Sermon for 3-3-24

Luke 4: 31-37

Lent 3, 2024

Man with unclean demons.

I.N.I.

Opening Prayer: Lord Christ, almighty Savior, we cry to You for aid against our strong enemy.  You, who are the Stronger than the strong, deliver us, we pray You, from the evil one, and take sole possession of our hearts and minds; that filled with Your Spirit we may from this time forward devote our lives to Your service, and in His gracious working among us through His Word we may find our perfect freedom; for the honor of Your great name.  Amen.

                Which do you think is more correct, “I was baptized,” or “I am baptized.”   The more correct sentence is “I am baptized.”   Now don’t get me wrong.   You won’t be charged with heresy if you say, “I was baptized,” because the Bible does speak of Baptism in the passive.     However, “I am baptized” reflects more accurately the idea of Scripture that baptism is an ongoing action of God in our lives.

Both St. Peter and St. Paul call their hearers and thus you and me, back again and again to our baptism to remind us of who we are through Christ Jesus.   In his great baptism chapter of Romans 6, Paul pits living in sin against the newness of life generated by a continual recollection of one’s baptism.   One of my favorite hymns on the doctrine of Baptism appears in A Child’s Garden of Song:

                The Gospel lesson as well as the text in front of us today again speaks of our Savior’s encounter with a demon or demons.   In these contexts, it is really impossible to speak of them without reference to baptism.   In these two lessons, Jesus performs what we would call an “exorcism,” that is, a casting out of the demon and demons.       Jesus has given the church His authority in Holy Baptism and in His Word to exorcise the demons that possess us by nature and continue to try to possess us throughout our lives.   This morning, we consider the words of our Savior:

                Our Lord never had what we might call a “Honeymoon” during his ministry.   He got people angry with Him immediately as He spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the prophet Isaiah applying the words to Himself.   Indeed, the people of Nazareth were ready to throw Him off a cliff.     Our text now says that Jesus left Nazareth and went to Capernaum and began to teach.   It is here that Jesus makes the first strikes at the people’s heart.   Our translations say, “The people were amazed at the way He taught.”

The leaders of the church taught also, but the reason the people were stricken to the heart was because they were hearing something different.   They had heard about the Law.   They had been told how many feet they could walk on the Sabbath.  They were given exacting specifications on what to eat and what to do to avoid breaking all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament.  They were told a host of other rules heaped on the people over the centuries by the Rabbi’s.

Jesus was now teaching them that their sins were forgiven, something many had not clearly heard before.    Interestingly, just before the people in the synagogue at Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off the cliff, we hear, “All spoke well of Him and were surprised to hear the gracious words flowing from His lips.”   This was the content of Jesus teaching, “gracious words,” not words of law, not words of condemnation.   The teaching of Jesus was not merely “amazing.”

The teaching of Jesus struck at their hearts, exposing their sins but calming their troubled consciences.   The reason some of the people in Nazareth wanted to throw Him off the cliff was that Jesus was using the Law, not as a pat on the back, but as the means to expose their sins.   If what Jesus said was true, their religion, their teaching was empty.   That is what made them furious.

Now, Luke also records that the people of Capernaum were “amazed” because “Jesus spoke with authority.”   The leaders of the church often appealed to the Rabbinical writings and commentaries, in other words, using the authority of man.   Jesus spoke from God’s Holy Word as He did in the synagogue of Nazareth, “He sent Me to announce freedom to prisoners, to announce the restoring of sight to the blind, to set free those who have been oppressed, to announce an acceptable year of the Lord.”

Yes, these people were stricken to the heart, perhaps for the first time in their life.   They had heard the beautiful words of forgiveness.   They had heard these words as they were lifted from the very pages of Holy Scripture itself.

What a comfort this is for us.   Jesus did not come here to push our faces into the dictates and intricacies of the many Laws of the Old Testament ceremonies.   Jesus came to set you free from those Laws and from the condemnation of the Ten Commandments.   Jesus’ teaching that took place on this day in Capernaum still reverberates through the church today as we hear Him say, “Come unto Me all you that Labor and are heavy laden.  I will give you rest.”

This authoritative teaching of Jesus is meant to strike at your troubled conscience.    More than making you amazed, Jesus means to set your hearts at ease and bring you to believe that through His righteous life and holy blood shed for you on the cross, your life of sin will never be held against you.

                Secondly this morning, the people were “struck in the heart and conscience” by a command of Jesus.     This command involved a demon, a fallen evil angel.   We are told that in the very hallowed and sacred walls of the synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit.   Sadly, the devil is comfortable even in the church.   He cried out with a loud voice.   In our versions, we read what the demon said, “What do we have in common with you, Jesus?”

     The demon was stating the he and Jesus had absolutely no common ground.    Satan and his cohorts were hell-bent on the destruction of sinners while Jesus was heaven-bent on saving sinners through His life and death on the cross.    There was no agreement on even one little point between Satan and Jesus on this issue.   This is apparent from the battle that took place in the wilderness and the battle that finally took place on the cross.

                But the demon goes on to make his confession of “faith.”   “You have come to destroy us!”       It is now interesting that the truth should come forth from the voice of a demon, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”   But He had no choice in this confession.   The devil and his angels are condemned and, in their condemnation, they must acknowledge Jesus as God.

                Now Jesus speaks not words of kindness to the demon but sharp words, “Be quiet and come out of him.”      These words are our equivalent of “Shut up and get out.”        The unclean spirit had no choice.    The demon responded, not in his own, sweet time, but immediately.   He came out of the man without doing Him a bit of harm.

                At this we hear the people say, “What kind of command is this?    With authority and power He gives orders to the unclean spirits, and they come out.”   Once again, the people were stricken to the very core of their souls.   This was not simply amazement the Jesus could pull a rabbit out of a hat.   This was the realization that this Jesus of Nazareth had power over the gates of hell itself.     Jesus merely spoke a word and the demon and all of hell had to obey.

                Once again, herein lies our comfort.   This is what Luther also meant in his hymn, A mighty Fortress is our God, “One little word can fell him.”      By nature, we are children of Satan and heirs of hell.   Even as God’s people we still feel his pull.   We give in to lust and anger.   We argue and bicker.   God tells us to get rid of all sins such as sexual sin, impurity, passion greed, anger fury malice and slander.

Yet often our life reaches into these forbidden areas grabbing on to them as Adam and Eve grabbed on to the forbidden fruit in the Garden.   We deserve the horrors of hell no less than Adam and Eve.   At this time of Lent, we should all be saying “Lord, have mercy on me the sinner.”

Jesus says to the demons, “Be quiet and come out of him.”      In Holy Baptism, Jesus has spoken the same word, not to one demon, but to all of hell’s population, “Shut up and get out.”     That is the authority that resides in the name of the Triune God.      Satan may throw you on the ground each and every day with endless temptations.   He throws you in the middle of this world as he tries to do you harm by causing you to fall into sin.   But in the end he can do you no harm.

Jesus has commanded Satan and his evil angels to come out of you through the waters of Holy Baptism.    You are the property of your Good Shepherd.  The Christian church, along with Luther, has always understood Baptism to be exorcism.   We are God’s property, freed from Satan’s bondage and bound for eternal life with Jesus.     This is how Jesus still today strikes at the hearts and consciences of sinners.   He strikes with forgiveness and mercy.

Did you lose a battle this week that haunts your conscience?   Do you often wish that you could be the kind of Christian in your heart and mind that everyone thinks you are on the outside?     So do I.   But Jesus came here for sinners.   Jesus’ preaching and teaching is for sinners not angels.

Take your conscience back to the word of Jesus in Holy Baptism; “For the Forgiveness of sin.”   Remember how Jesus dealt with the demon in our account.   There, He spoke harshly to Satan, “Shut up and get out.”   But there, He spoke to you the words of forgiveness and absolution, “Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.”     Satan and his evil angels have no power over this word.  It must and will stand into all eternity.   Go in peace.   Amen.