This is an updated version of the very first ‘sermon’ I wrote when I started the speaking-course in 2001! (IT appears earlier on this site!!) This one was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on June 27, 2004. The Scripture is from the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 26-39…

I think it was 1965 when Grandpa Luebbert decided to retire and sell off most of the farm ground and equipment. We had been looking for a small farm of our own and wound up buying one near Edwardsville at about the same time, so some of the equipment and animals made it to our place. I was 12 and my brother 9 when we moved there over the Christmas holiday that year.

Growing up in a small town was neat, but being on the farm was fabulous! Our old farmhouse was on the side of a hill, and when the snows came you could really get a sled moving down into the field. In fact, I got the notion to take buckets of water from the well and dump them down the path that I had made so that it would freeze overnight. It worked pretty well. I could almost make it to the road. Well, at least I made it over halfway there.

It was also great, for me, to be around so many animals. We had brought our cat with us from town, and had gotten a young border collie to take along as well. That winter, after we fixed all of the fences, we hauled several of our Hereford cows from one of the family farms to our pasture, along with one special prize… I’ve told you how Grandpa had gotten a genuine Mexican burro included with the purchase of one farm, and Cookie became a member of our family. She was old and arthritic and stubborn as a…. well, stubborn as a donkey! But, she was what I learned to ride on… such as I do!

Over the years, dad had been putting some money into my brothers’ and my savings account, so when he wanted to buy four bred sows that summer, he asked us if we would each like to go halves together on one, and of course we said YES. After we hauled them home and unloaded them into their pasture, my brother and I got to pick out which one was ‘ours’. One sow was far-and-away bigger than the other three, and we enthusiastically chose her.

“Now,” dad said, “just because she’s the biggest doesn’t mean that she’ll have the most pigs!” We didn’t care. That was our choice, and we were sticking with it! And you know what? She DID have the most pigs! If I remember right, she had thirteen and managed to keep 12! We were happy.

Sometime after that, one of our sows had a litter with a little runt in it, and Dad brought it into the house to hand raise. Our poodle quickly adopted it and took to sleeping by its box. Pierre would bark to let us know each time it was awake so that we could feed it, first with an eyedropper, and eventually with a baby bottle. Baby Huey survived and became another family pet.

Now, pigs may look and sound pretty stupid, but they are actually more intelligent than most dogs, and this one was soon housebroken, first to a newspaper, and then to ‘oink’ when she needed outside. When she got big enough to start rearranging the furniture, she became an outside pet, and I have very vivid memories of friends from church coming to visit and start up the walk only to turn around and run back to their car screaming “PIG” when they saw ‘Huey’ running towards them.

Now, I told you all of this to make a point. I appreciate the many values of a pig. Pigs are intelligent. Pigs can be loyal. And, normally, pigs are valuable… I said normally.

So when I read in today’s lesson how Jesus sent these spirits into a herd of pigs, my first reaction is…WHY mess with the pigs?! These pigs were valuable! Mark 4:13 tells us that there were ‘about two thousand’ of them! That’s a lot of pigs! WHY mess with the pigs?

Let’s look at this story a little closer…

The Life Application Commentary points out that this, “… demon-possessed person lived in isolation and agony… he was homeless… (Mark’s Gospel describes him as uncontrollable, so he could not live anywhere else)… He was naked — unable to take care of himself, not caring about physical comfort (Mark also says that he cut himself with stones). And, he lived in a cemetery. In those days it was common for cemeteries to have many tombs carved into the hillside, making cavelike mausoleums. There was enough room for a person to live in such tombs. Tombs of wealthy people had more than one chamber for later family members to be buried, so there were empty chambers available for shelter. Such cemeteries were often in remote areas. A demon-possessed person, already shunned, would also be considered unclean because of living among the tombs. Finally, the text says that he had been in this condition for a long time.”

This, then tells us a little bit about the condition of this person as Jesus found him… dirty, filthy, unkempt, and unclean in every sense of the word… remember, according to Jewish Law, even just touching a dead body made one ceremonially unclean, let alone living among them! So, why do you suppose Satan had chosen this person for all of this… what evil plan did he have in mind that he used this man in this way?

According to J. I. Packer, “Satan has no constructive purpose of his own; his tactics are simply to thwart God and destroy men” The Life Application Commentary tells of, “an old fable about a scorpion and a frog. The scorpion asked the frog to carry him on his back across a creek. The frog said no, fearing the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion swore he would not, and so the frog warily allowed the scorpion to hop on, and started across the stream. Sure enough, when they were halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. “Why did you do that?” yelled the frog. “Now I will die and you will drown, too!”

“I know,” replied the scorpion. “It’s just my nature to sting.”

Satan is pictured several different ways in Scripture — Lucifer, the Accuser, a prowling lion — but they all have this in common: Satan’s nature is to destroy!” So his reasons for possessing this man were as simple as that… it caused trouble for other people, and hence caused trouble for God! Jesus though, took this situation and turned it to His purpose!

In the verses just preceding these, Jesus had shown His power over nature by calming the winds of the storm that threatened to overturn their boat. And in these verses, He demonstrates His power over Satan by purging the demons from the man and sending them into the nearby herd of pigs.

Now, there is no doubt that if this had occurred today, animal activist groups would be all over the situation and, “protesting that he had no right to let those demons destroy that herd of pigs.” And indeed, the townspeople did come out and berate Him for destroying their property… they feared Him and sent Him away! “Many have wondered why Jesus chose that particular means of casting demons out of this poor man; Luke didn’t say. One insight should be very clear, however: Jesus has authority over unclean spirits, pigs, people, and everything else. He didn’t ask permission of the pigs’ owner before allowing his herd to be destroyed because he didn’t need to.” But one other point should be very obvious to each of us… Jesus wasn’t concerned about the value of the hogs because, to Him, this one man was worth more than any number of pigs!

What price do you put on a man’s soul? Can you value it in dollars and cents? What kind of price tag would you put on your own soul? There have been times when I thought mine wouldn’t have been worth very much. But God’s values are different from our own. Each and every one of us is invaluable to Him.

The Life Application Commentary notes that, “At Jesus’ word, the winds and waves were calmed. At his command, thousands of demons fled. Previously, Jesus had loudly called people to listen to his words and obey them. But… even though the elements of nature and the evil beings of the spiritual world listen and do not ignore his command… many people do!”

And yet… He values each one of us just as much as He did this man. In fact, helping that man only cost a herd of pigs. To save you and me, He gave His life. And how much is that worth?