Lent
3
Lk
11:14-28
3/3/24
Vladimir
Putin has been the driving force behind a series of wars in which Russia as
attacked it neighbors. In 1999 he
launched the Second Chechen War as the Russians used brutal force to bring this
area back under its sphere of influence. In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia and
overwhelmed that country to do the same. In 2014 his forces invaded Crimea and
took that area to be Russian territory.
In
each case the Russian military was simply too big and too powerful to be
resisted. They showed that they were
willing to use indiscriminate and overwhelming force. Russia was simply stronger than its neighbors
and so it could do whatever it wanted.
At
the beginning of 2022 Russia had marshalled forces on the border with Ukraine.
It seemed apparent that they were preparing to invade. Military analysts all agreed that Russia
would overwhelm Ukraine in a matter of weeks.
Russia was simply too strong for Ukraine.
Of
course things didn’t go as expected for a number of reasons. Ukrainian bravery, Russian incompetence, and
massive Western military aid allowed Ukraine to avoid total defeat. Yet now Ukraine struggles to hold on against
its more powerful neighbor. Without further Western assistance the strength of
Russia will grind down Ukraine.
In
our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus casts a demon out of man. He shows that he is the strong one who
conquers Satan. Our Lord declares that
his action of casting out demons demonstrates that in him the kingdom of God –
the reign of God – has come upon the world.
We
learn that Jesus cast out a demon that had prevented a man from speaking. With the demon gone, the mute man now spoke
and the people marveled. However, some
present said, “He casts out
demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” These critics said that Jesus was able to
cast out demons because he was in league with Satan – he was on Satan’s side.
This response illustrates the hardness of the human heart –
its desire to resist God’s work. We
learn that others were testing Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven. This despite the fact that our Lord had just
cast out a demon!
We know the challenge of sharing the Gospel with others. We
often think: “If only Jesus were here doing his miracles today.” However, we
see in our text that Jesus performed miracles and people still refused to
believe. The ability of people to resist
the Gospel has not changed. There is no
“other thing” that would help call people to faith. The only thing for us to do
is to speak the Gospel, for that it what we see Jesus do in our text.
Our Lord knew their thoughts and said, “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?” Jesus
pointed out the absurdity of their accusation.
If Satan was using Jesus to cast out demons, then he was working against
himself! He was working against his own
kingdom.
The opponents said that Jesus cast out demons by
Beelzebul. However, Jesus offered a
completely different explanation, and its implications were world
changing. Our Lord said, “But if it is
by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God
has come upon you.”
Jesus said that it was by the power of God that he was
casting out demons. And this meant that
the kingdom of God – the reign of God – had come upon them. God’s end time power was present.
The Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus at his baptism. At the beginning of his ministry he went to
the synagogue at Nazareth and read this passage from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are
oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Our Lord declared that he was
present to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty those who are
oppressed. That is what Jesus was now
doing in his ministry. When Peter
described this in the Book of Acts he said: “you yourselves know what happened throughout all
Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:
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.”
Christ was overcoming Satan as he brought God’s reign. God’s saving reign had invaded a world that
was trapped in sin. Jesus was freeing
people from Satan because he was more powerful.
Our Lord says in our text: “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.”
We can think of these acts by Jesus as being individual
skirmishes. They were signs that pointed
to the great and final work that our Lord was here to accomplish. In our text Jesus says, “But if it is
by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God
has come upon you.” The reference to the
“finger of God” recalls what God had done through Moses before the exodus.
In the third plague, God commanded Moses to have Aaron
strike the dust of the earth so that it would become gnats over the land of the
Egyptians. When the Egyptian magicians
were not able to replicate this, they said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of
God.”
God had promised that he would raise up a prophet like Moses. He told Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”
Jesus was the prophet like Moses whom God had sent. He was
the great end times prophet. Yet when
you look at the history of God’s prophets you find that they were
rejected. They suffered. They were
killed. That is what happened to John
the Baptist, the Elijah sent by God who
prepared the way for Jesus.
Jesus had come to bring God’s reign. But he had come to win the ultimate victory
by dying on the cross. As they
approached Jerusalem, Jesus told the disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem,
and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will
be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will
be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging
him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
God’s saving reign arrived as Jesus hung on the cross. There Jesus was cursed by God in our place. Though without sin of his own, he received
the judgment for our sin. He did this to
redeem us from sin – to free us from it.
He rescued us from the devil because no longer are we cut off from the
holy God. As Paul told the Galatians,
Jesus, “gave himself for our sins to deliver
us from the present evil age.”
But as Jesus had said, his body did
not remain in the tomb. On the third day
God raised Jesus from the dead. As Jesus told the disciples on the road to
Emmaus, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?” By his
resurrection Jesus has defeated death.
Death can no longer hold onto our bodies. Instead to die is to be with Christ, and our
Lord will raise up our bodies on the Last Day.
We must
continue to hear this Gospel – this good news.
We need it because of the sin that still dwells in our lives. Rather than the fruit of the Spirit we find
the works of the flesh – things like sexual immorality, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
divisions, and envy.
Because of these things that are present in our life, we
repent. We confess our sin. And we come
to those means by which the reign of God continues to be present for us. We turn in faith to our baptism, for God has
promised that through water and the Word our sins have been washed away. We come to the Sacrament of the Altar for
here the risen Lord gives us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of our
sins.
We need this continuing work of God
in our life. We need to continue to receive God’s reign that frees us from the
devil and sin. God has made us his child
as we were born again of water and the Word.
But this doesn’t mean the devil has given up. He was once our lord, and he wants to be so
again.
Where faith is not fed, it atrophies and eventually dies. The devil is looking for this opportunity. Jesus says in our text, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
Then it goes and brings
seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.
And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
When a woman in the crowd heard Jesus she said, “Blessed is
the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But our Lord
responded, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God
and keep it!” Christ’s words direct
us in how we are to live so that we may remain God’s children.
First, we need to hear God’s Word. We need to make God’s Word part of our daily
lives. We do this by returning each day to our baptism in faith. We do this through personal and family
devotions. We do this by making Sunday the
day of the week – the most important day because on his day we hear
Christ’s Word proclaimed and receive his body and blood in the Sacrament.
But our Lord does not only say that we need to hear the
word. He says, “Blessed rather are those
who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Christ has given us faith through his Spirit. He sustains faith so that faith can be active
in how we live.
Earlier in the Gospel Jesus said, “But I say to you who
hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse
you, pray for those who abuse you.”
This is what Jesus has done for us. This is what it looks like when you
have received the reign of God in Christ.
It produces something that is the opposite of the world – something the
world can’t understand because it does not know Jesus. However we know him. We have received his saving and forgiving
reign. And so by faith we seek to keep his word.
In our text
this morning Jesus says, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast
out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus Christ was the presence of God’s saving
reign that was overcoming the devil. He
carried out the great act of deliverance as he died on the cross for our sins
and rose from the dead. His reign
continues to come to us now through the Means of Grace. So, we listen to his word and seek to keep it
as we share the love of Jesus Christ with others by what we say and do.
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