Lent 3—Oculi
Beloved. In today’s Gospel, Jesus expresses that one simple truth that we see fulfilled all down through the ages: when it comes to Jesus, a person is not and cannot be neutral. The one who is not with me is against me. The one who does not gather with me scatters. Jesus is that great divide, just as St. Simeon prophesied of Him in the temple 40 days after Jesus was born [Lk 2.34]: Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. Many would fall, stumble over Jesus because He is not the type of Savior that they would be looking for; many would rise because through faith in Him they would receive every heavenly spiritual blessing and joy. Still today, it is impossible to be neutral toward Jesus. One cannot take a “wait and see” attitude toward Jesus; either He is who He says He is—and His works and preaching show this—and He is to be believed, or He is a liar or lunatic, whose claims are to be rejected. And if one claims to be neutral toward Jesus, that is rejection of Jesus because, after all, that is rejection of Jesus and His claims that He is the Son of God and Savior of the world.
What do we see in today’s Gospel? The rejection of Jesus: Jesus drove out a demon, which was mute. After the demon had gone out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Jesus had just done a great sign/ miracle so that there could be no doubt about who He was. Some believed and some rejected, even coming up with some illogical reason to reject Jesus against their better knowledge—that He was working in league with the devil. The great question that each of us personally must answer—and Lent gives us an excellent opportunity to examine heart and life is the question Jesus asked His disciples [Mt. 16.15]: But who do you say that I am?
Today’s Gospel reading once again drives home the theme that we have been seeing throughout these first weeks of Lent: Jesus vs. the devil. Last week we saw Jesus cast out a demon of the Gentile woman’s daughter; this week He also cast out a demon; and the first week in Lent we saw Jesus overcome the devil and the worst of the temptations he could throw Jesus’ way. With each of these—and many other accounts in the Gospels—Jesus is showing His superiority to the devil. It is not as if God and the devil are equal and one time God comes out on top and the next time the devil does. No! Whatever Jesus—the true God who is also true man—says, the devil and his demons must obey. So with each of these accounts when Jesus casts out a demon—like He does in today’s Gospel—what is Jesus doing? Among other things, He is showing that He is the almighty God who has come to destroy the devil’s grip on humanity, to destroy his kingdom; He is showing that He will be successful in His work. When a strong man [that’s the devil], fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger [that’s Jesus] attacks him and defeats him, he takes away that man’s full armor, in which he had trusted, and divides up his plunder.
This image Jesus uses of the strong man/ the devil guarding his possessions but of the One stronger than him coming—Jesus Himself—and plundering and taking what the strong man/ the devil claimed as his own is an image from the OT. It is an image of God and His work. Listen to what the Lord spoke through the OT prophet Isaiah: For thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. With each casting out of a demon, Jesus is showing the devil and the world that He is the true God who has come into the domain of Satan and will destroy and undo his work and rescue us captives of the mighty…and the prey of the tyrant. That’s why Jesus came into this world and was born that first Christmas.
Jesus Himself calls the devil “the ruler of this world” [Jn 12.31; 14.30. By the sin of our first parents, sin and death have come into the world. We are all born guilty and in sin; we are slaves to sin, to doing the will and desire of the devil and our own sinful corrupt human nature. Being slaves of sin, we then are slaves to death and hell. As the ruler of this world, the devil would lead us from one sin into another. And at the end of our life he would come to take his prey. After a lifetime of sin, death awaits us and eternity in hell in everlasting torment. That’s the grip the devil, the ruler of this world, would have on the world and all people. Left to ourselves and our own devices, we would be born sinners, live as sinners, die as sinners and be eternally condemned in hell as sinners. Left to ourselves, none of us could escape; none of us could live even a day or hour and perfectly do God’s will. There would be no hope for us. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe—the fact that Jesus states in the Gospel. Or, as the question is raised in our text: Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
The devil is that mighty man and the tyrant and we—the world, all people—are the prey and captives. This is absolutely vital that we understand this; that we understand our true spiritual condition—that left to ourselves, there’s no way we could save ourselves, or using the imagery of our text, escape or slip away from the devil’s grasp. So that we understand our true spiritual condition, we have the blessed penitential season of Lent. Let us use it rightly and honestly by earnestly examining heart and mind, will and conscience. Let us see our sin and how firmly we would be grasped in the devil’s kingdom. Let us see our inability to escape/ save ourselves from the devil and his hellish kingdom and rule.
The question of our text sounds like ours is an utterly hopeless position, that there can be no hope of help and rescue. It seems impossible that that the weak should escape from the mighty. And that is true. But what? When a strong man [remember: that’s the devil], fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger [remember: that’s Jesus] attacks him and defeats him, he takes away that man’s full armor, in which he had trusted, and divides up his plunder. What we can’t do on our own, what we are too weak to do, God has done for us!
We use Lent rightly when recognize our situation and long all the more for a Savior from our sin and rejoice that Jesus, the true God, has come into this world to do the seeming impossible and rescue us from the devil’s kingdom. Remember our text: For thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. The Lord will come and the Lord will save. That is His pure grace and mercy toward us! In grace He looked on us captives of the mighty…and the prey of the tyrant and He acted on our behalf. He didn’t move/ act because of our great virtue and because we were so worthy, but because of His great love and mercy. In other words, God was not moved by our worthiness but by our need.
That’s why Jesus, the true God, took on human flesh and blood and came into this world which was seemingly firmly in the devil’s control. The Stronger One—Jesus—had come upon the Strong one, the devil. He did it to wage war, that the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued—that’s you and I and all people. Like we saw in today’s Gospel, when Jesus cast out that demon, Jesus was indeed showing that He is the Stronger One and the days of the devil and his kingdom were numbered. Jesus said in our text: for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. When He takes up the cause of His people, His victory and our rescue is certain.
So, yes, Jesus clearly showed Himself the Stronger One before whom even the demons had to fall back. But what was the great, mighty and powerful way that Jesus, the Stronger One, conquered/ undid/ destroyed the devil and his kingdom? How did Jesus rescue us, whose rescue seemed so impossible, from the devil and his grasp and kingdom? Jesus did it in a way that was seemingly impossible because it was the way of incredible weakness—by His blood and death. By His blood and death Jesus overcame the devil and all his hellish might as He ripped us from the jaws of this mighty tyrant. Here we come to the moment of the cross. This moment of seemingly incredible utter weakness is the moment that Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued. For what was happening on the cross? There was Jesus loaded down with the sins of the world; there was Jesus condemned as the world’s sinner; there was Jesus suffering and enduring the wrath of God for every sin of every single person ever to live; there every vial of God’s wrath over sin was emptied on Him; and there He died.
So how is Jesus by suffering and dying, by His blood and death the Stronger One plundering and rescuing from the devil’s kingdom? Jesus went to the cross as the holy, innocent One, the only one never to have sinned once, the only one that the devil never had a claim on because of sin. There was no reason for Him to be on the cross for Himself and so He could be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. By taking our sins and making them His and perfectly paying the price for them/ enduring God’s wrath, He took away the devil’s claims against us. Where are our sins; where is the devil’s claim against us? Jesus took it away from Him. Since Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and reconciled us to God, what can the devil charge us with? With what can He claim us and drag us down to hell? All that sin is forgiven. And this forgiveness has been brought about by Jesus, the Stronger One, in the great weakness of His suffering and death. And so the devil’s kingdom has been plundered. For thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
And by His death, that greatest act of weakness, Jesus destroyed death’s power. Jesus entered into death but only to end up destroying it and its power over us, for He rose from the dead. Death couldn’t hold Jesus so He burst its three day prison. Now with Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, our spiritual enemies of devil, sin and death are destroyed and conquered.
Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. Jesus gives us His victory, the fruits of His victory. And we receive them through faith so that His victory over the devil and his allies is also our victory. In His great grace, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit in the word and sacraments. The Holy Spirit working through that word and sacrament creates and preserves faith in our hearts to trust in Jesus and to receive His victory and its fruits. As we in Spirit worked faith receive the forgiveness of sins, no matter how much the devil may rightly accuse us of sin and try to claim us, he can’t because in Jesus that sin is forgiven. That’s why when we confess our sins and receive the holy absolution/ forgiveness, we need not doubt—Jesus gained that forgiveness for us; He rescued us from the tyranny of the devil. Here, daily and often remember your baptism as that time Jesus rescued you out of the devil’s kingdom and brought you into His kingdom and made you His dear child and an heir of heaven. Each day as you fight against sin and strive to live a life of faith and good works, rejoicing in your forgiveness, you are living in Jesus’ victory. Jesus is the Stronger One who destroyed and undid the devil’s kingdom—rescuing and saving us. INJ Amen