Stay close to the One who keeps the demons away

Sermon for Oculi – Lent 3

2 Samuel 22:1-7  +  Ephesians 5:1-9  +  Luke 11:14-28

Again in the Gospel today, as the last two weeks, you heard of Jesus dealing with demons. We have in our Gospel an important lesson about demons that you need to pay attention to, because even though we don’t encounter demon-possession in the same form that Jesus did, that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away or given up. People imagine that if a demon’s not twisting someone’s head around, it’s not that scary. But I tell you, the demons’ influence on false doctrine and on society is just as dangerous and worse, because an undercover enemy is able to do the more damage because he goes unnoticed. So listen to Jesus. And stay close to the One who keeps the demons away.

Maybe we should say a word about what demons are and what they do. Demons are fallen angels, spirit-creatures who rebelled against God soon after they were created and turned against both God and man. After they rebelled, God cast them out of heaven into the gloomy dungeons of hell, the everlasting fire which God prepared specifically “for the devil and his angels,” as we read in Matthew’s Gospel. But until the day of final judgment, God, for His own reasons, still allows the devil and his angels some freedom to tempt people, to influence human society, to promote false doctrine and lead people astray into false belief, and even to trouble some people mentally and physically.

How exactly these evil spirit-creatures exert their influence in the world is a mystery to us; God hasn’t revealed it. But that they do is certain.

At the same time, God hasn’t left His Church without protection. St. Paul sets out for believers the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and having done all, to stand. We’ll look again at that whole armor another time. For now, let’s see what protection our Gospel provides.

After Jesus drove out the mute demon in the Gospel, some of the crowd that saw it marveled, as well they should. No one had ever seen such power over the demons. No one had ever seen a man able to successfully command the demons to stop carrying out their wicked purpose.

But others were upset that Jesus had cast out this demon. He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Why would they say such a thing? Because they assumed they were the ones on God’s side. They were the ones teaching that God accepts people based on their works of obedience to the Law of Moses. But Jesus’ doctrine was against their doctrine. He didn’t reject the Law of Moses. But He did reject the false notion that men could actually obey it so as to be saved by it. The Gospel of Jesus was that He had come to personally fulfill the Law of Moses in the place of sinners, to suffer and die in the place of sinners, and so to destroy the works of the devil and to bestow the forgiveness of sins, not on those who kept the Law, but on those who trusted in Him for mercy.

Others wanted a sign from Jesus. As if casting out a demon weren’t sign enough! No, these people were never satisfied with any sign, as we’ll see again next week in the Gospel of the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus dismisses the accusation that He’s working together with the devil. If he’s casting out demons by the devil’s power, then it would be a sign of division in the devil’s kingdom, and the devil’s kingdom couldn’t long stand. The bad news is, the devil’s kingdom is not at all divided. It’s perfectly united in its hatred of God and man. It has been free to tempt, influence, mislead and trouble mankind since mankind first fell into sin, and it will continue raging against us until the last judgment, because that’s part of God’s curse on this sinful, God-hating world.

The good news is, God has finally stepped into human history to deal with the devil. As Jesus says, if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

To illustrate, Jesus compares the devil’s hold on mankind to a strong man, fully armed, who guards his own palace. As long as he guards it, his goods are in peace. The devil had won a great victory over mankind in leading our first parents into sin. He won the right to accuse and to trouble our race. We had no defense against his charges, no defender to fight against him, and so he wreaked havoc in the world. But God promised in the Garden of Eden that the Christ, the Seed of the woman, would bruise the serpent’s head. And here He was! Finally! The Seed of the woman, Jesus the Christ. As John writes, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. In the Gospel, Jesus compares Himself to the stronger man, who comes upon the strong man and overcomes him and takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

There are only two sides in this conflict: the devil’s side, and Jesus’ side. If you would be victorious over the devil and all his temptations and all his influence and all his false doctrine and all his troubling, you must be on Jesus’ side. Because, as Jesus says, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. With Jesus there is forgiveness and reconciliation with God and grace and favor and providence and protection. But those who are against Jesus are the devil’s prisoners, and often, the devil’s instruments.

You Christians have been called to Christ’s side, baptized into Him, freed from the devil’s kingdom and brought into the kingdom of light, freed from the devil’s accusations through faith in the Righteous One and justified through faith, freed from the devil’s lies through the truth, through the Word of God. You’ve come close to the One who drives away the demons.

But listen to the stern warning Jesus issues: When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

It’s not enough to have been baptized. It’s not enough to believe for a while, to hear the Word of God for a while, to hear the Word without listening to it and taking it to heart. The demons are ever circling, surrounding the Church of God, like lions eager to pick off the stragglers from the herd. How does one become such a straggler? Through pride, imagining that you’re standing firm, you don’t need to gather around Word and Sacrament regularly. Through indifference, so that you may well come to church, but your heart isn’t in it, you’re no longer sincere about repentance, about putting the Word into practice. Through idolatry, when you knowingly give in to temptation or when someone or something becomes more important in your heart than the Word of Christ.

Do you see how vulnerable we are to being picked off by the demons, one by one? And when that happens, when they’re successful at separating a Christian from Christ, when a heart is swept clean of the Holy Spirit and the Word of Christ, it becomes even worse for that person than it was before, as Jesus says. Some of you have witnessed this, haven’t you?

Oh, God! Preserve Your Church from the devil’s attacks! Preserve us all from straying from Christ and the refuge of His protection!

What’s the hope? What’s the solution? Is it what that woman cried out to Jesus? Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You! Are you protected from the devil by being the mother of Jesus? I hope not! Because there was only one of those. Are you protected from the devil by living close to Jesus for thirty years, as Jesus’ mother did? No, you’re not safe just because at some earlier point in your life you knew Jesus and were close to Him. What does He say? More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! That is, who keep hearing it and who keep guarding it, holding onto it as the only light in a dark place, as the only divinely-forged weapon against that ancient enemy, and walking according to it. As St. Paul wrote, You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth).

God has provided the Stronger Man to overpower the devil, yes, by casting him out, but even more, by suffering, dying, and rising from the dead. He is the same Jesus who now reigns at the right hand of God and defends His Church. But understand that this Jesus, who is the Conqueror of demons, has determined to defend His Church by means of His Word. He has sent down His Word into the world for men to hear it and to know it and to use it against the demons. This Jesus has sent down His Spirit into the world to work through the Word and to protect His people from the evil one. This Jesus has provided you with His body and blood here in the Sacrament, against which the demons are powerless. And this Jesus has bid you to pray to Him for divine protection and has promised to step in and be your Defender. You have the means to fight against the devil and to win, even as Jesus has won and stands victorious forever. Stay close to the One who keeps the demons away—Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.