is the last thing I want to do. So, we continue to try to justify ourselves, and, like this demoniac, we continue on the road of death.
This is seen all around us every day in the world. But this problem is not exclusive to those outside the church. There is something that remains in all of us while we are progressing in life that nags at us that we aren’t clean and that we must find a way to pay for our sins ourselves. There is enough uncleanness left in us that, at times, we still want to do this for ourselves.
As always and with everybody, these attempts fail. The only answer is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. The answer to your guilt and the guilty feelings that follow is to hear the declaration of God in Christ over you: “You are forgiven and righteous before me.” The only way to quiet the tumultuous mind that tortures you in condemnation is to believe what your God has declared about you. You are cleansed in Christ. Having been justified by faith, you are at peace with God. Believe that and be free. Believe that and live.
