Lent 3, OculiJesse JacobsenTypeset
Last Modified: "Sat Feb 23 18:21:48 2008" |
1 Our Lord has no Equal
Self-determination is one of the founding principles of this country.
The founding fathers accepted in principle
that God made every human being of equal value:
No matter the race,
no matter the gender,
no matter the level of development.
Therefore, when a government is unable or unwilling
to govern with justice and protect its people with strength,
then the people may govern themselves
by the God-given right of self-determination.
It’s a noble-sounding thought,
and it gave birth to the United States.
But it can be taken too far.
I don’t mean that we should value other people
upon their race, gender, or level of development.
I mean that people want to determine their own existence
disregarding the authority of their parents and superiors,
or disregarding the authority of those who govern,
or even disregarding the authority of God.
This kind of self-determination
is rebellion against God.
That’s basically what Satan has set up.
It’s the nature of his kingdom: rebellion against God.
It’s also shown in our text, as Jesus is confronted
by “deniers” who have just seen Him perform a great miracle,
even overpowering a demon.
Rebellion has been in humanity since the Fall into sin.
Yet despite humanity’s declaration of independence from God,
Our text shows us that our Lord has no equal (on Earth, anyway).
Because He has vanquished every enemy.
Because He has won the allegiance of His own.
2 Luke 11:14–28
And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the
demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled.
But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of
the demons.” Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.
But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “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. 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.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are
in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him,
he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his
spoils. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather
with Me scatters.
“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.”
And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the
crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore
You, and the breasts which nursed You!”
But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of
God and keep it!”
2.1 Because He has vanquished every enemy.
In the last two weeks, we’ve seen Jesus’ power over the kingdom of Satan.
The Tempter could not overcome Jesus,
but Jesus overcame and cast out demons at will.
But in this text, Jesus is challenged by something quite different.
Demons are creatures of spirit,
but now flesh and bone is rising up to rebel against Him.
Somebody quietly made an accusation against Him,
claiming that He must be using the devil’s own power.
Big mistake.
The amazing thing is not that had a ready response,
but that His response didn’t include
what these deniers really deserved.
Instead of calling down God’s righteous punishment
against some who were as much as blaspheming God,
Jesus reasons with them.
Jesus’ power over demons was apparent to all who saw Him.
It says
“the multitudes marveled.”
Could that power really belong to the devil,
called Beelzebub?
Of course not! If that’s how Satan ran his kingdom,
it would be crumbling to pieces.
Jesus explained, 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?
What they had claimed was absurd!
The demons are all the devil’s followers,
doing the devil’s work.
He wouldn’t disrupt his own work. He’s not dumb.
Jesus didn’t exactly call these people dumb,
but it’s clear they should have known better.
Maybe they did know better, but were unwilling to admit it.
That would be a dangerous game,
because their eternal relationship with God is at stake.
Yet it’s easy to understand, isn’t it?
We have the same foolish pride.
What’s more, His accusers had somehow forgotten
that some of them also cast out demons.
What I’ve read about this elsewhere
said they used a different technique,
sometimes involving special herbs.
Yet, the fact remains that some of their own number
also had power and knowledge to remove demons.
Were they willing to admit that they used the devil’s power?
Jesus didn’t think go either.
But if that accusation against Jesus stood,
those others who cast out demons
would have something to say about it.
They will be your judges. He said.
You can argue with Jesus, but you can’t win the argument.
When He argues, it’s not to humiliate,
nor to score points.
When Jesus argues, it’s to win over His opponents,
so that they see the light,
and agree with the truth.
See how different this victory is
from His victory over Satan’s temptation?
Jesus did not become an angel to redeem the angels.
He became a man — a creature of flesh and blood,
to redeem all the human beings.
He wasn’t only trying to help those who were nice to Him,
but He was working to rescue everyone.
So maybe we can understand some of Satan’s hatred against us.
Maybe we can appreciate the depth of Jesus’ love for us.
But Jesus’ love is not only deep. It’s also strong.
It says clearly in Song of Solomon,
Love is as strong as death.
That is, the love of Christ for us is strong as death,
because He went far beyond words in rescuing us.
He gladly gave His life to ransom us from the grave.
In 1 Corinthians 15, it says,
He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.
The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
not only kept Him from blasting His deniers,
but it compelled Him to win for them eternal life
by the shedding of His own blood.
For God so loved the world:
this is the way He loved it.
He defeated all devils with His power,
and death with His strength.
because He has vanquished every enemy.
2.2 Because He has won the allegiance of His own.
Our Lord has no equal,
because He has also won the allegiance of His own.
We don’t know what became of the nay-sayers and deniers in our text.
It’s likely that some of them were in Jerusalem
when the crowds were demanding that Jesus be crucified.
Maybe they thought they had finally got the better of Him.
But He was suffering for them,
so that by His wounds, they might be healed.
It’s likely that at some point,
some of these doubters believed.
We know it happened with the Lord’s own brothers,
James and Jude.
It probably happened to many others.
Sometimes we see those deniers and doubters in the mirror.
If your heart is set upon something so strongly,
but seems to go all wrong,
have you been convinced that not even God can make it good?
Maybe the worldview of unbelief has begun to seem
reasonable,
moderate,
and a good compromise to keep the peace.
Why insist that the Bible is true in every word,
when we can just keep our faith in its own little box instead?
But when Jesus Christ enters,
casting out demons,
preaching Law and Gospel,
dying to redeem you,
there is no reasonable, moderate middle ground.
When He has blessed us, it must be the finger of God Himself.
Jesus is the strong man who cannot be overcome.
He cannot be beaten.
But even His warnings are meant to give us humble repentance:
He who is not with Me is against Me,
and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Jesus invites us all to gather with Him.
It’s why we assemble here weekly,
where He is physically present for us.
It’s why we bring His Word into our homes,
and continue digesting it
as we pray in the quiet moments of the day.
He invites us to Him, through His Word,
so that we all might no longer be His enemies,
but the redeemed children of God.
There is also another warning.
After we are delivered from the kingdom of Satan,
it’s still possible to end up worse than we started.
Jesus applied His warning to those who were afflicted by evil spirits.
But the same has happened in other ways through history.
Long ago, Africa had many great preachers of the Gospel,
So did the regions of Syria and Asia Minor.
Later, Rome helped to preserve the Gospel,
and still later it was Germany at the time of the Reformation.
But each of those places eventually rejected the Gospel,
and something worse than unbelief swept in.
Now, it seems to be happening in the United States.
The same has happened in the great doctrinal controversies,
about things like the deity and humanity of Christ,
about the nature of the holy Trinity, and the like:
The Church is blessed for a time with the truth,
but later the false teaching rises again even stronger.
So when you repent today, and receive the forgiveness of sins,
and when you receive the seal of our Lord’s very body and blood,
remember what a precious blessing this is for you.
Don’t take it for granted,
and by no means let go of it.
This is also what St. Paul meant when he wrote:
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who
works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
What a blessing it is to have such a Savior,
with a love as deep as the grave,
and as strong as death.
You may long to see Him face to face,
yet we have something even better for us right now: His Word.
He forgives all your sins, and so heals all your diseases,
because with forgiveness you have eternal life.
He leads you beside the still waters and restores your soul,
because His baptism wells up within us:
the water of life itself.
He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies:
the table of the Lord,
where He feeds you with His own body and blood.
As friends of the One without equal,
You are blessed indeed. We all are, just as He said:
Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and keep it!
This document was translated from LATEX by
HEVEA.