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Sermon for Oculi – Third Sunday in Lent 2014
2 Samuel 22:1-7 + Ephesians 5:1-9 + Luke 11:14-28
For the third week in a row now, we’ve watched Jesus do battle against the demons, and against the prince of demons, the devil, Satan, Beelzebub, as he is called in our Gospel. Christ endured the devil’s temptations in the wilderness for 40 days and conquered the demon. He helped the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed, and He conquered the demon. Wednesday, if you were here, you heard how Jesus cast out a very destructive deaf and dumb spirit, and He conquered the demon. He conquered the demon again in today’s Gospel, that mute demon who had left the poor demonized man mute. In fact, casting out demons was the easy part of Jesus’ ministry.
It was the easy part, because, with the demons, Jesus simply exercised His almighty, irresistible power and conquered them. He forced them to do His will, against their own will. They had no choice but to obey. But with people, it’s different. The “hard part,” if you want to call it that, was dealing, not with demons, but with unbelieving men. With people, Jesus didn’t apply His almighty, irresistible power and force them to believe. Instead, with men, He has chosen to work differently. By nature, the will of man is turned against God and God’s will. So God has chosen to work through the preaching of His Word in order to convict men of sin and stir up faith in the heart. Through His Word and promises He takes unwilling people, people who don’t want God as their God or Jesus as their Savior, and He leads them to want God as their God and Jesus as their Savior. But He doesn’t command people to faith like He commanded demons to depart. He applies His Word to coax and enable people to trust in Him, but that Word can be stubbornly resisted.
We see that very stubbornness in our Gospel. While the demons were forced to obey Jesus’ commands, people were still free to behave like unbelieving, irrational swine, and in our Gospel, they did. The multitudes marveled at Jesus power over the demons, as they well might, but then you had the wicked unbelievers in the crowd who came to the ridiculous conclusion: He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.
Now, why would anybody get that idea? How had Jesus shown Himself to be an ally of the devil? They got that idea, because they didn’t know the God whom Jesus proclaimed. Jesus proclaimed God, His Father, as the holy and righteous God who demands perfect obedience to His Law—obedience that no sinner can render. He took the good, decent lives these Jews thought they were living and He showed that it wasn’t enough. They were sinners who fell short of God’s righteousness and were slaves to sin. Then, Jesus spoke of the God who had sent Him into the world to save the lost from their sins and to give them eternal life as a gift, to all who believe in Him.
That’s not the God these people knew or believed in—or wanted. They knew God wrongly. They imagined a god who judges solely on the basis of His Law, and then, since no one can keep the Law perfectly, they imagined that somewhere, somehow, God had agreed to simply overlook the sins of those who mostly keep His Law.
So when Jesus came proclaiming people to be sinners and Himself to be the Savior of sinners, these people identified Jesus, not with God, but with the devil, because supernatural power can only come from God or from the devil.
Some accused Jesus (in their hearts) of being in league with Beelzebub. Others tested Him by demanding a sign from heaven—as if casting out demons weren’t sign enough. So Jesus, in our Gospel, shows these people how foolish they were. He knew their thoughts—that was another sign from heaven! He said, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
Satan doesn’t fight against his own demons. He doesn’t cast out his allies, his friends. If Satan’s house, his kingdom, were divided against itself like that, Satan’s kingdom would have fallen to ruin long ago. But, Jesus points out, Satan’s kingdom does stand. The enemy of mankind is still around, prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. If Jesus casts out demons, then He proves Himself to be, not the ally of the devil, but the conqueror of the devil.
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus challenges these unbelieving Jews. How successful have you been at casting out demons? You claim to have God on your side, and yet how many demons have you cast out in the name of God? What’s that? None? Even if you were right, that I cast out demons by Beelzebub, I’m still doing more good for the poor afflicted people of Israel than your own people are able to do! But if I am telling the truth—if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
To illustrate His point, Jesus gives the example of a strong man guarding his house and his possessions. No one can touch him. His goods are safe and sound in his house…until a stronger one comes along and defeats him and helps himself to the things that were formerly under the guard and protection of the strong man.
The devil is that strong man, guarding the things in his kingdom. The demons cannot be cast out. Men cannot be rescued from Satan’s kingdom. Not until someone who is stronger than the devil comes along. Jesus is that someone. How do you know? Because he was helping himself to the spoils in Satan’s house, casting out demons and releasing people from Satan’s control. Even more importantly, by His blood shed on the cross Jesus would cancel the devil’s right to accuse sinners who have been baptized into Christ. Jesus’ power to cast out demons was evidence of His authority to forgive sinners their sins.
There are only two kingdoms—the kingdom of the devil and the kingdom of Christ. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. That’s an urgent warning from Jesus to flee to Him to for refuge. Jesus has appeared as the conquering hero, the conqueror of the devil and his demons, as the conqueror of sin and death. All who are condemned to death for their sins, all who have fallen short of the glory of God are called by this Gospel to flee in faith to Jesus for forgiveness and reconciliation with God. But those who will not trust in Christ alone remain in the devil’s kingdom. Those who will not confess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend their eternity with Satan.
In the last part of the Gospel Jesus explains what happens when a demon departs from a person’s heart. The demon leaves for awhile, but will eventually return to see if the heart has a vacancy for it again. If he finds the heart swept clean and empty, he’ll return with his evil friends and make things even worse for that person. In other words, there can be no vacancy in the human heart. Either it will be filled with demons or it will be filled with Christ and His Holy Spirit.
That serves as a warning for us, too. Were you baptized as an infant, or some time long ago? Did you once receive the Gospel and were rescued from the devil’s kingdom? Praise be to God! But Scripture does not teach the Baptist doctrine of “once saved, always saved,” as Jesus makes clear in this Gospel. A person can be rescued from the devil’s control and then sweep Christ out of his heart again, inviting the devil to come back and reign as king.
What do we need to stay safely in Christ’s kingdom? That’s the very end of today’s Gospel. That woman in the crowd called out, Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You! You see? This woman fell into that same wrong idea, “Once saved, always saved. Once blessed, always blessed!” But Jesus corrects her and us: More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! Not “blessed are those who hear the Word of God once and then forget it, or neglect it, or stop paying attention to it.” But “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Who continually hear the Word of God and continually guard it in their hearts, pay attention to it, believe it and hold it sacred. Where the Word of God is heard and believed, there the demon has no power. There Christ reigns, with all His blessings and all His gifts.
Again, this is why we keep coming together around Christ’s Word and Sacraments weekly and as often as possible, because through these Means of Grace Christ still drives out demons and keeps them out by filling us with Himself. He conquered them by dying for us and rising for us, and He keeps conquering them by His Word, so that you are safe and unable to be harmed by the devil. As Paul said to the Romans, If God is for us, who can be against us? Saints of God, God is for us. Christ is with us. And where Christ is, the demons cannot remain. Amen.
