Children’s Sermon

Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and the Sick Man

By Dr. Carol J Miller

The Bible story for today is a strange story––maybe even a bit scary. There was a man in the story whose mind was sick. He had everything confused; he couldn’t think right. The man was very afraid of everything. He was so afraid that he ran away from home and hid in the cemetery. He thoughts his friends and family were trying to hurt him. His family was worried that he might hurt himself. They tried to keep him home––they even tied him up! But he always broke away. It seemed to his family that evil spirits had gotten into him and were making him think untrue things. Today we would say that the man had a mental illness. He was living a terrible life, and so were the people who loved him.

Then Jesus came. Jesus healed the man and made him well. It was amazing! It was wonderful! All the people and the man’s family came to see him. The man was fine; he had put on clean clothes, he was thinking real thoughts, smiling and listening to Jesus. If you were that man’s family member, what would you be thinking? [Accept all answers]. How would you feel if your loved one was talking normally––making sense-again? [Accept all answers]. Best of all he was not afraid any more. He was calm and sensible.

But something strange happened. All the other people were afraid––they were afraid of Jesus! The people had seen how much power Jesus had over the evil spirits. They were afraid of anyone so powerful––so they asked Jesus to leave!

The healed man was the only person who was not afraid. He wanted to go with Jesus. But Jesus said “No”. The man’s family had missed him for a long time. They needed to have him back. Jesus told the man to tell the people in his own town how good God is, and happily the man started telling everyone in town how good Jesus was.

This story has a happy ending. It reminds us that God loves all people, no matter what troubles they have. And it reminds us that one day all people will be well. Now that is good news!

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible