"The Power of a Father's Love"

Isaiah 65:1-9

 Galatians 3:23-4:7

 Luke 8:26-39

     Dear Friends in Christ,  

            The love of a father is a powerful thing.  Now I know that in this sinful world, too often, unfortunately, there are exceptions to this—fathers who do not live up to their God-given vocation and responsibilities to their children.  But for many of us, when we look at our fathers, even when those of us who are fathers look in the mirror, what do we see?  Hopefully many of us see a love that knows no bounds.  A love from a man who is willing to do anything and everything for the sake of his child.  A love which knows no bounds.  A love which says to the child, no matter what, no matter what you do, what you say, where you go, my love will always be there.  A love which says, you may walk away from me for a time, you may forsake me, but I, your father, will never walk away from you.  Sure, there will be consequences those missteps you take, but one consequence will never be me not loving you.  Yes, the love of a father is a powerful thing, my friends.  You may remember a number of months ago, Pastor Meyer showed a video narrated by the Christian author, Max Lucado during one of his “Time to Reflects”.  And in this video, a story is told of a father and daughter.  The two of them were by themselves, the child’s mother had passed away shortly after birth.  So as a result the father and daughter were extremely close.  Eventually that time came that all father’s dread…the time when their daughters become teenagers…and this daughter made very poor choices.  If you remember how the video goes, you’ll remember that she runs away from the comforts of home, running instead to live in dark places of the world, claiming that she hates her father, she gets herself deeper and deeper into sin—to the point of dancing at a ‘gentleman’s club’, becoming more and more estranged from her father…she thinks, reaching the point where she is certain that her father could never love her again.  She is so sure of this that she does not seek him out.  How amazed she is when he comes looking for her.  And how even more amazed she is when she finds out that he came not looking to chastise her for her poor choices, but simply to say to her, “Here I am.  Come home, please.  I love you.  Come back home, leave this place of darkness and sin, and come to a place of peace.”  She was astounded at how powerful the love of a father is.

            Yes, my brothers and sisters, the love of a father is a powerful thing.  It’s amazing…even more so when we think about the love of our mutual Father…our Father in Heaven.  Talk about a Father who loves His children so much, but seldom gets love in return.  Many of us may know the story of the Israelites found throughout the Old Testament.  The Israelites being God’s chosen people, those He calls His own children.  And we see today in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah (chapter 65, verse 1-9) that the children of Israel are far from perfect children.  In our pericope today and throughout the book of Isaiah, these children are referred to a rebellious people.  Already by chapter 65 here, these God’s children have been hauled into the dark places of exile, hauled away from their home, taken in chains from the peace that was found at the temple, Yahweh—their father’s dwelling place, taken to Babylon because of Satan filling their lives and leading them into sin time and time again.  But you see the love of the Father was so great that He was not content to leave them there, He used Cyrus of Persia to overthrow the mighty Babylonians in 537B.C and He brought them home to dwell in peace.  We hear in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah how the Temple was rebuilt and God once again dwelled with His children.  But no matter how their Father had loved them, no matter that He had brought them back home, these children of His were still rebellious.  But the love of a Father is a powerful thing.  To these children of His who were enslaved by the Satan, these children who took no notice of their Father in heaven, these children who continually sinned against Him to His face, to these children who would rather spend time amongst the spiritually and physically dead than with the God and Father who gives Life, to these children God the Father comes with hands outstretched, willing and ready to show how much love he had for them.  He seeks out His children, even though they do not seek or ask for Him, He comes to them and He says to them, “Here am I, here am I” (Isaiah 65:1).  “Come home, please.  I love you.  Come back home, leave this place of darkness and sin, and come to a place of peace.”

            The love of a Father is a powerful thing.  The love of the Heavenly Father was so great for His children, for you, that He wasn’t content to just let His children remain enslaved to Satan, not content to leave them in bondage in the kingdom of darkness, no He was going after them.  As Paul records, “in the fullness time” God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth (Galatians 4:4).  In Jesus, God Himself walked this earth, seeking those who did not seek Him or ask for Him, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  In Jesus, God is present for His people.  For where Jesus is, where Jesus enters in, Satan is cast out. 

That is why we find Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee in our Gospel lesson, Luke, chapter 8 (verses 26-39).  Jesus is going to seek and save the lost; God in Jesus is going to those who are not seeking Him or even asking for Him.  Generally speaking, that’s the whole region of the Gerasenes. Technically part of the nation of Israel but filled primarily with Gentiles and everything unclean to a Jew, a faithful Israelite, even the pigs that graze on the hillsides.  But Jesus doesn’t have to go far.  According to Luke, the boat lands on the beach, Jesus steps foot onto the sand, and immediately a man stands before Him.  This guy is the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with this whole region. Everything about him is defiled and unholy.  He’s rotten even by the standards of a place where the standards are unacceptably low. And we’re given a few details that tell us just how bad it is for him.  He is enslaved by Satan in every sense of the word, demons have possessed this man.  In fact, when Jesus asks their name, they reply Legion.  A legion is a military term, in the old Roman empire a legion of soldiers would consist of 5,000-6,000 men—just to give you an idea how terribly this man was suffering.  Satan had driven this man to leave home, to live in the kingdom of darkness, to live naked and among the dead, among the tombs.  Many times his pagan countrymen have tried to control him by binding him with iron chains and strong cords.  And for good reason:  he’s a threat to public safety – no telling what harm he might do.  And no doubt he steals livestock and robs peoples’ gardens and orchards to survive.  He’s a menace to the community.  So they’ve tried to tie him up; but it’s no good.  No matter what they try they can’t hold him with external force because he is captive within to a whole army of demonic spirits.  They seem to give him superhuman strength with which he throws off both those who would try to bind him and the shackles that they attempt to place upon him.  Driven by these spirits from the fellowship of the living, he finds shelter in the cave-like crypts of the dead.  Mark’s Gospel adds that he spent his days gouging himself with sharp stones and crying out among the tombs (Mark 5:5).  So this is his life:  filthy, alone, surrounded by death and decay, and engaged in any number of self-destructive behaviors.  He’s far beyond the help of any of his countrymen – as utterly lost and hopeless as a person could be.  But God comes to Him, Jesus Christ comes to Him, and by the simple Words of Christ, the one who was enslaved and driven mad by the assaults and accusations of the devil, the one who was not seeking or asking for the God, is set free.  For the love of the Father is a powerful thing.

My friends, I do not imagine that any of you are currently living out at the cemetery or in a mausoleum of sorts…I haven’t visited you all in your homes, but for those I have, I’ve yet to be shocked.  I’m not suggesting that any of you are possessed by demons but you were born into this world, not as a child of God, but as a slave to Satan, not asking for Your Father in Heaven, not seeking your Father in Heaven—this is what we call your original sin and it marked you as a rebellious child, separated from God.  And to this day, you still rebel against your Father, you still knowingly sin.  So many times you don’t seek Him, but you delight in the promises of pleasure and treasure that Satan promises you.  And to get that pleasure and those treasures in your life, you are perfectly fine deliberately sinning before the face of God.  And no matter how hard you may try at times to escape Satan’s chains, you cannot.  You are a sinner and you keep sinning time and time and time again.  But you see my brothers and sisters, the love of the Father is a powerful thing…so powerful that He would come seeking you, pointing you to the cross, to His Son’s outstretched arms nailed to the cross, saying “Here am I, Here am I.”  Come home.  I love you.  Come back home, leave this place of darkness and sin, and come to a place of peace.  All of this, this Son of Mine, this Cross, His Death, is for you, that you would no longer have to live naked in your shame, that you would no longer have to live “among the tombs” as one already dead in sin.  All of this is so that you can be brought into My House, fully clothed by Christ.”  The love of the Father is so powerful that through simple water and His Word He drowns and destroys that sin within you at the font of Holy Baptism, where it is that He brings you back home to His family, as His child.  For it is through the powerful love of the Father, through the sacrifice of His Son, your Savior, through the Spirit who plants and nurtures Christian faith within you that “you are no longer a slave, but a son” (Galatians 4:7).  Ah yes, the love of God is a powerful thing.

      Amen.