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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Lent 3


Luke 11:14-28 - Oculi Sunday - March 23, 2014
Blessed Jesus, King of Grace
After Jesus had been tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days, God sent angels who came and ministered to him (Matthew 4:11).  They strengthened him for his long journey to the cross where he would do even greater battle with the devil.  When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that, if it be his Father’s will, the cup might pass from his lips, an angel came and ministered to him and strengthened his resolve to drink it up (Luke 22:43).  So much was his resolve strengthened to fulfill what God wanted that he sweat drops of blood as he prayed, “Thy will be done.” 
His angels served him.  They served him in the weakness of his human flesh by strengthening him with the word of God for the mission he was sent to fulfill.  This mission was for the Son of God to suffer and die on the cross in order to save sinners.  Nothing could stop him.  His angelic servants fought for him by keeping him in all his ways (Psalm 91:11). 

Peter tried to fight for him in a different way. He cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant, as soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the garden.  Remember?  Peter was too tired to pray with Jesus; oh, but he had plenty of energy to fight for him.  He thought he was serving his Lord.  But Jesus rebuked him.  “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53).  But Scripture needed to be fulfilled.  Jesus must drink the cup.  He must go forth to bear the world’s sin and endure God’s anger against those whom God loves.  The Father provided angels alright.  But Jesus’ servants did not keep him from harm.  No, they urged him into it.  
Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting so that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). 
Angels are servants of God’s kingdom.  Christ’s servants fight for him in a strange way.  They serve him by leading him safely into danger, so to speak, to where Jesus binds himself and gives his own life.  He is our King.  He rules.  And if his servants fight for him in an unworldly way, it is because he rules over us in an unworldly way—not with threats and punishments as earthly kings must do, but by forgiving us, and giving to us an inheritance in heaven that this world can neither contain nor tax. 
The reason Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world is not simply because heaven is where he comes from, or because that is where he takes us – although this is true.  But the reason he rules and guards and defends us in such an unworldly way is because our enemy is not of this world either.  We do not contend against flesh and blood, but an evil spirit.  The devil is a fallen angel who no longer serves God, but now fights against God.  He fights against God by claiming what belongs to God.  First at creation – and even now with his new creation.  The devil seeks to take and possess that which God has created and redeemed as his own through the blood of Christ. 
The devil is the prince of this world, because he holds under his sway the affections and desires of natural man, that is, of our flesh, the old Adam that we still drag around with us in this world.  The devil won the devotion of our flesh by deceiving our first parents in the garden.  He entices our devotion still in the same way by promising what our fallen flesh desires. 
But he lies.  The devil cannot make or create anything on his own.  He can only use and pervert what God has made to be good.  He promises satisfaction, but the pleasures he offers only leave us bitter in the end.  The word “devil” means deceiver.  The devil does what he does by telling lies.  He takes the truth and twists it into half-truths and falsehoods.  He denies and contradicts God’s word.  That’s what he’s been doing from the beginning, and in this way, he murders souls by cutting them off from the Holy Spirit. 
This is what we’re up against – a powerful enemy who wants us to share in his eternal damnation.  And his tactic is really quite simple, if not brilliant.  He fulfills his name as devil by deceiving us away from God’s word.  He does this through both false doctrine and unholy living.  Then once he has gotten his prey soiled in shame or even addicted to some vice, he then fulfills his name as Satan.  This name means accuser.  He accuses us of the very sins that he tempts us to commit.  This must mean you are not a child of God, he says.  What kind of Christian does this or that?  What kind of Christian actually falls into such a terrible habit?  What kind of Christian – see what he does?! 
He covets what belongs to God.  He wants to claim you whom God has made his own in Holy Baptism.  And so he seeks to disarm us of God’s word so as to leave us defenseless in our sin.  He tempts us either to ignore God’s law so that we imagine our sin to be no big deal.  Or he tempts us to ignore God’s gospel so that we imagine our sins to be too great for God to forgive.  He tempts us to believe that prayer is a waste of time or that it takes too much energy.  All of the devil’s tactics consist in this: that he tears us away from the word of God.  And his tactics work! 
The devil targets Christians above all!  And Christians who remove themselves from hearing God’s word preached to them on Sunday morning – either by being absent or by not listening or by not caring – are targeted by the devil and fall easy prey to his tricks.  The devil persuades them to imagine that because their life appears to be in order, they are not in danger.  They figure they have their faith, they have membership at a reputable church, they are living pretty decent lives and decent people respect them as Christians, so what’s the big deal if I’m not so regular in church attendance?  What’s the big deal if I ignore the sermon or zone out during the prayers and hymns?  What’s the big deal if I am not listening to what the Holy Spirit has inspired?  The big deal is that the Holy Spirit will leave.  The Spirit of God who works faith in our hearts does not stick around in the heart that ignores what the Spirit speaks.  He leaves.  Saving faith is lost and is replaced by all the false opinions that we are bombarded with every day in the world.  When the heart is swept clean and put in order, then the devil returns with even more evil spirits than before they first believed.  The word Jesus uses for “put in order” is where we get the word for cosmetics.  It is when Christians cover up their lives as though they are just fine without hearing God’s word.  But we need God to wipe off our spiritual makeup and reveal our need for Jesus.  Only then can we truly pray, “Thy kingdom come.” 
God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit so that by his grace we believe his holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.  So we confess in the Small Catechism.  This is what we need, because the devil’s kingdom is already here.  And it is strong.  We cannot defeat the devil on our own.  As Martin Luther has taught us to sing:
That old evil foe
Now means deadly woe.
Deep guile and great might
Are his dread arms in fight.
On earth is not his equal. 
On earth is not his equal.  We are not equal to the task.  We cannot fight off the devil with a church membership card and a confirmation certificate.  We need God’s word.  That is why Jesus fights.  That is why the Word became flesh.  Jesus came to redeem humanity.  That is why He took on humanity’s very nature and lived a perfect life in our place.  When this happened in time, when heaven opened up and the Son of God descended, then in its fury, all hell broke loose—literally.  If the devil hates God, and so wants to harm those whom he loves, never has there been greater demonic activity on the earth than when God walked the earth as a man.  That is why the four Gospels are filled with so many stories of demonic possession.  It was not superstition on their part.  It was not their medical or psychological ignorance that attributed such maladies to evil spiritual forces.  No, the devil is real; his demons are real.  And Jesus encountered the havoc they caused everywhere he went. 
The miracle that begins our Gospel reading this morning is an example of Jesus’ mercy.  He did not come to earth just to destroy the power of the devil for his own sake as though to square away an old grudge.  He came to destroy the power of the devil over the people whom he loves.  He takes it personally for our sake.  He made our battle his own when he personally made our flesh and blood his own.  Jesus’ miracle shows this to be the case in a wonderful way. 
Jesus loved the man who could not speak.  Matthew records the fact that he was blind as well.  He had no way to call out for mercy.  He had no way to hear him coming.  He had no way to see where he was.  But Jesus saw his need.  He saw a child of God tortured by the enemy of God.  He saw his heart afflicted by utter helplessness and despair.  He saw a poor sinner who had no question about who his enemy was.  And so Jesus cast out the demon and healed him so that he might see his truest friend, and so that he would hear what he taught and even speak of the wonderful thing he had done. 
The demon tried to cut this man off from Christ, but Christ broke in and reclaimed that man as his own.  The demon was stronger than the man.  But Christ is stronger yet. 
Jesus takes your struggle personally too.  He loves you.  The devil is strong.  He guards what he thinks is his.  He uses our grudges, pride, sexual lusts, covetousness, envy, vanity, and laziness to keep us in his kingdom.  He is not flesh and blood, but he knows how to push our flesh and blood buttons.  He belongs in hell, but he sits in the heavenly places presuming to speak to our conscience as though he were God.  But he is not.  Jesus is God.  And Jesus binds the strong man and takes what is his by taking all his weapons away.  That is to say, Jesus defeats the devil and leaves him powerless to harm us.  He redeems us from our sin by shedding his innocent blood on the cross.  He endures the just condemnation of his Father in heaven.  He pays our price.  He washes us clean by water and his holy word so that we might stand beside him as children of light in his kingdom, holy and righteous forever.  Jesus is the stronger man who strips the devil of his armor and weapons by taking away his ability to accuse.  And having peace with God, we are also enabled to resist his wiles.  The kingdom of Satan topples.  And the kingdom of Christ is established in our midst.  Through the word we gather to hear and the sacrament we receive together, we are armed and fortified. 
And how do we fight?  We preach Christ crucified! 
Nothing riles the demons more than this message of victory for us.  Even more than Christ walking the earth, when Christ’s servants preach the gospel in its truth and purity and administer his sacraments according to his command and promise, the hordes of hell foam with fury.  All hell breaks loose when we hear and proclaim the gospel in our sermons and hymns.  The world rages.  The more boldly we confess the more we lose the favor of our dying culture, the more the devil looks to be winning, and the more oppressive his attacks become – the more lonely we feel as Christians.  It’s hard to watch; it’s hard to live through.  But we tremble not.  We fear no ill.  God is with us: Jesus our Immanuel.  He is here for us in his word.  That is why we make it our regular practice to gather here as Christians where through the forgiveness of our sins we witness the devils’ defeat.  And so we witness our victory, we rejoice with a good conscience that we are blessed forever by God almighty, and as faithful servants of his kingdom, we guard the word his Spirit teaches us with our life and honor.
In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

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