Lent 3
– March 14th and 15th, 2020 – Luke
11:14-28
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
So
there Jesus is, and He is doing what He is normally doing –
healing. This time casting out a demon that was mute. Here you have
this man who is attacked by one of Satan’s minions, made to be
silent. Can’t speak. Can’t talk. Cut off from his family and
friends. Given by the powers of Satan over to loneliness and
despair. And Jesus steps in, heals the man – and suddenly the man
can speak. The man can open his mouth and speak words of love and
joy. Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise.
But I guess some people would have just rather not have heard any of
it. But some of them said, “He casts out
demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”
What an excuse. Um – maybe this Jesus is demonic – um, that way
we don’t have to listen to Him. They would rather have this man
remain mute, they would rather hear a preacher preaching something
more appealing to their ears than Satan being fought. And as for
others – well – while others, to test
Him, kept seeking from Him a sign from heaven.
Oh, sure Jesus, we’ll believe, but you’ve got to do better than
that! We want something more miraculous, something more wondrous!
How about something with thunder and lightning – something that
lights up the sky, that would be good! So just what in the world is
going on here?
We've
talked about Satan, we've talked about the world fighting Christ, but
here it hits home. The sinful flesh kicks in. This is what the
problem is – people are making excuses not to believe, not to trust
in Christ Jesus. You see, there’s this pesky little problem – if
you believe in Jesus, you really sort of need to believe everything
He says. You don’t get to pick and choose – Jesus isn’t a
buffet, He isn’t some fast food restaurant where you get to tell
Him to hold the pickles – what He says goes. And our Lord teaches
bluntly – He speaks to our sin, to our need for a Savior – He
points out that we of ourselves are not righteous and that we need to
receive mercy from God – we need the forgiveness which He wins.
Jesus teaches that we are in need – and in our pride and arrogance
we can dislike that and make excuses.
So
then Jesus engages in what is called “Apologetics”. Apologetics
is what happens when you break down the excuses people give against
the Word. But He, knowing their thoughts,
said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,
and a divided household falls. And if Satan is divided against
himself, how will his kingdom stand.”
Point one – is Satan dumb? If Satan divided his forces, he’d be
weak. Is he weak – ask that man who was struck deaf if Satan is
powerless and weak. “And if I cast out
demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore
they will be your judges.” Point two –
other people had been casting out demons in the Name of Jesus. If
you accuse Jesus, you accuse them too. Do you really want to do
that? The thought that Jesus is in league with Satan is looking
worse all the time. And then the kicker, “But
if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the
Kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Point three – as for you who want a sign from heaven – well here
it is. You are seeing God’s own power at work against the forces
of darkness. Quit playing like you need something more. This is
what God does, God fights Satan, God destroys him. Your excuses are
foolish. You need to quit making them and instead repent, for you
too need a Savior.
Do you
see how Christ just sort of systematically poked holes in all their
excuses that they had thrown up, that they had given for why they
couldn’t listen? This is the same thing that He does towards us.
The simple fact is that we are sinners, and sinners make excuses. We
make excuses not to do the things we should, and excuses to do things
that are wrong. So – what are your excuses? Now, I’m not Jesus,
I don’t get to know your thoughts – but what excuses about the
Christian life are you making? What excuses about love? What
excuses about stewardship? What excuses about time, about worship,
about petty grudges, about your pet sin that you enjoy – what
excuses are you making? When you consider what Christ Jesus has
taught about sin, about His love and the power of His Word – do any
of these excuses really hold water? Really? Are the excuses you put
forward any better than those we heard in the text? I know mine
haven’t been. And yet, even we Christians who know better will sit
around dreaming up excuse after excuse – we think we can feed Jesus
a line of B.S. about why we aren’t showing love, why we aren’t
studying His Word, why we blow off Church, why we ignore this person,
why we play favorites with this one, why we hold on to bad habits.
Sometimes I wonder just how stupid we can be. God’s Word not only
fights the power of Satan – it breaks our excuses.
So
why? Why is Jesus so interested in breaking down the excuses we
make, even the excuses for the so-called little things – why does
He want to break them down? Because the Christian life is to be one
of repentance – to be one where we are constantly brought to the
repentance of our sin and constantly focus upon Christ. And should
we abandon repentance, should we move from being those who confess
their sin to those who instead make excuse after excuse – it goes
poorly for us. ‘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.”
Little sins never stay little. They always grow, they always get
bigger, they always get worse. You can’t appease sin, you can’t
let it have just a bit of your life, you can’t lay out the welcome
mat for it and say, “Oh sure, come on in, just stay in that bedroom
over there.” That simply opens the floodgates, and more and more
temptation and sin will flood into your life, until you are worse
than you were before. This is a warning against falling away, and if
you make excuses – you are playing with fire – and not just a
little fire but eternal, unquenchable hell fire. And so our Lord
warns us against this – quit your excuses and cling to the Word of
life! And our Lord brings this about in you. At your baptism, you
were given over by God to a life of repentance – a life that is to
be lived out by daily contrition, daily struggle against sin,
continual confession of that sin. We are to fight against Satan, not
accommodate him with foolhardy excuses to ignore the Word. To be in
the waters of Baptism is to be one who fights temptation – and in
that water, in that Christian life, there is safety for Christ
Himself is with you. We are safer fighting Satan than we are bowing
before him. This is the life to which you have been called.
This
is also why our Lord admonishes us to listen to His Word. But
He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and
keep it!” As Christians, we are those
who hear the Word of God, we are those who are to strive to keep it.
God’s Word isn’t designed to just go in one ear and out the
other. It isn’t something to be brush aside, to have lip service
paid to. We are to pay attention. And why? Because it is by the
Word of God that we are blessed – and we remain in those blessings
of God as long as we remain in the Word.
Consider
the example of the Stronger Man that the Lord gives us today. “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.”
This is what Christ Jesus does for you. You were Satan’s
possession, fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, as Luther would
have us sing. You were part of Satan’s kingdom, in bondage to sin
– but into this fallen world burst Christ Jesus, the Stronger Man,
who defeats Satan and claims you as His own. Christ our Lord
defeated Satan by His holy life, by His precious death, by His
glorious resurrection – these things all defeat, destroy Satan, and
break His power over you. And these things that Jesus did, that He
accomplished nearly 2000 years ago are made real in your life today
by the power of His Word. The Word of God takes what Christ
accomplished then and brings it to you here and now. Christ defeated
the old foe, and by His Word, He claims you as His own prize.
When
you continually hear the Word, when you live out your baptismal life
of repentance and forgiveness, of confession and absolution, when you
receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in His Supper, you are being
forgiven and strengthened and kept safe from Satan, kept in God’s
Kingdom. God keeps you in His Word and thereby keeps you safe from
the power of the Devil. And the thing is, Satan is going to do
everything he can to make you ignore the Word, spurn God’s Law and
despise the Gospel of Christ Jesus – because then, you abandon God,
you leave the Mighty Fortress behind and are defenseless. So Christ
continually preaches His Word – He doesn’t abandon you to your
foolish excuses, He doesn’t leave you trapped in the sins with
which Satan binds you, but over and over again, His Word of life
comes to you, He preaches life and forgiveness, the Finger of God
touches you, so that you might open your lips and declare His praises
as well. Christ desires you to reap the benefits of His fight against
Satan, and He will make these real in your life through His Word,
through His Baptism, through His Supper. God grant us faith that we
might cling to His Word and keep it ever more sacred all our days.
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
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