Third Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 6:1-9; 20-25 Luke 11:14-28; Eph. 5:1-14
“Evidence that demands a choice”
Several years ago a Christian apologist named Josh McDowell wrote a book on Christian apologetics entitled Evidence That Demands a Verdict. It is still in print today.
The title of McDowell’s book is a little misleading, however, for evidence alone cannot demand a verdict. Just as important as any evidence is how the lawyers manage the jury, for it is the jury which will ultimately render a verdict. And, fundamental to a trial on the evidence is a judge or a jury who are impartial, who can have a sort of disinterested posture toward the evidence.
What we find in today’s gospel lesson is that our Lord very neatly and forcefully dismisses the idea that those who would stand in judgment of him are impartial or disinterested. He brings evidence which does not demand a verdict, but rather, demands a moral choice which will ultimately determine the eternal bliss or torment of those who view the evidence.
In this episode recorded in Luke 11, Jesus enters another of the many running arguments he had with religious leaders of Israel. As the Gospels portray Jesus’ ministry, the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees initially follow Him about with an attitude of reluctant curiosity. But as JESUS’ popularity with the people grows, the popularity of the RELIGIOUS crowd begins to decline. Consequently, the religious establishment commits itself more and more to OPPOSING Jesus, and this finally culminates in handing Him over to the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate for crucifixion.
The incident related by Luke in chapter 11 poses a startling question to those who watched what happened, and that includes you and me today. That question is this: If Jesus is who He says he is, what then must *I* do? It is at this point that any notion of impartially judging Jesus flies out the window. It is Jesus who will judge us.
The spark that lighted this particular confrontation was a miraculous act of mercy by our Lord recorded in verse 14.
14And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled.
Apparently, there were some religious leaders in the crowd. Luke does not name them; he only reports that they responded to this miraculous action on the part of Jesus by claiming that it was accomplished by the power of the devil. Matthew and Mark, however, also record this incident in their gospels, and they identify Jesus’ opponents as the Pharisees and scribes.
So, this exorcism – this miraculous act of mercy – is met with amazement from the crowd, and an accusation from the religious leaders that it is accomplished by the power of Beelzebub.
The identity of Beelzebub is first mentioned in the Old Testament, in II Kings chapter 1. There, the god of Ekron is named and worshipped as Baal-zebub. The name Beelzebub, depending on just a slight variation of spelling or pronunciation, can meaning anything from Lord of the Flies or Lord of Dung. It’s not hard to imagine why both ideas might not be present, from what we know about how flies and dung go together. In any case, Beelzebub is another name for Satan.
At any rate, the merciful miracle Jesus performs requires an explanation, and so the religious leaders provide the crowd with a judgment, claiming that Jesus exorcised this demon by the power of Satan, and follow this up with a demand for more evidence.
Please note the irony here. “You performed this miracle by the power of Satan¨ they say. And, then they follow up with, “Now show us more miracles.”
By way of answer, the Lord first says quite clearly that this accusation – that He is in the devil’s service, healing, preaching and exorcising demons – is unadulterated hypocritical irrationality.
In the first place, Jesus wasn’t the only one who exorcised demons. “Oh really??” Jesus says. “And, by whose power do your sons exorcise demons? Are they in league with Satan too?” And, so Jesus exposes their hypocrisy.
But, it’s not mere hypocrisy, it is irrational hypocrisy. There is a war between God and Satan. Both sides are struggling to win. The accusation against Jesus amounts to saying that a general would send his soldiers to the front lines with orders to shoot their own comrades. In the same way, the accusation that Jesus is winning battles against Satan by Satan’s power is patently absurd.
Next, the Lord points to something everyone would know – how a thief cannot plunder another man’s house unless he is stronger than the man he is robbing. In this short parable, Satan is the householder and Jesus is the man coming to plunder his house. The point is obvious: since Jesus is spoiling the devil’s kingdom, He can’t be Satan’s lesser minion; He must be stronger than the devil.
Thus far, Jesus has answered his critics with what amounts to an appeal to their reason, supposing their reasoning abilities can still function. But, next he does what is sometimes called “shaking the fence.”
You see, the crowds who followed Jesus were, for the most part, fence sitters. They had just as much an ear for the religious establishment as they had for Jesus. They supposed they could watch the contest between Jesus and the religious establishment and eventually make up their minds on who was really right and who was really wrong. Jesus, however, puts his hands on that fence and gives is a long, hard shaking.
23He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Now, there’s not a lot of wiggle room in these words. Here the Lord shakes the fence of neutrality, and as a result people who are sitting on that fence will fall on God’s side or Satan’s side. There is no other side. And, there is no middle ground of impartiality.
Jesus goes further to explain the impossibility of remaining neutral, as it were. He explains that a man who is exorcised of an evil spirit must fill that vacuum with God or it will be refilled with even more evil spirits.
Now, what are we to think of this episode? I suggest to you that the import of this passage (and other passages like it) depends on the audience. The obvious audience in the episode, the audience that gets top billing, as it were, is made up of all those people who would stand in judgment of Jesus, all those who suppose that they can maintain a stance of moral neutrality and render a verdict on whether or not Jesus is credible.
There have always been people who want to say that Jesus was a good man, perhaps even the greatest of men, but that he was confused or deluded as to who and what he actually was.
C.S. Lewis said it well, “I’m trying to prevent anyone from saying the really silly thing that people often say about Him (Jesus); ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That’s the one thing we mustn’t say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he’s a poached egg - or else he’d be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for being a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But don’t let us come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He hasn’t left that open to us. He didn’t intend to!” [C.S. Lewis. The Case For Christianity. (New York: Touchstone Books, 1996). P. 45]
There is, however, another audience here who often goes overlooked. I’m referring to the man from whom the demon was expelled. I think it was to this man that Jesus directed one of his warnings – the warning about the demon departing and then returning to bring seven more devils with him. Though the house he departed is now clean and orderly, it is, evidently, unoccupied, and so there is plenty of room for the former demonic resident and all his devilish buddies.
The point – and this is the point which is most pertinent to Christians – the point is this: if we have been rescued, if we have been ransomed, if Jesus has plundered Satan’s household and claimed you and me for Himself, we find ourselves – whether we happen to want this or not – to be combatants in a war between Christ and Satan. And, the mandate for us is simple and straightforward. We find it in the Epistle appointed for today:
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
3But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5For this you know,[a] that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7Therefore do not be partakers with them.
How, then, are Christians to abandon what was for them, in the days of their unbelief, a pattern of life that is as natural as breathing? Again, we find the answer in the Old Testament lesson appointed for today, a passage from the Law of Moses, which is so very striking precisely because addresses the very task which faces we who are redeemed from sin and have a mandate to live as sons of the light.
Recall that God redeemed a generation from Egypt; He broke their bonds and set them free. But, in the wilderness they pined for the old way, the old environment, the old bondages in which they were, they decided, not so bad off after all. That generation died in the wilderness.
But, in Deuteronomy, Moses is addressing a new generation, and he tells them how they are to avoid the spiritual disaster of their parents’ generation:
6"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. “
A short while before this, Moses had said this to the generation about to inherit the promised land:
5"Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, … 6Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
That was Jesus’ word to the crowd, and particularly to the demon-possessed man whom Jesus had freed from spiritual bondage. A woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.” But, Jesus pointed her (and, I think, the man he had just rescued) to a greater blessing.
28But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
God grant that we may receive the Apostolic witness of St. Luke, and render the correct judgment concerning our Lord and his mission. And, more than that, may it please God that we find ourselves not only with eyes that see clearly, but also ears that hear the good word of God, and hearts that will keep it unto everlasting life.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
