Lent 3 Service
Lent 3 | St. Luke 11:14-28
Now [Jesus] was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But
he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
This text has some arresting details in it, right? There’re demons involved. There’s violence; some real headline-grabbing stuff. And then there’s this little thing that appears to be tacked on at the end of all of it: an exchange between Jesus and a certain woman.
That’s what we’re really going to be looking at this morning.
Just as Jesus’ message to His friend Martha one time had been that the one thing that is needed is His Word, so also to the woman in our text. He says it like this: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
We see in this text that Jesus is the all-powerful God Who overpowers our most powerful enemy, Satan. Jesus even talks about Satan as a strong man—a bully, kind of—who guards his own palace. It might be surprising to hear Him talk about Satan having that much power in this world. But Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world in John’s Gospel (12:31). St. Paul called this world the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13); so it isn’t so surprising to see Satan pictured this way in our text, as having control over people, who are helpless before him according to their own power.
But Jesus calls Himself, one stronger than he, who attacks [the strong bully] and overcomes him [and] takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Certainly, that’s what Jesus did through an unlikely sort of victory by means of a cross and grave. Through His own innocent death (as foreshadowed in the Old Testament sacrifices), He removed Satan’s power over us. He released us from imprisonment (the possessed man reminds us of the imprisonment, doesn’t it?). In the same way that that man who’d been helpless was now free—free to speak, to praise God, so also are we set free from our slavery to sin and death. We are free to be the Lord’s people, forgiven through the blood of Jesus. Our freedom is an eternal freedom in God’s kingdom.
But our enemy, Satan, remains a dangerous enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, St. Peter writes (1 Peter 5:8).
What this means in your life is that he tempts you to sin against God, and aims to separate you from Him in this way, paralyzing you with guilt and fear. He knows those things that make you vulnerable like your first mother Eve was in the Garden. He works on those things. If it’s sexual things, he’ll work on those. If it’s a struggle you have forgiving someone who has wronged you, that’ll be it. It’s greed for some people—wanting more and more of what they haven’t been given. Some have a tendency to judge other people, or to gossip about them. Satan hopes that the result him getting you to sin on a regular basis will be that you’ll either stop believing that God will forgive your sins, or at least that you will stop caring about whether or not He will.
We must take very seriously Jesus’ statement in our text about our dangerous enemy. The impression we get about the person who, having been released sees the enemy return much more powerfully, is that he was complacent. He didn’t consider there to be any real threat. There wasn’t any need to take any precautions. And, the enemy came back and took over. Jesus is warning that that can happen to you, even though you sit here this morning as His people, eager to hear His Word.
Keeping that Word is the key to all of this, even though it seems, again, like some little thing that was tacked on to the end of the text. When Jesus talks about keeping His Word, you should think about what St. Luke writes of Mary—Jesus mother, after hearing the shepherds’ words about what had been told them concerning the Christ-child, it says: Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart (2:19). It says the same about her when Jesus and His parents were returning to Nazareth from being at the Temple in Jerusalem when He was twelve: And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart (2:51). Keeping God’s Word is treasuring it. It’s considering it to be something so valuable that you’d never want to be without it.
It’s not hard to understand why Jesus would want you to treat it that way. It’s through that Word that the Spirit brought you to faith—connected you to Jesus as your Savior (The Spirit works through the same Word in Baptism as well, of course). The Word brought you to the realization that you’re a sinner in need of God’s grace. Even though that isn’t a happy realization, you have to say along with St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (Chapter 7), that the law is good. Through it you recognized that you had a problem that needed solving, and for which you had no answer. God wouldn’t accept you as you were by nature. You were apart from Him, having inherited sinfulness from your first parents.
But even as you, in a way (a’ la Paul), treasure the realization of your need as a result of knowing the law, you treasure in that same Word the good news of what meets that need. God has made you righteous in His Son. He has been kind to you in the most profound way. When you needed someone who could overcome the bully who owned you, God sent His only-begotten Son as that stronger man. He overcame the strong man by laying down His own life for you (Talk about a message to treasure!). God says in that treasured word, through the prophet Isaiah: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (1:18). He’s talking about your heart that had been stained because of your sinfulness—unsuitable for God’s kingdom. In Christ, it has been made as pure as anything could be. This is the Word of God that, heard attentively, and kept gratefully, makes one blessed.
So, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” He says in this text: Whoever is not with me is against me. Keeping His Word is what it is to be with Him. Through the Word the Spirit sustains your faith. Keeping the Word is being blessed, is being connected to the Savior, is having faith that remains unto eternal life.
But it might make you uneasy to hear it said that being against Christ is as easy as not keeping—not treasuring, not being devoted to His Word continually. Against Christ is certainly not where any of us wants to be; but as you have strived to keep (to treasure, to devote yourself to) Christ’s Word, the strong man (your greatest enemy, Satan) has prowled around with it as his intention to get you to devote yourself to anything other than Christ’s Word. You need “you time,” he’s said. Christ’s Word’ll still be there. Your devotion to it’ll be all that much greater if you put it aside for a while and explore some other things. Then, you can come back to it fresh, having grown in other ways in the mean time. He’s clever, isn’t he? But the growing that happens is a growing apart from God. When you aren’t being continuously counseled by God, the domain of darkness is providing your counselors. That counsel is the poison that leads away from God’s kingdom and toward the death and punishment that we all deserve for our sins.
But your faith is in the Stronger Man. He demonstrated His complete devotion to God’s Word as He was experiencing your temptation from Satan in the wilderness. He wouldn’t hear of anything other than that Word. Each time He quoted it faithfully against the bully who sought to overcome Him, He was making amends for every unfaithfulness on your part in regard to God’s Word, and in every other matter. There isn’t any sin or anything that excludes you from God’s kingdom so long as Christ is your Savior. He is more powerful than your most powerful enemy. His Word is your daily strength.
Let that Word bring joy to you this morning as you receive from Christ His true body and blood along with bread and wine in the Supper. He says to you that what He gives you is for the remission of your sins. The strong man had hoped to be dealing with you alone, without Christ, like a lost lamb apart from the flock—weak and vulnerable. Instead, he deals with you as you stand behind the Stronger One, fortified with the food of immortality. Under these circumstances, the bully who was a very real threat to you is entirely disarmed and at the mercy of the most powerful one Whose blood is your forgiveness and salvation. God be praised. Amen.
Other Lessons:
2 Samuel 22:1-7
David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. I call upon
the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
“For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of the grave entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon
the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.
Ephesians 5:1-9
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this,
that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).