The Third Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 11:14-28

In Christ Jesus, who guards us His prized possessions so closely, that He declares, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” (Joh. 10:28), dear fellow redeemed:

The “strong man” that Jesus refers to who is fully armed, guarding his own palace, and keeping his goods safe is the devil. He rules over the kingdom of darkness and death. Jesus called him “the ruler of this world” (Joh. 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). That means no earthly power, no human authority is stronger than Satan. Ephesians 6 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (v. 12).

The devil and his fellow demons are our primary enemy. Their aim is to keep us from Jesus, and in so doing to keep us from life. They want to drag us into eternal death with them. It started with the devil’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). The devil said the opposite, “You will not surely die…. [Y]ou will be like God” (3:4,5).

The devil lied. Adam and Eve were already “like God.” They were made in His image. Now they knew sin and fear. They went into hiding as soon as they heard God in the Garden. They acted like God was their enemy. He proved to be their Savior. The LORD told the devil that he could not have mankind. He had not created them; they were not his. So God would be taking them back. He said to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15).

This was a prophecy of the coming Messiah. This One would be born of woman, so that He could storm the devil’s palace and take his spoils. It was a perilous mission. Jesus was not welcome on earth. The book of Revelation describes the devil’s response to the incarnation of the Christ: “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it” (12:4). But the devil did not succeed.

That doesn’t mean he stopped trying. We heard two weeks ago how he tempted Jesus in the wilderness to give up His mission (Mat. 4:1-11). There were more attempts like these. But Jesus did not fall for his temptations. He kept on marching right through the devil’s territory, as though it were His and not the devil’s. And as He went, He took away the armor in which the devil trusted and divided his spoils.

The armor the devil wore was the power of sin and death. Seeing how successful he had been with Adam and Eve, he kept on tempting man to sin. And as soon as he catches them in his trap, he points the flamethrower of accusation against them. In the Garden, he said, “Did God actually say?” Now he says to you and me, “Does God actually love you? How could He, since you have broken all His laws?”

The incarnate Son of God is the answer to that horrible question. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (Joh. 3:16). God had the devil in His sights. 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The devil’s works include the power of death. If the devil can no longer successfully accuse us for our sins, then he can’t torment us with death either. Hebrews 2 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (vv. 14-15).

Jesus came on a rescue mission. He stood alone against the devil’s kingdom, and the devil was forced to give ground. We see this at the beginning of today’s account. Jesus cast out a demon from a man who was mute, and the man started speaking. He did this everywhere He went. He applied the power of His Word, and the demons retreated.

Jesus’ opponents accused Him of casting out demons by the power of the devil, whom they called “Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” Jesus explained how utterly foolish this would be. He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.” He was not working with the devil; He was clearly working against him. A stronger Man had come to challenge the strong man, which meant that the devil’s goods were not safe.

The devil’s goods consist of sinful human beings. You and I were once in his prison, but Jesus freed us from it by the light of His truth. That’s how He fights against the devil’s kingdom on earth. He does it by wielding “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). It is by the Word that God “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1Pe. 2:9). And it is by the Word that He keeps you in the light.

That means the last thing you would ever want to do is to step away from His Word. To do that would be to take your life into your own hands, and you already heard how you measure up to the devil—like a predator and his prey. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We step away from the powerful and protective Word of God every time we willfully sin against God. We know we shouldn’t do something, and we do it anyway. We listen to our heart instead of to Him who loves us and redeemed us.

Jesus gives an example in today’s account of someone who thinks he is safe but isn’t. He spoke of “the unclean spirit [who] has gone out of a person.” The only reason the demons leave is by the power of God. So the Lord had delivered this person, just like He delivered all of us by the power of Holy Baptism.

But the person who had the demon expelled took his new spiritual freedom for granted. He had his house—or rather his body and heart—“swept and put in order.” Life was going well for him. He was enjoying the pleasures and treasures and human measures of the world. He was not filling his heart and mind with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. So the unclean spirit returned and brought “seven other spirits more evil than itself” to enter and dwell in that person.

This is not a figure of speech or old-fashioned superstition. The demons exist, and they are constantly working to destroy your faith. A heart that is not filled with the Holy Spirit is a heart that is exposed and open to other spirits. Our modern culture may think this is foolishness, but the devil and demons are just as active today as they were in the past. And baptized believers are their special target.

This is why Jesus says, “Blessed… are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” It is not enough to hear the Word of God. We could hear it but then reject it with our mind or reject it by our intentional sinning. Jesus says we are blessed when we hear His Word “and keep it.” The word for “keep” does not mean “obey.” It means to “watch over” the Word, “guard it,” “keep it close.” It is the same word as the one used earlier in the reading for the strong man guarding his own palace and goods. We want to hold on to the Word with all that we have, guard it, and keep it close because God’s Word is the source of our faith and life.

It is by His holy Word that Jesus holds on to us. He says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Mat. 18:20). We need His presence every passing hour because only His grace can foil the tempter’s power (ELH #561, v. 6). Alone, we cannot withstand the devil’s attacks, but by the Lord’s power, we can stand. We would fall, but Jesus did not. He stayed faithful to His Father’s will all the way to His death on the cross to redeem us.

His death and resurrection are how He destroyed the work of the devil and wrenched the power of death out of his hands. The devil threw everything he could at Jesus, and everything failed. There was nothing he could do. The LORD told the devil what He would do after the fall into sin. He would send the woman’s Offspring to crush Satan’s head, and that is just what He did. Jesus defeated Satan. He booted him right off his dungy throne.

The devil knows now that he cannot overcome Jesus, so he focuses his destructive powers on the followers of Jesus. But our Lord does not leave us to fend for ourselves, just as He did not give up Adam and Eve. We are His prized possessions purchased by His holy blood. He guards us and keeps us close. He fights for us. He does not get tired of defending us, no matter how weak we are or how often we slip up. He continuously forgives our sins and places His protective armor on us through His Word and Sacraments.

He keeps speaking His powerful Word into our ears and hearts. He tells us: “I kept the holy Law of God for you. I died for you and rose again to free you from sin and death. I have called you by name. You are mine (Isa. 43:1). I will not let you go.” And we trust Him; we find refuge in Him. We see the great powers of darkness arrayed against us, but we know they are no match for our Lord Jesus. His Word will prevail. His Word stands forever (Isa. 40:8).

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from “Exorcism” woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)