The Church Season of Lent,
Oculi,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (March 11, 2012)
Readings: Psalm 136
Ex. 8:16-24
Eph. 5:1-9
Luke 11:14-28
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 11th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verses.
Luke 11:14-28 (NIV)
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. 15 But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” 16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. 17 Jesus knew their thoughts…
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Our Gospel lesson today speaks of a distracted crowd, either seeing what they want to believe or believing only what they want to see. Don’t be confused with my words, “they want” is the point here, and maybe better said, they want three different ways.
The first way is a reaction to the miracle is faith. St. Luke tells us that “the crowd was amazed” (v. 14). That is to say, they were amazed at the work Jesus had done and their attention was drawn to His identity as the Son of God. The point of the miracle was to prove that Jesus is the Christ. It’s all part of Jesus teaching through preaching and miracles. Jesus worked a miracle. Then He preached His identity as the Christ, calling men to repentance and faith. One woman in the crowd got it right that day, when she said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed you!” (v. 27). Very true! This anonymous woman paid homage to the Blessed Virgin, congratulating her for bringing this Rabbi and Miracle Worker into the world. But Jesus had an even greater blessing in mind when He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (v. 28) That is to say, “Anyone can watch a miracle and rejoice in it. And we are all thankful that my mother raised me in wisdom, stature, and favor before God and man (Lk 2:52). But the greatest blessing is forgiveness and eternal salvation for those who hear the good news of my death and resurrection and believe it. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus’ plan of preaching and miracles continues in the church today. We preach the Word of the Law and Gospel, calling sinners to repentance and giving the gifts of the Gospel upon those who repent. Blessed are those who hear that they are sinners, that they were born in sin, that they have sinned against God in countless ways, and that they have broken God’s commandments and deserve eternal death. Yes, blessed are they who hear this word of the Law, repent of their sins, and fix their eyes on Jesus. For they are blessed with forgiveness, life, and salvation, now and into eternity. Preaching is followed by miracles: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Preaching to the unbaptized leads to Baptism. In Baptism, He casts out Satan, drowns our sin, and raises us to new life in His name. Preaching to the baptized leads to the Lord’s Supper. In this sacrament, He joins His true body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine – for you, for salvation. So in preaching and miracles, word and sacrament, Christ continues to abide with us, saying, in effect, “Blessed are you who hear God’s Word and who receive His sacraments, for you have life in My Name.”Everything would be in order, then, if everyone had marveled in faith and believed in Jesus. But such is never the case.
The second reaction to the exorcism was the curious assertion that Jesus was working with the devils. “But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’” (v. 15). To Jesus’ original hearers, the name “”Beelzebub” was about as ugly as it sounds to us in English. It indicated the lord of the flies, a round-about way of saying the “queen bee” of the devils, or Satan himself. So they actually thought that Jesus was in league with the devil! How did Jesus respond? He reminded them that, if He were working for Satan, then He most certainly would not be casting out devils. Otherwise, Satan’s kingdom is divided and it cannot stand.
The second reaction of the crowd is to say that Jesus was working with Beelzebul, the prince of demons, and supposedly leading a hoax instead of a church! If Jesus is working with the devils, then our doctrine is a fabrication, and we can never be sure of our salvation. But if Jesus has come to defeat the powers of darkness, then He is indeed the Lord of Life, and He brings salvation to you and me.
The third reaction to Jesus’ miracle was the request for a sign from heaven. “And others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven” (v. 16). It’s difficult to determine exactly what these miracle seekers expected. Jesus had just worked a miracle by casting out the demon. Wasn’t that not enough for them? Did they need more proof that this Jesus was indeed the Christ of God? Just after today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus rebuked those who were so evil that they asked for greater signs than the ones Jesus delivered in the flesh (11:29-32). Jesus said, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (29). Moreover, “For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation” (30). The common ground between the prophet, Jonah, and Jesus in this context is their preaching and their miracle. Jonah was miraculously kept alive in the belly of the fish for three days before coming back from the “dead” to preach in Nineveh. Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried for three days before returning from the dead to send the preached Word to the ends of the earth. So what about those who wanted another sign? As many of the hearers of Jonah and of Jesus did not believe their message and received death, so those who were looking for something greater than Jesus would be disappointed. They would be left to stand on the sidelines and in the words people would use today, Jesus had nothing more than a “dying church,” a “maintenance ministry,” just waiting for the doors to close.
Something more than Jesus has been a problem through the centuries. People have been proclaiming more groups, gatherings, any hook, crook, or device to bring people into church saying that the preaching of the Gospel was not the main thing. But if the Gospel is a step toward something greater, then the church becomes the image of those in this Gospel lesson who saw Jesus’ miracle and then still said they wanted something more.
What difference does it make? It cuts to the heart of whether or not Jesus is the focus and center our theology. When the Gospel is primary, then Jesus Christ is always at the center. And all that we have and all that we do must serve Him and Him alone: that we may obtain the forgiveness of sins.
Three reactions to Jesus’ miracle of the healing; to marvel in faith, to accuse Jesus of Satanic arts, or to ask for a greater sign. The trap here is any false belief, from the fantasy that Jesus is an ally of Satan to the desire for a miracle greater than the miracle of salvation. They all take your eyes off of Christ, either to the left or to the right. But in faith our eyes are always drawn toward Jesus Christ, who is, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). Thank God gives us Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit, and yes we will see it three ways, the way of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the way to eternal life. Amen.
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