Bible Text: St Luke 11:14–28 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
The poor man in our Gospel, who’s oppressed by a demon, is a picture of all humanity. Obviously, he’s more than that. He’s a precious human being, whom Jesus loved, and saved from horrible oppression by the devil. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t see either, according to Matthew’s Gospel. And Jesus cared specifically for him. But as you hear his story, you should see your life also. Because Jesus, after he casts the devil from him, applies what He just did for this man to all of us. He uses him as the object lesson to teach you about the devil and how you are to fight him in your life.
Take a look at this man. When we meet him, it’s not just that he can’t see. Not just that he can’t hear. It’s that he can’t see or hear very specifically Jesus. Jesus is standing right there in front of him, and he doesn’t, he can’t, even know it. But when Jesus casts that demon out, the first thing the man now sees is Jesus, the first word he hears is Jesus’ word, and no doubt the first name he confesses is Jesus.
That’s a picture of you. No one saves himself from the devil. If you trust in Jesus, if you know His love, if you look at that cross and see not simply a Roman torture device, but your salvation, where the Son of God poured out His blood and suffered to redeem you from all sin and from death and from the power of the devil, it’s not because you sought out Jesus, it’s because Jesus first sought you out. He saw you oppressed by the devil, very specifically not hearing God, not seeing Him in your life, not confessing His name, and He spoke the word and the devil fled and Jesus opened your eyes and your ears to see Him and hear Him and embrace Him as your Savior.
We say in the Baptismal rite that we are all born in sin and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own. The power of the devil is not seen simply in bodily possession. Hollywood wants you to think that way, make a caricature of the devil for horror thrills but not for real life. In the Bible Jesus is constantly casting out demons, and very rarely do we learn what specifically is wrong with the people oppressed by the devil. People assume it’s always bodily possession, but when Jesus describes the devil he describes him as a liar. His oppression of the human race is what he first accomplished in the garden with Adam and Eve, where he got them to close their ears to God’s Word (did God really say?). And Adam and Eve then hid from God, ran away from Him. That’s the oppression of the devil. That instead of being born in some neutral state, we are born deaf and blind to God and running away from Him.
We weren’t born neutral. Somewhere between God and the devil. That place doesn’t exist. Not when we’re born, not ever, throughout life. Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against Me.” There is no neutrality. No spiritual Switzerland. When you are baptized into Christ, when He claims you as His own, and gives you His Spirit, and makes His Father your Father, and forgives you, and shares with you the life He has won and His victory over the devil, Jesus is calling you to a war against the devil all your life. It’s the first question you were asked at your Baptism, “Do you renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways.” That means, do you reject him, pledge to fight against him. No neutrality here. Not before you belonged to God, and not after.
What does this fight look like? It’s a fight against sin, against what the Holy Spirit warns us against in our epistle, sexual immorality and impurity and greed and selfishness. The lie of the devil is that these will make us happy, fulfill us, but he knows and we know they will only leave us empty. When they rise up in us, and they do and they will, we fight them. We remember our Baptism. We belong to God, not the devil, and the works and ways of our God are love and self-control and faith and kindness. But when we fail, when we sin, the greatest lie of the devil is to shut our ears to the Gospel, to blind our eyes to the God who loves us, who is always ready to forgive.
And we once again see this with the man in our Gospel. The first thing he sees is Jesus, the first thing he hears is Jesus, he has a new life, everything is wonderful, but what next? What immediately next? The very next thing he sees and hears are the enemies of Jesus accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, by the power of the devil. And others demanding a sign from heaven before they’ll believe in Him. He becomes a Christian and immediately sees his faith attacked.
Did he doubt? Did his joy plummet? Think of that, the same devil who got cast out, came right back to tempt him to doubt Jesus. That’s the devil. Persistence. He will not stop. And so, like the Canaanite woman from last week, we have to be even more persistent.
And Jesus shows us how. Listen to Him. The silliest teaching that has ever entered into the Christian church is the teaching that once you are saved, you can’t lose your faith. Of course you can. Jesus casts the devil out, and the devil wants nothing more than to return. The story Jesus tells is that the demon goes out to waterless places and can’t find any rest, so he goes back to where he was before and tries to get in again. That’s Jesus telling us what should be obvious. The devil already has the world, already has unbelievers. He wants you. God took you from him. He wants you back.
The warning Jesus gives is that if the devil comes back and finds you at ease, not caring about your sin or your Savior, not warring against the devil, living as if neither God nor devil exist, then he takes with him seven more demons and comes right back and your situation becomes worse than when God first rescued you. Jesus gives the warning because He loves you. If it scares you, the idea that you could lose faith and everlasting life, good, it should terrify you. It terrifies me. But Jesus doesn’t tell you to make you despair. He says what He says to drive you to fight the devil and all his works and all his ways. Don’t treat sin lightly. Fight it, confess it, and cling to the Savior who bore it.
The man Jesus just saved needed to hear it. And we need to hear it. It’s not that we should doubt whether we will be saved, whether God will keep us Christians. Jesus promises He will keep you. He says My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them from my hands. He says not death or life or anything in between can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You can be sure of your salvation. But that surety doesn’t come from some cocky self-assurance. As if I can live in open sin, purposely do what I know I shouldn’t, not come to hear His word, and still think I’m safe and still claim to be Christian. No. That foe with hidden snares may seize me unawares, if ever I fail to watch and pray. I walk in danger all the way.
Jesus tells us why we can be confident, “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” The Greek for keep is the word for guard. It’s exactly the same word Jesus uses of the strong man who guards his house. We guard the Word of God in our lives like the treasure it is. What does that look like? First, treasure the Gospel, every single day. Never let a day pass when you don’t use your ears and your eyes and your mouth to remember God’s undeserved love for you, a sinner. He made you in His own image. He made you for Him. And when the devil ripped you away from Him, He sought you out, He joined our human race, He lived for you a perfect life that you cannot live and then suffered what your sin deserved, and He rose again to give you everlasting life. You come to church not as some obligation imposed on you by a God who requires more and more from you that you can’t give, you come to church because you hear the Word of the God who loves you, forgives you, and feeds you with the body and blood that give you life. There is a dignity and joy and security that the devil can’t rob you of. When you guard and treasure this Gospel, the Stronger man guards you and all the weapons of the devil are useless against you.
And second, treasure Jesus’ instruction. That man was deaf and mute, and the first words he hears from Jesus aren’t just Gospel, aren’t just, I love you. Instead he hears Jesus totally dismantle the lies of the devil and the unbelief of scoffers. He hears Jesus warning against the devil and against sin. And what a pleasure it was for him to hear. His Savior casting aside all arguments against the truth. And that’s your pleasure too. It’s Lent. If you’ve given something up, wonderful. Take something up too, reapply yourself to reading the Bible, praying, and praising the Lord your God. In nomine Jesu.