READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 26:1-15
Ephesians 5:1-9
St. Luke 11:14-28
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“And when it
comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.”
In the Gospel reading today, we see that God has given gifts
to His people. One of those gifts is the power over demons, the power to
exorcise (Mt 10:1). First and most importantly, it was given to the Apostles.
It is an Apostolic gift, because they needed to be the only ones called and
chosen by the Lord to spread His Word. If you wanted a relationship with God,
you had to have an Apostle and they proved their apostleship with signs and
wonders no one else could do.
Secondly, it is a gift given to the Lord’s Church to use as
needed, for demons are real and so is demonic possession. Do not fall for the
satanic, Hollywood trick of thinking the devil doesn’t exist or is lazy. Though
he is against God and His Church completely, he is a better student of
Scripture and the Life of Faith than you, for his one goal is to undermine God.
For that, he needs to know everything.
When we ponder our Lord’s words, here, we come across a very
disturbing picture. No, not that the devil is a better Bible-believer than you
are, though that is depressing in and of itself, but that the devil uses the
same “gifts” to lead people away from God. Jesus says in 2 Thessalonians, “The
coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false
signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception” (2:9-10).
And, “false christs and false prophets will arise and
perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the
elect” (Mt 24:24).
And even though Jesus tells us there will be false signs and
wonders, He never tells us what the difference will be, only that they will be
false. The first problem this creates is for those who today want to prove
God’s presence in their lives by the presence of one of these gifts. That,
because they can do a great sign or wonder, they have true faith and you don’t.
But, as we have seen, signs and wonders can be done by the demons, just like
quoting Scripture.
What this means for us is that we should not base our faith
on the ability of anyone to produce gifts, signs, and wonders. Dr. Luther has
said, “Beware of lying wonders…We should learn to believe no miracle after the
revelation of Christ, even though a person who had been dead for ten days were
called back to life. If I now should see a priest or a monk raise a dead person
in the name of St. Ann, I would say that it was the work of the devil” (a 1537
sermon on Matthew 24:15-28).
Repent. The swept house in our Gospel reading is just a
façade. It is the thin veneer that pop-Christian teachers tell you about when
they say things like, “you just have to believe harder”, and “you just need to
learn how to live in obedience to Christ to avoid further attack from the
demonic realm”, and “just submit to the Holy Spirit”. You just gotta, you just
gotta, you just gotta.
Well, let me tell you, it was your own “you just gotta” that
got you into the demon mess in the first place. First: if you believe God's
Word, then you have to admit that you have demons and you dwell among demons,
for being possessed is none other than sinning. “He who sins is a slave to
sin”, from John 8:34 and “the good I want to do I don’t do”, from
Romans 7:19. Sounds like possessions to me.
Second: there is nothing the devil loves more than your
obedience to Jesus, because its yours. Your obedience, your submission is where
the devil wants you focused, because then you are not focused on Jesus. He
wants you to clean up your life as best you can and, while you are preoccupied,
he and his buddies can sneak back in, because you missed a spot. You always
miss a spot.
This sort of clean, just means laziness of intellect and
piety. Meaning, you may have cleaned up but you have got rid of everything and
are now more vulnerable than before. God never leaves anything empty, therefore
the solution is to fill yourself with so much God, that there is no room for
anything else.
But that brings us back to our work and that’s no good. So
how?
Jesus shows He has power over the demons. They listen and
obey. They cannot help themselves in front of Almighty God in the flesh. Much
less can they comprehend Jesus in the flesh. In fact, in the same breath that
St. John tells us to not believe all spirits and test them, he says “By this
you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God” (1 Jn 4:2).
And where has Jesus come in the flesh more obviously than in
His Body and Blood given and shed for you??
Those who are truly demonic, that is, those who truly do not
believe seek other ways to righteousness and salvation outside of Christ. The
forgiveness of sins, the Gospel, is only found in the work and life of
Jesus.
“God offers the forgiveness of sins only in the Gospel, the
Good News that we are freed from the guilt, the punishment, and the power of
sin, and are saved eternally because of Christ’s keeping the Law and His
suffering and death for us.” Romans 10:4 states it this way: “Christ
is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes"
(LSCE q. 84, p. 100).
Do you hear John 3:16 differently than I do? “For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
His only begotten Son. Not you or your best intent or
efforts.
You did not redeem yourself from the curse, “Christ has
redeemed [you] from the curse of the law, having become a curse for [you] (for
it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). (Gal 3:13)
The one thing Christ has that the devil doesn’t is Faith.
Faith that leads to belief. Belief that hears “whoever hears my word and
believes Him Who sent me has eternal life” (Jn 5:24), “whoever believes
and is baptized will be saved” (Mk 16:16), and “take and eat and drink
for the forgiveness of your sins” (Mt 26:26ff).
The Word and Sacrament are God’s works. He makes them,
institutes them among us, and keeps them holy. In Christ offering His Body and
Blood on the cross, these holy things which faith receives, belong to His
Church. And since His Church is His body, they now belong to you.
Jesus did great signs and wonders in order that we may truly
see and believe that He is Almighty God in the flesh and not a false spirit. He
gave His Apostles the same powers in order that they establish His Church,
through their doctrines. For no other men could do the works they did unless it
be from God. If you have an Apostle’s teaching, you have Christ.
There is no more use for signs and wonders, for the Church.
Those miraculous signs have served their purpose. They pointed us to the
suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They return us to His Life and His
Word. And they usher us ahead, to when He will return for those who seek Him
out.
So how do you believe harder, in order that you not be
misled by the false signs and wonders that are coming? You pray for belief from
Jesus, knowing that He gives belief in His Church of Word and Sacrament.
How do you learn to live in obedience to Christ in order to
avoid further attack from the demonic? You trust His work in His Word of the
Gospel spoken over you. You trust in His work of salvation done for you in your
baptism. You trust in His work of forgiveness given and shed for you in His
Holy Supper.
How do you then submit to the Holy Spirit? You set aside the
work you do and let God work in you by Word and Sacrament. For the Word became
flesh and offered His life as a ransom for many. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is the communion of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is
the communion of the flesh of Christ. For we, though many, are one bread and
one body; for we all partake of that one bread. (1 Cor 10:16-17)
To those who seek the signs and wonders of God, let him
ponder the mystery of the Servant God offering Himself on this Altar, in His
House, to sinners. To those facing demons, let them flee to the wounds of
Christ, offered to all humanity on the first Easter.
To those seeking confirmation and consolation in God's
election, let them hear and believe that God receives into grace all who repent
and believe in Christ, that He will punish those who willfully turn away, and “in
Christ He has chosen us before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4)
For our election, our clean and filled house of comfort, is
not founded upon our godliness or virtue, but alone upon the merit of Jesus
Christ. (FC 11:75)
No comments:
Post a Comment