6th Sunday of Luke

yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. ¹⁷But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. ¹⁹For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Then they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” ²⁹For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bonds apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.

³⁰Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered into him. ³¹They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss.

³²Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. Then he allowed them. ³³The demons came out of the man and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

³⁴When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.

³⁵People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ³⁶Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed. ³⁷All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. Then he entered into the boat and returned. ³⁸But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.