It is a sobering fact that, not only are you unable to believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him by your own reason or strength, but you are likewise unable to discern or recognize the difference between God and the devil by your own intellect, wisdom, or sensibilities. Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, you confuse good with evil and blaspheme against the Lord who has come to save you.
At the heart of the problem, you don’t even realize how ignorant and wrong you are. Instead, you are quite confident of your perceptions and opinions, feelings and conclusions. Yet, presuming to know God and His Will apart from His Word is the root cause of all the sin and wickedness and evil in this fallen world. It is precisely what led Adam and Eve into sin, when they disregarded and disobeyed the clear and certain Word of God, deferring to the devil’s voice and their own senses.
We dare not attribute anything to the Holy Spirit apart from the Word and promise of the Lord, as He has spoken concerning the Church and Ministry of His Gospel and concerning your calling and stations in life. Absent His Word, anything that claims divine inspiration or authority is not from God but from the devil himself. No matter how sincere, well-intentioned, or self-righteous you might be, heeding voices that do not confess God’s Word will lead you away from Him into sin.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to recognize the voice and temptations of Satan in your life — whether you take the devil seriously or not — because the voices in your own head, that inner dialogue you carry on with yourself, and all the insights and interpretations of your sinful heart and mind are in cahoots with the devil. That’s why the story of the Fall into Sin is so familiar — not only because you’ve heard it repeated so many times, but also because it keeps on playing itself out in your life. It seems obvious enough in retrospect, but it’s not so obvious at all when you’re in the middle of being tempted. The forbidden fruit, whatever its variety, appears beautiful and good for food.
So you take the bite. You fall prey to the snares of the devil, you fall into sin, and you lead others into temptation right along with you. And then, instead of fleeing to the Lord and His mercy, you run away and try to hide — ashamed of your nakedness and afraid to admit that you have sinned. Instead of confessing your sins and seeking forgiveness, you come up with excuses for yourself, and you resort to blaming your neighbor, the devil, or God Himself for your faults and failings.
It’s still the same ol’ same ol’ story. You are no different and no better than your first parents. The devil has done his job cunningly well, not only tempting you and leading you into sin, but then also blurring the picture, confusing the facts, and turning everything inside-out and upside-down.
This morning’s Holy Gospel is a case in point. Christ Jesus, our great Champion against Satan, is accused of being in league with Satan. By that move, those who are supposed to be the religious leaders and teachers of Israel blaspheme the Holy Spirit. So, then, things are not as they appear.
It is only by the Holy Spirit that you are able to recognize the Lord Jesus for who He truly is — and to recognize Satan and his temptations for what they actually are. You cannot rely on your own faculties or filters to decipher the facts of the matter; otherwise, like the Lord’s own family at that point, you will terribly misjudge Him. It is only by the preaching and hearing of the Word of Christ Jesus, where and when it pleases God, that the Holy Spirit works the fear and faith and wisdom of the Lord in your heart, mind, body, and soul, lest you be deceived and die in your sin.
Our Lord’s entire Ministry was a demonstration of His approaching victory over Satan. Everything He did was a fulfillment of that first promise in the Garden — the promise of a Savior, the Seed of the Woman, who would crush the serpent’s head, obtain forgiveness, and restore life to Man.
Christ Jesus is engaged in combat with Satan from the first, especially as He is driven by the Spirit from the waters of His Baptism to be tempted by the devil in the wilderness. As the true Man, He resists the devil with the same Word of God that you are also given in the Holy Scriptures and in your Holy Baptism. But there is more. As the very Son of God in the flesh, His presence marks the beginning of the end for Satan and his demons. Whenever He heals the sick or raises the dead, He is already in the process of restoring life and vitality to all mankind and the whole of creation, thereby undoing the curse of sin and death. Whenever He forgives sins, He exercises in advance the Absolution of the Fall by His Cross and Resurrection. And whenever He casts out demons — a trademark of His Ministry in the Holy Gospels — He shows that He has come to “clean house.”
So, too, in His little Parable this morning, the one about the strong man’s house. For the Ministry of Christ Jesus — His forgiveness, His miraculous healings, His exorcisms — it is all a binding of the “strong man,” Satan, that Jesus might plunder his possessions by the Cross and Resurrection.
That victory of Jesus over Satan, sin, and death, is likewise the point of His descent into hell, as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed. It’s not that Christ Jesus must go there to suffer — for His suffering is perfectly fulfilled on the Cross. But Jesus descends into hell as a declaration of His triumph over the evil one. He boldly enters the strong man’s house to thumb His nose at the devil, to spike the football in the in-zone and run a victory lap with the standard of His Cross held high.
Now, then, from that same victory of His Cross, the Ministry of Christ Jesus and His Holy Spirit advances throughout the world, as an ongoing defeat and destruction of the devil and his demons.
The very same Ministry of Christ Jesus that is recorded and revealed in the Holy Gospels continues to this very day — and to this very place — in the Liturgy of His Holy Word and Sacraments. Indeed, the stories of Jesus that we hear and tell are not just ancient history, “once upon a time.” That is not the point at all. Wherever on earth His Church is found, His story is still happening. That very thing is indicated, just a few verses prior to this Holy Gospel, when Jesus gives His own authority to the Twelve Apostles, “that He might send them out to preach, and to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons.” Which is to say that the casting out of demons, as mentioned in the case at hand, is a Ministry of Christ and His Spirit which continues in the ongoing life of His Church.
So, how shall you respond? The Lord Jesus Christ is with you here in the Liturgy of His Gospel, in the preaching of His Word and in His Holy Sacrament. He is no less present for you, here and now, than He was for the people there and then. And it is still the case that, wherever Jesus enters in, Satan is bound and cast out. But how shall you respond to all these great and mighty wonders of the Lord, as He comes to you here with His forgiveness of your sins, with Life and Salvation?
There’s no need to guess at the response. The Word of God describes what it will be — what it has always been, and what it will continue to be, whenever the Gospel of Christ Jesus is preached.
There are basically three responses, each of which is found in this Holy Gospel from St. Mark:
There are those, first of all, who hear and receive the preaching of Christ Jesus by the grace of His Holy Spirit. They recognize that He is their Savior. They recognize their sins, but they know and trust His mercy and forgiveness, so they warmly embrace His Word of Absolution or forgiveness, even though it is spoken by a human pastor. They rejoice in their Holy Baptism, as a rich and full washing away of all their sins, even though they see nothing else than water. And they hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, though all their senses perceive are bread and wine.
These are the people who are gathered in a circle around Jesus, hanging on His every Word, and looking to Him with childlike faith and trusting hearts, which are the gracious gift of His Spirit.
But there is another group of people — who hear the same preaching of Christ Jesus and partake of the same Means of Grace — who yet regard the Lord and His Ministry as foolish nonsense. This preacher is “out of his mind!” That was the evaluation of Jesus’ family and friends in this Holy Gospel. They loved Him with human affection, but they did not embrace His preaching because it did not fit their preconceived notions of family and church and life as they knew it.
I suspect that many if not most of the people in this country who self-identify as Christians really belong to this second group. They think of Jesus as their “friend,” but they’re embarrassed by much of what He says and does, and they would just as soon not be seen with Him in public. In much the same way, His Church may be important to them, in a quaint, old-fashioned sort of way, but family and country come first; those are the priorities around which they organize their life.
Such are the people in this Holy Gospel who look for Jesus “on the outside,” that is, apart from His Church, apart from His Liturgy of the Gospel. To be sure, they may be sitting in the pews on any given Sunday, bodily present — yet all the while their hearts, minds, and spirits remain elsewhere. You don’t have to look far to find that group; you should simply examine yourself and repent.
There is then another group, with a third sort of response to Jesus, and you are not immune to this way of thinking and acting, either. You find them here in the scribes and pharisees who came down from Jerusalem — who left the Temple and the Word of God behind — who went so far as to say that Jesus was Himself possessed by the devil.
In this accusation they the sin against the Holy Spirit — a sin which, so long as it persists, cannot be forgiven. It is to identify the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ Jesus, with Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Not only is this a horrible blasphemy, it is deadly to faith and life and damnable in its outright rejection of the Lord God Himself with His forgiveness, life, and salvation. There can be no forgiveness for the ongoing denial and rejection of the very Spirit who breathes and bestows the forgiveness of sins in, with, and through the Gospel of Christ Jesus.
It is not the case that this sin, alone among all others, is simply “so horrible” and “so great” that no forgiveness could be had. By His Cross and with His precious Blood the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of the world. As He says, “all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter.” But those who harden their hearts against the Word and work of His Holy Spirit are thereby refusing and rejecting this very forgiveness of the Christ.
Those who are guilty of this unforgiveable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — so long as they persist in their unbelief and refuse to repent — they are the vessels of wrath who are held in the possession of Satan. They may not look like wicked people, not like in the movies. In fact, they might be outstanding citizens and belong to model families. But blasphemy and unbelief remain the work of Satan nonetheless; they mark the citizens of his hellish kingdom and the members of his evil household, who are caught and held in the deadly grip of this “strong man,” Beelzebul.
That is where you would be and remain, as well, if not for your Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who enters in to set you free from the bondage of sin, death, the devil, and hell. He is the stronger Man who still invades the house of Satan, binds him up, and plunders his “possessions.” You could not set yourself free. In your native sinfulness, you did not even recognize your peril or want to leave. But Christ Jesus has released you by the ways and means of His Cross, by His Word and Spirit.
Tragically, there are still a great many people who willingly choose to remain with Satan and reject the Lord Jesus Christ. But, again, that is where each and every one of us would be, if not for the Holy Spirit, who calls you by the preaching of the Gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps you in the one true faith — just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
It is here within the Church — where He daily and richly forgives your sins with the Gospel of Christ Jesus, with His Word and Flesh — that the Holy Spirit strengthens your faith and preserves your life in Christ, body and soul, now and forever. And here within His Church is where you have become and still remain a member of Christ’s family, His brother or sister — living in His House, abiding in His fellowship, hearing His Word of the Gospel, and breathing His Holy Spirit.
This then is your fortress, your shield, and your strength — against Satan, all his works, and all His ways — the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in the Liturgy of Jesus, wherein you receive the promise of His Gospel, today and all year long, and whereby your sins are all forgiven in His Name.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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