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Lent 3 - 2002
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read from Luke chapter 11.
Jesus in our text wants to tell us about the unity of the Church and her work of forgiving sins in His name. This is why Jesus is on the road to Calvary and the cross: to die for the sins of the whole world. By His death and resurrection, Jesus wins salvation and eternal life for all who believe in Him.
This is God’s great gift to you and to His Holy Church. But one thing is for sure, is that the Church faces great battles and struggles today both within and without. Our hymn of the day, Lord of Our Life and God of our Salvation (LW 301), speaks loud and clear to the battles that we face day by day as Christians in an unbelieving world. The message of this great hymn is that only God can give peace, and that is his message of our text as well. So let’s look at the text and see what God would say to us today.
As Jesus continues his journey toward His goal, He goes about the work of the Son of God by casting out demons and preaching to the people who will hear the Good News of forgiveness in His name. Notice that He goes to help the one who is possessed, poor and helpless. As Jesus said elsewhere, For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is great Gospel for you and I, for it shows that Jesus came to earth not to save those who think they can do it on their own. No, he came to save those who know that they cannot do it on their own, that they need a Savior. What is hard for us to understand, I think, is that this message is offensive.
On the surface, the message of Jesus does not seem so offensive. What could be offensive about For God so loved the world…and so forth? What could be so harmful about that message? Remember, though, there are two sides to this message. God sent Jesus into a sinful world to save mankind from death and the devil. But this old heart of ours does not want to give up our gods. I don’t want God to tell me that I have to forsake everything else and follow him! I don’t want Jesus to point out my sinfulness and arrogant pride! I’m quite comfortable just the way I am, thank you very much.
So were they in Jesus’ day. So when Jesus casts out a demon from a mute man so that the man can speak, there are three reactions from the people. The same is true today whenever the Gospel is preached in its truth and purity. The first reaction is amazement and faith. The second reaction is that they claim Jesus casts out demons by the work of Beelzebub, or Satan himself. The third reaction was to ask Jesus for a sign from heaven, as if casting out a demon and raising people from the dead wasn’t enough of a sign.
The first group is those who get it. They see Jesus’ work for what it is: a wondrous gift from God to a lost and condemned sinner, possessed by the devil. They see themselves in this poor man. If God will help this poor possessed man, and loose His tongue to praise God, then He can do the same for you. The Gospel doesn’t get any clearer than that.
The second group, however, make an amazing claim. They claim that Jesus is casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, or Satan himself. Now this is a more serious charge, isn’t it? Jesus is going about, forgiving sins, healing and raising people up from the dead, and these people want to charge Jesus with being Satanic!
This is often the charge against the Christian Church. God promises to forgive sins in this place. He works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe His Word and are baptized. Yet think how despised God’s Word and Sacraments are today! How many of us hear God’s Word in faith and trust every day? How many of us long for Jesus’ body and blood for the forgiveness of sins? How many of us daily remember our Baptism and what God has done for us through those waters of life? How many of us hear God’s Word of absolution, and long to have their sins forgiven? We regularly despise how God works in the world. Should it not surprise us when those outside the Church have no respect for God’s house or His work in this place?
This is a hard message, my friends, but an important one for us here in Christ’s Church. It is very easy to sit and pass judgment over the world because it despises God’s Word and the Gospel. But you do the very same thing, by not hearing His Word in faith, by how you set your priorities in life, and by both your attitude and what you place as important. When we don’t hold up Christ as the heart and center of our lives, we are saying with the Pharisees that Jesus’ work is not God’s work.
The third group is those who wish to see a sign. Wait and see, they would say. Jesus forgives their sins, the greatest miracle of all, and yet they despise it and want something more. Give me a sign that this is really what God wants, they cried. But this group really is not so different from the first. They make a show of kind of giving God a chance, but they act as if they can sit in judgment over all things. The earth is the Lord’s and all the fullness thereof, says the Psalmist. Yet this group believes that somehow they can decide whether Jesus is Lord and God or not.
In our democratic and empowerment oriented society, this is quite alluring for us. We like the idea of thinking of the Christian Church and Christ as kind of a resource or an asset that I can evaluate. Well, how is the Church doing? Is it meeting my needs? Is Jesus taking care of me, or do I still have problems in my life? Think of how tempting it is to try and evaluate Jesus and His work based on your own experience and life! But this is not the way of faith; this is the way of Satan.
Christ our Lord calls you this day and always to repent and look to Him as the source of your life and salvation. Psalmist prayed in the Introit My eyes are ever toward the Lord. This does not happen by might or power. It happens because slowly but surely, Christ strips away all of our false ideas about who He is and what He does. And what does He put in it’s place? Himself.
When we are talking about Jesus destroying death and the power of Satan in our lives, we are talking about Baptism and faith. For the two always go together. In your Baptism Jesus tore you out of the kingdom of Satan and brought you graciously into His heavenly kingdom. You are no longer under the lie of Satan, but are in God’s kingdom, holy and beloved by Him.
The forces around you are strong. At times, they may even appear as though they are winning. But they are not, because you are in Christ. Jesus gives you Himself in His holy Supper, to forgive your sins and to draw you into his wonderful kingdom. So don’t be afraid of the forces around, both within and without, that seek to draw you away from Christ. You are His child. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And His defeat of Satan is accomplished by His death on the cross for your salvation. The Church will stand in Him. The world may look for signs or claim that Jesus power comes from below, but we in Christ’s Church know different. He is the Son of God who came and still comes to claim us as His own dear children. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
Copyright © 2002 by Todd A. Peperkorn
This page was created on 02/18/2007 and last edited on: 02/18/2007