The Stronger Man
Grace to you and peace from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Satan is strong.
Jesus says so here Himself. Jesus calls this Beelzebub a “strong man.” You have
seen how strong he is throughout Scripture: how he deceived Adam and Eve into
eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden; how he turned the life of Job
into a living hell, taking the lives of his children and servants, destroying
everything he owned; how he uses his minions to possess bodies and minds,
stealing the physical abilities and sanity of ordinary people; how he sought to
tempt even Jesus into abandoning His work of salvation for worldly fame and
goods. On your own, you are no match for the devil. Satan is the father of
lies, and, as Luther wrote in his hymn, “On
earth is not his equal.”
St. Luke in his
Gospel is the only writer to mention that, “when
the devil had finished, he left [Jesus] until an opportune time.” The “strong man” is persistent. He tried
three times in the wilderness temptation to turn Jesus from His journey to the
cross. Many times in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus encounters Satan’s “opportune time.” He encounters demons
and their awful work. Each time, Jesus casts them out and silences their cries.
But Satan doesn’t give up. He keeps on tempting and testing Jesus.
And if he seeks to
overcome our Lord, he certainly won’t give God’s children a pass. Satan is hard
at work in your life, too. Just as he deceived our first parents in Eden’s paradise, he seeks
to deceive you. His tools are deadly. He uses the fashions of the world to tell
you it’s no big deal to view your neighbors as eye candy. He uses the leaders
of our nation to tell you that it’s okay to murder the unborn in the name of
convenience, to tell you it’s okay to give into depraved lusts. He uses even
those who call themselves Christian preachers to tell you it’s okay to give in
to your sins, that it’s okay to ignore those things in God’s Word which you
find uncomfortable. And Satan’s temptations are appealing; if they weren’t, we
wouldn’t find them tempting. And they are
tempting—so much so that we give in to his lies and take what the Old Adam
within us desires.
So no, you are no
match for him on your own. But Christ is. He is the Stronger Man! Jesus
overcame the evil one in the wilderness through the Word of God. He cast out
demons and undid their afflictions. And finally, Satan saw his most “opportune time” arrive at the end of
Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is nailed to the Cross, and the voices of those
around Him become the mouthpieces of Satan: “He
saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God!” “If you are
the king of the Jews, save yourself!” Yes, there at Calvary,
Satan saw his most opportune time to tempt Jesus to abandon His divine mission
of salvation. But Jesus stayed the course for you. Jesus destroyed death itself
by His death. And when He destroyed death and the devil’s power, He destroyed
your sins as well. Now nothing can separate you from Jesus—absolutely
nothing. You were united with Him in his death when you were baptized,
when the Old Adam within you was drowned. At your baptism, you were asked: “Do you renounce the devil and all his
works and all his ways?” And you, probably with someone speaking for you,
replied: “I do.” There was no
neutral ground there.
Your soul was once
captive, bound for Satan’s kingdom. You were dead in your sins and an enemy of
God. But through your Baptism, the Lord Jesus snatched you away. The Stronger
Man, Jesus, plundered the strong man’s house, the devil’s kingdom of hell, and
took you as His prize. And He isn’t giving you back. You belong to Christ
forever. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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