Rev. Charles Lehmann + Oculi + Luke 11:14-28
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Jesus has always said the same thing to Satan, and it has always been
completely unequivocal. He says, “Let my people go.” He spoke it through
Moses in Egypt, and in today's Gospel reading, He speaks it to the unclean
spirit as He casts it out. Our Lord does not negotiate with demons. He does
not hold a diplomatic summit and put each human soul on the negotiating table.
Every human being belongs to Jesus. He created them. He breathed into their
nostrils the breath of life. He shed his blood for them.
Satan is the implacable enemy of the Lord's people. He is your enemy. He
is the “old evil foe” who “now means deadly woe.” When we pray that the Lord
would frustrate the ways of our enemies, we are asking him to destroy sin,
death, and the power of the devil. Satan has been murdering people ever since
the dew of creation was still wet upon the ground.
So far, he's batting a thousand. Every human being who has ever walked the
earth has either died or is on their way to the grave. The devil manages to
kill some before they are even born. And so, Jesus doesn't waste any time
playing nice with the devil. Though Jesus is rich in grace and mercy toward
you and me, He has no patience for Satan. What our Lord demands of the devil
is simple and straightforward both in Egypt and in today's Gospel reading.
“Let my people go. Do it now. No negotiations. No questions. No delays.
Let them go now.”
Satan must obey his lord and creator, but that doesn't stop him from
complaining about it. After the Lord casts out the mute spirit, Satan tries to
turn Christ's victory over him into a defeat. Speaking through the mouth of
the unbelievers, Satan says, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of
demons.” This is a lie, of course. Satan knows very well that he's been
beaten. But he doesn't want people to believe that Jesus is the same Lord who
said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” Satan doesn't want anyone to know that
his reign of terror is over.
Satan wants the Jews to think that Jesus is working for him. He wants them
to believe that the demons only obey Jesus because Jesus is possessed by the
“prince of demons.” If Satan can convince people that Jesus works for him,
then he can also convince them to ignore His words. He can make the cross into
the moment of Jesus' greatest shame instead of the moment of His greatest glory.
Satan doesn't want you to believe that Jesus has come to crush his power
forever. He doesn't want you to recognize that when Jesus casts out demons
that He is speaking a definitive word of “Let my people go.”
When Jesus spoke this word to Pharaoh, Egypt was an earthly instrument of
Satan's power. Pharaoh commanded the greatest military the world had ever
seen. The monuments that he, his ancestors, and his descendants built still
stand to this day. No one in Pharaoh's time dared to question his power or to
challenge his authority. He was completely secure. He thought nothing of
ordering the murder of thousands. Satan had so filled Pharaoh with pride, that
he believed that no one could ever oppose him. Pharaoh wouldn't have ever
guessed how Jesus was going to save His people from slavery in Egypt. If he
had, he would never have ordered that every baby Israelite boy be thrown into
the Nile.
By any standard, Pharaoh was a strong man. And, in those days, people
thought that military power was a direct extension of divine power. They
thought that Pharaoh was strong because his gods were strong. But Pharaoh's
“gods” were not gods at all. They were demons, creatures claiming to be
creators. But the unrivaled might of Egypt convinced people of every nation
that Ra, Anubis, Set, Osiris and the rest of the so-called Egyptian gods
controlled the destiny of the whole world.
But Pharaoh's power was far from divine. His priests served at the altars
of demons. It is for this reason that the book of Exodus tells us that the
true God, the creator of heaven and earth, executed judgment not just against
Pharaoh but also against all the gods of Egypt. Pharaoh thought that he ruled
the greatest empire that the world had ever known. But Pharaoh was really only
a slave in his kingdom. The real strong man in Egypt was Satan, and he guided
every murder committed by Pharaoh's soldiers and every cruelty inflicted by
Pharaoh's taskmasters.
Satan attacked the Israelites because God's promise rested on them. Jesus
had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that through their line He would take
on human flesh. Satan's murders in Egypt were a futile attempt to kill God.
Satan knew that it was the sin of a man, Adam, that had corrupted all creation
and enslaved it to death. He wanted to kill the man who would save all people
from their sin. But he failed. Satan is powerless in the face of God's love
for His creation. He cannot stop the Lord from accomplishing His good
purposes. He couldn't do it through Pharaoh, and he would fail again when he
tried it through Herod fifteen hundred years later.
When Jesus called Moses to deliver His people, He spoke these words: “I
have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard
their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have
come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up
out of that land to a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Our Lord tells us in Luke that the strong man is only secure until the
stronger man has come. Jesus Christ executed judgment against Pharaoh and all
the gods of Egypt, and in today's Gospel reading He cast out a spirit that had
taken a man's voice from him. In today's epistle, Paul speaks of the demonic
attacks that God's people face today. Sexual immorality, covetousness, and
filthy joking all come from the evil one. They are all ways by which Satan
tries to draw you away from your Savior and turn you in on yourself. They turn
us all into little Pharaohs who think that we rule our own little kingdom, but
instead have become slaves to satanic power.
There is only one way to obey the Lord's command to walk as children of
light. We must hold onto Christ and all of His promises. He will speak His
word to every demon that attacks you and tries to hold you in its dominion.
Jesus will say to the demons who attack you today what He has always said to
them. “Let my people go. These saints are mine. I have washed them in my
blood. They are free from sin, death, and every evil. I have crushed your
power on the cross.”
Jesus is the stronger man, but when He stormed the gates of hell He did it
in the weakness of human flesh. Pharaoh, Herod, and the devil whom they served
failed to kill the Messiah in the land of Goshen and in the streets of
Bethlehem, but the Lord won His greatest victory when He let Satan think that
he had won. He won it on the cross.
Satan spoke with the lips of Pharisees, Sadducees, and all the leaders of
the Jews. He mocked Jesus with Jewish mouths and Roman spittle. He drove
nails through our Lord's holy flesh. He thought that when the true God was
suffering and dying on the cross that he had finally won. He thought that he
had foiled God's plans forever and claimed all people for the fires of hell.
But the fire of God's holy wrath was poured out on His Son, and the
sentence of eternal death that we deserved was served by Jesus. When your
Savior died on the cross to forgive all of your sins, He gave you His Spirit.
The words, “It is finished” were a final and complete “Let my people go,” that
Satan absolutely has to obey.
Your God is a mighty warrior. His weapon is the wood of the cross to which
He was nailed. He dressed for battle in a crown of thorns. He won His victory
by dying in your place.
Satan is defeated. His power is forever vanquished. The strong man is
bound, and the stronger man, Jesus, has won the victory. And your Lord comes
to you today with His gifts of life and salvation. Eat His body. Drink His
blood. Receive the life that He won by His death. He is risen and you too
shall rise. Life and salvation are yours forever.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://chaz-lehmann.livejournal.com
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