Oculi (Lent III) - Luke 11:14-28 - Februrary 28, 2016
Order of Holy Communion - Pg. 15
Hymn #263 O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe
Hymn #144 Jesus, grant that balm and healing
Hymn #500 May God bestow on us His grace
Sermon on the Holy Gospel
Hymn #263 O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe
Hymn #144 Jesus, grant that balm and healing
Hymn #500 May God bestow on us His grace
Readings
2 Samuel 22:1-7
Ephesians 5:1-9
Luke 11:14-28
Ephesians 5:1-9
Luke 11:14-28
Collect for Oculi
We beseech Thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of Thy humble servants and stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.Sermon on the Holy Gospel
Grace and peace be
unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) Jesus assumed
human flesh so that He could destroy the works of the devil. His battle against
the devil begins in the wilderness when Satan approaches Jesus to tempt Him. Jesus
soundly defeats the devil using the Word of God against Satan’s temptations and
lies. Throughout Jesus’ ministry He healed many who were demon-possessed,
releasing people from the devil’s kingdom one by one. In today’s Gospel lesson
Jesus is helping one such poor demoniac when the devil strikes again with his
lies. Some of those who witness Jesus casting out this demon say, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler
of the demons.” This is much more than mudslinging. This is one of Satan’s
favorite tactics, to ascribe the works of God to the works of the devil. It is
the height of blasphemy to accuse the Son of God as being in league with
Beelzebub. Yet we see this tactic of Satan often. That which God calls good in
His Word, the devil calls evil. That which God calls evil in His Word, the
devil suggests is good. So these men who are in league with Satan by virtue of
their unbelief engage in this terrible blasphemy. Blasphemy is usually
ridiculous and ignorant and this time is no exception. Jesus points out the
absurdity of such a claim. “Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a
house falls. If Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom
stand?” Satan cannot work against Satan. It would be counterproductive and
destructive to the growth of his kingdom. These men suggest that Jesus’ work is
nothing but devilish pageantry and choreography from Hell so as to distract
from the true deception; claiming the good works of God are really evil. That
deception is a far more potent poison in the minds of men. Calling God’s works
evil and Satan’s lies good is a most effective strategy for Satan to claw his
way into hearts of men.
2) Jesus goes on to
debunk their façade. “If I cast out
demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” He
drills His point deeper. If Jesus is a tool of the devil in casting out demons,
then what does that say about Jewish exorcists? There were itinerant Jewish
exorcists. St. Luke tells us about the seven sons of the High Priest Sceva in
Acts 19. What made Jesus different from them, or any other Jewish exorcist for
that matter? Therefore their own sons would judge them for their blasphemy
every time they exorcised a demon. Jesus doubled down once more, saying “But I cast out demons by the finger of God,
surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Having demonstrated the
foolishness of their blasphemy, He tells them exactly who He is and how He is
able to do such things. He casts out demons by the finger of God. That phrase,
“the finger of God,” is used of two phenomena in during the Exodus. The first is a plague, the second I when the Lord uses His finger to write
the commandments on the stone tablets. The first is when “Aaron stretched out his hand with
his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast” (Exodus 8:17). The
Egyptian magicians attempt to replicate the plague. When they could not the
conceded to Pharaoh “This the finger of
God” (Exodus 8:19). The Finger of God is His the tiniest bit of His power,
especially when one considers how often the Lord saves with His mighty,
outstretched arm. Jesus casting out demons is just the tip of the iceberg, the
smallest digit of the power of almighty God. These Jews accuse Jesus of being
the devil when in reality He is using only the tip of divine power.
3) In case they are too think to get it, Jesus goes on. “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.” The devil is the
strong man, fully armed, who guards his own palace, keeping his goods in peace
and safety. He keeps men in the shackles of their sin. He keeps them bound in
thralldom by incessant and persistent temptation. He imprisons them in guilt
over their sins and shame of who they are because of their sins, continually
accusing sinners. Sinners are the devil’s goods that he holds in peace through
his deep guile and great might. This makes Him the strong man, holding humanity
in his kingdom. But when a stronger man comes upon him and overcomes him, then
the jig is up. The stronger man comes and strips the strong man of his armor
and rescues the spoils. The Only-Begotten Son of God, the second person of the
Holy Trinity, assumed human flesh so that He could meet the strong man on his
own turf, entering into his own palace, to disarm him. Jesus strips Satan of
his armor, which is his lies and deceptions which captivate the minds of men.
Jesus exposes the lies of Satan for what they are. He shows men they cannot
save themselves through their works and morality. Christ shows men they cannot
aid God by their strivings and their decisions. Jesus destroys Satan’s
temptations, showing them for what they really are, while silencing His
accusations by forgiving sins and giving His righteousness to sinners.
4) He breaks Satan’s power by forgiving sins. He removes the
devil’s accusations by filling the ears of penitent sinners with His
absolution. He still does this daily by sending the Holy Spirit into men’s
heart through His Word. Through that Word He creates faith in men’s hearts so
that they believe the promise of the Gospel. That faith, created by the Holy
Spirit through the Gospel justifies men before God so that Satan now has no
claim to all who believe and are baptized. St. Paul tells us that “He has delivered us from the power of
darkness and conveyed us into
the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). By giving us faith in
the Gospel and forgiving our sins He snatches us from the devil’s clutches and
transfers us into His kingdom of grace where we possess every blessing. Faith
in Christ makes all who believe into sons of God where they had once been sons
of disobedience, children of wrath, belonging to the devil. Anyone who works
against Christ, or works in His name for anything other than that forgiveness
of sins, scatters instead of gathering, and works against Him rather than with
Him.
5) Christ then speaks a word of warning to those who believe
the promise of the Gospel. He uses this illustration: “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.” The point of the illustration is that once Christ casts out a
demon, whether during His earthly ministry or through His Gospel in the church
by forgiving the sins of men, the devil does not give up. Once Satan is cast
out of the heart in Holy Baptism, he does not simply concede defeat. Once a sin
is confessed, absolved, and put away, does not mean that the devil will stop tempting
with that particular sin. He does the opposite. When sin is confessed and
forgiven, Satan doubles down with that very sin, exposing the Christian to more
fiery temptations involving that sin. Once sin is put away and striven against,
Satan turns up the heat of the fiery furnace, trying to reignite the lusts and
desires of the sinful nature. He may, “go
through dry places, seeking rest” for a brief time. He will always come
back though. And if the Christian is strong in faith and Christ’s gifts, the devil
will often go fetch seven other spirits in order to overcome the Christian
through temptation, accusation, and false belief. If the Christian falls back
into sins, especially if he willingly walks into such sins, then his state is
worse than the first. St. Peter echoes this when he writes that “if, after they have escaped the pollutions
of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they
are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than
the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20).
6) So the Christian must remain ever vigilant
against the schemes and wiles of the devil. He is prowling lion, lurking around
every corner, waiting to entrap you in your desires and to allure you into
false security so that you say, “I am forgiven, therefore I am fine and don’t
have to watch and pray against temptation.” False security, cockiness, and over
confidence in oneself is deadly to the soul since the devil is waiting for any
opportunity to pounce, dragging Christ’s Christians back into sin and an evil
conscience. When the woman from the crowd shouts, “Blessed is the womb that
bore you and the breasts that nursed you,” Jesus finishes His sermon. “More
than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” There
is no blessedness, especially in the face of the adversary the devil, except
for the blessedness of hearing the Word of God and keeping it. There is no
blessedness of the Christian outside of being watchful in prayer, contemplating
the Word. The Word is your sure defense against the devil’s schemes. The Word
is your sword of the Spirit by which you deflect temptation. Faith in the Word,
in Christ and the promise of the Gospel, that is the shield of salvation by
which you extinguish his fiery darts. Beware false security. Beware the devil’s
deceptions. “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”
Amen.
May the peace of God, which
passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.