In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
The Lord says, elsewhere from today’s Gospel reading, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,” (Matthew 12:39; also Matthew 16:4, Mark 8:12, Luke 11:29) and I must judge myself according to these words: am I part of the evil and adulterous generation? “Show me a manifestation of your power, O Lord,” I pray with myself, “and then I will believe. … Let me see the Heavens opened, the lame walk, the blind see and then I will be a Christian. … Let me hear your voice and then I will repent truly, demonstrate your power to me and I will pray unceasingly.” Truly, it is as the Lord tells us, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.”
The demons possessing the two in today’s reading had done great evil yet they were not willing to do anything, to change, nor did they want to face judgement. “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” they ask their Creator, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” They wanted to delay their judgement, face the consequences of their actions another day. And I must face the reality of my situation: my prevarication and my dithering—seeking a sign as a prerequisite of repentance—place me as a son of the devil (see John 8:44) rather than a son of God. I act according to the example of these demons, delaying and excusing, rather than the example of Christ.
And I start to realise I have placed the cart before the horse, I seek miracles before I seek to change myself. Yet if I start, here and now, my life of repentance, if I start, here and now, my life of Faithfulness then I will start to recognise signs and miracles around me. If I order my life according to the witness of the saints then I will be as the sons of God.
The two who were demon possessed had done nothing of value, nothing of worth, yet an encounter with the living God freed them from the Powers of demons, the Powers of this Age, the Powers of Darkness. I, too, with my encounter with God have been freed but it remains for me to act: will I return to my former slavery in Egypt or will I accept the freedom I have been given and enter the Promised Land?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what will your response be to the freedom you have received? Will you waste your time waiting for signs and miracles before you take the next step? Will I? Or will we, together and supporting each other, activate the freedom we have received through repentance and through receiving Christ ever more perfectly?
Let us today, here and now, end our waiting and repent, turn to God, that we may be the true heirs of eternal life. Let us lay aside all the cares of this life, disrupting the Powers of sin through repentance, that we may receive the King of All.
To our risen and glorified Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has freed us from demonic powers, be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the fulfilment of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified. Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.
— Romans 10:1–10
At that time, when Jesus came to the country of the Gergesenes, two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one would pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood. And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.
— Matthew 8:28–34, 9:1