Lent 3
Lk
11:14-28
3/15/20
I would not want Nate Hutmacher to
get mad at me. Hutmacher is a high
school senior in South Dakota. He is six feet five inches tall, and weighs
three hundred and five pounds. He is
also the number one ranked heavy weight high school wrestler in the nation.
The blonde Hutmacher’s nickname is
“the Polar Bear.” And he is a beast. He
just finished winning his fourth straight South Dakota state wrestling title.
During his high school career he won 166 matches in a row. He finished his
career with a streak of 73 straight pins.
A combination of size, strength,
quickness and technique have made him overpowering and unstoppable. In the run to his senior year state
championship, Hutmacher won his first three matches by pinning his opponent in
18 seconds, 33 seconds and 20 seconds. By Hutmacher’s standards, the state
championship match lasted an eternity.
He didn’t pin his opponent until the match was a minute and twenty nine
seconds old.
In the Gospel lesson for today Jesus
faces opposition as he casts out a demon.
Accused of being in league with Satan, our Lord points out the absurdity
of this and declares what is really happening.
In Jesus, the reign of God has arrived.
He is the stronger one who is overpowering Satan.
Our text begins by saying, “Now he was casting out
a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the
people marveled.” Jesus cast out a demon
who was preventing a man from speaking. The casting out of demons was a regular
part of Jesus’ ministry, and on many occasions they cried out knowing exactly
who he was.
This
seems very foreign to our experience. We
certainly do not doubt demonic forces are present in the world, and that demon
possession does take place today. At the
same time, it seems as if it was far more common during Jesus’ ministry. And
there is every reason to believe that it was.
When the Son of God had entered into the world in order win the great
victory over the devil and sin, doesn’t it make sense that Satan increased his
presence to do all that he could to hinder Jesus? In this pivotal moment of
spiritual conflict the demonic forces arrayed themselves against Jesus Christ.
However
the demons could not resist our Lord.
After Jesus cast this demon out and the man began to speak, some of
those who were opposed to Jesus said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul,
the prince of demons.” Beelzebul was another name for the devil in first
century Judaism. These opponents said
that the reason Jesus was able to cast out demons was because he was on the
devil’s side. They said Jesus could cast
out demons because he was demonic!
Others
who were there sought to test Jesus as they kept seeking from him a sign from
heaven. Now Jesus had just cast out a
demon from a man. Before he couldn’t speak.
Now he could. Yet these opponents were ignoring the evidence that was
right before their eyes as they demanded from Jesus some other sign.
The
reaction by both groups is an important reminder that the presence of Jesus and
his miracles was not something that compelled people to believe. It was not something that brought universal
acceptance and faith. The hardness of
the human heart is often determined to reject God’s grace, because this would
mean admitting that God is God and we are not. And if this rejection happened
to Jesus himself during his ministry, we should not be surprised if it
continues to happen today when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed to
others. We don’t like it. We don’t want it.
But if it happened to the Lord Jesus himself, it is also going to happen
to us as we share him with others.
Jesus
knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is
laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided
against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons
by Beelzebul.” Our Lord pointed out the
absurdity of their claim. If Jesus was
on Satan’s side in casting out demons, then Satan was fighting against
himself! Surely he would not be so
foolish, because if he did how would his kingdom ever stand?
Instead,
something very different was happening.
Jesus declared, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out
demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus was not casting out demons by Satan’s
power. Instead he was doing it by the
power of God.
The
phrase “finger of God” is a reference to our Old Testament lesson from Exodus
where the magicians of Egypt were not able to do the miracle that Moses had
just performed in sending gnats upon the land.
In response they said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” They
admitted this was God at work, a power that went beyond anything they could do.
Jesus
declared that it was by the power of God – the same power that had been present
in the Old Testament – that he had cast out these demons. He was carrying out his work of casting out
demons by the power of Yahweh, the God of Israel. And this could mean only one
thing: in Jesus the kingdom of God had come upon them. The reign of God was present in Christ to
overcome Satan and sin – to free sinners and creation itself from the power of
the devil.
Jesus
had been anointed with the Spirit at his baptism. In the book of Acts Peter speaks
of “how God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing
good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was
with him.”
In our text
Jesus puts it in very simple and straightforward terms. He says, “When a strong man,
fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one
stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away
his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.” Jesus Christ is
the stronger man who has overcome the devil.
This
is good news for us, because all too often we are overcome by the devil. He
uses the presence of sin that remains in us – the old Adam – as the means to
lead us into sinning by thought, word and deed.
He tempts us to doubt God’s Word.
He entices us to take the “easy way” of the world, instead of remaining
faithful to God’s will.
Jesus
Christ is the stronger man who has overcome the devil. Yet he did it in a way that we would not
expect. In our text Jesus speaks of how
he casts out demons by the finger of God. This language comes from the ministry
of Moses. The Old Testament speaks of Moses as a prophet. In fact after his death Deuteronomy tells us:
“And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like
Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for
all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of
Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all
the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight
of all Israel.”
Luke
clearly depicts Jesus as the great end time prophet – the prophet like Moses
promised by God. But the thing about
Moses’ ministry, and of the prophets in general, is that they were continually rejected and suffered. Jesus came to win the great victory of the
stronger one by being rejected, suffering and dying.
On
multiple occasions Jesus told his disciples that he must suffer and die – that
he must be numbered with the transgressors for us. By his death on the cross, Christ won the
forgiveness of sins for us. Yet Jesus could not be held by death, because on
the third day God raised him from the dead.
Death had been part of his mission, but his mission could not end in
death. As Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the
afternoon of Easter, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should
suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
As
the risen and ascended Lord, Jesus has entered into his glory. He is still the
stronger one – the One who overcomes the devil as he brings the reign of God
into our midst. He does so now through
his Spirit whom he poured out on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit – the Spirit of
Jesus – is the presence of Christ continuing to bring the reign of God into our
midst and lives.
Our
Lord is doing that at this very moment through the proclamation of his word –
the word of his words and deeds. He is
doing it through Holy Baptism for there our sins were washed away, and in our
baptism we have the continuing assurance of forgiveness as we turn in faith to
God’s gift.
And
while he is ascended, the incarnate Lord has not left us without his bodily
presence bringing his reign. In the
Sacrament of the Altar Jesus gives us his true body and blood – body and blood
that forgives sins and strengthens faith so that we remain his. His reign that has freed us from Satan’s
power continues to keep us as the forgiven children of God.
Jesus
Christ has freed us from the devil and sin. Because of his death and
resurrection, and the work of his Spirit, Jesus is our Lord. Yet in our text, Jesus also reminds us that we must act as if he is our Lord. Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is
against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
There
is no “neutral” position when it comes to Jesus. The Lord has made us his own so that we can
live as his people. This means that we
confess Christ in what we say and what we do. With our words we speak about the
Lord Jesus to others and express what he has done for us. We declare that he is the crucified and risen
Lord who has given us forgiveness, salvation and hope.
And
with our deeds we show that we are with Jesus.
This means that we share Christ’s love as we support and help others. We
serve Christ in the vocations where God has placed us, doing our best, for we
know that the Lord is using us to as the means by which he cares for others.
Jesus
Christ is the stronger One who has brought the reign of God. He has overcome Satan by his death and
resurrection. His reign continues to be present with us now through his Means
of Grace as he forgives our sins and keeps us in the faith. As we look for the
consummation of his reign on the Last Day when Christ returns in glory and
raises the dead, we live in word and deed as the people who belong to him.
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