In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

There's a lot of talk about the devil and demons in Lent, isn't there?  First we had the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness.  Then last week there was the demon-possessed daughter of the Canaanite woman.  And today Jesus casts out a demon that made a man mute.  We must admit that all of this makes us a little uncomfortable.  When demons get mentioned, we tend to slide over the matter as if it doesn't mean anything to us or embarrasses us.  After all, who still believes in devils in this scientific age?  How many intelligent and educated people take Satan seriously?  We modern people assume that it's just a lot ancient superstition.  When we can send probes into space and study things on the microscopic level, there really just isn't any place for demons.  No, today the devil is something of a joke.  In fact, the word "devil" has gone all the way from dread to endearment, as when a grandmother says of her grandson, "Isn't he just a little devil?"

About 50 years ago, C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled The Screwtape Letters.  They were supposed to be copies of correspondence between one demon, Screwtape, and his nephew, Wormwood.  In the letters, one of the points that Screwtape makes is that they are able to do their greatest and best work when people no longer believe they exist.  We tend to look for other explanations for what has gone wrong with the world and with mankind.  The blame gets placed elsewhere.  In fact, in a perverse twist, the devil gets people to blame God for the bad things in the world and in their lives.

As Christians, then, we must look to God's Word for reliable information to teach us.  That is our one sure source that doesn't lie.  And when you look in the Scriptures, you find that there is surprisingly little information about Satan or demons.  But what there is in the Bible is of extreme significance and gives us what we need to know.

One of the things we learn is this:  In the heart of every person is a throne.  We were designed by God as dependent creatures, as the subjects of another.  God intended to occupy that throne of our hearts and by His rule give us the happiness, beauty, freedom, and strength that He wants us to have.  But through the devil's temptation, we dethroned God; we sinned.  We thought we could climb onto the throne ourselves.  This was the devil's lie, "You shall be like God."  In this way we were enslaved.  For we cannot mount that throne.  It is as impossible as if a horse would try to mount the saddle on its own back.  If God does not occupy the throne in our hearts, it is occupied by another, by the enemy of God, the devil.

That truth–that unless God is enthroned in your heart, the devil sits and rules there–is the hardest truth for us to swallow.  Yet it is only with this truth that our ways and the world's ways make any sense.  What's more, that is the way Scripture says it is.  We heard a reference to it in today's epistle when Paul said "you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord."  Elsewhere, when Jesus called Paul to be His apostle, He told him that his work was to open men's eyes, to turn them from the power of Satan to God.  So here you see the division: darkness or light, Satan or God.  This either/or runs throughout Scripture.  There is no third possibility, no middle ground, no neutral or undecided.  As Jesus says in the Gospel, "He who is not with Me is against Me."  There is a real war going on, Satan against God, and the battleground is the human heart–your heart and mine.

The enemy is of an order of being we cannot fully understand.  Satan and his crew, thrown out of heaven, set themselves to overthrow the works of God.  And so they attacked the crown of God's creation, human beings, who alone were created in His image.  Having deceived us into trying to be our own lords and masters, we came into the devil's dominion.  Satan became what the Scriptures call "the god of this world."  And there, for all that we can do, we would remain forever lost, separated from God, and dead.

But God in mercy looked on our plight and had pity.  He promised One who would overthrow the dominion of Satan.  He promised One who would restore the reign of God's love in the hearts of people and re-establish the kingdom of God.  Today's Gospel proclaims the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise.  Jesus of Nazareth casts out the devil and restores the reign of God, the kingdom of God in our hearts.  Jesus says, "But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you."

Christ came to dethrone the usurper.  The first vital battle we considered two weeks ago–the forty days conflict and the three crucial attacks when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.  The decisive battle of the war comes in another three weeks, on Good Friday.  A war consists not only of major offensives but also day-by-day fighting.  Throughout His life, Christ was having skirmishes with the devil, one of which is reported here in the Gospel.

A demon had made this particular man mute, unable to speak and probably also unable to hear.  That is one of the goals of the devil, to wreck and corrupt the capacities of human beings and to tear down the lives of those created by God for the highest happiness.  However, Jesus cast the demon out of this man so that he could speak again.  Jesus set him free from what had enslaved him.

The Jews recognized that the things Jesus did could be done only by God or the devil.  They were nearer to the truth than those today who deny all this "devil stuff," who make Jesus into a sweet and lovely man who gave us rules for life so that we can be sweet and lovely too.  No, here was either the finger of God or the finger of Satan.  The Jews refused to recognize God in this Nazarene; therefore, the only other possibility to them was that Jesus was of the devil.

They then asked Jesus for a sign, testing Him, asking Him to prove that He really was of God.  But in doing this they were showing that, in fact, they themselves were of the evil one.  For isn't that exactly what the devil did in the wilderness, tempting Jesus to prove Himself by throwing Himself down from the temple to see if the angels would catch Him?  Jesus would later say that it is an evil generation which seeks a sign from God.  Besides, these people already had a sign from Jesus in the healing of the mute.  But that wasn't enough for those who wouldn't believe.  Jesus said the only sign that would be given them is the sign of Jonah, the sign of a man buried three days in the belly of death but who rose from the depths to new life.  The sign which faith clings to, then, is the sign of the cross, Christ crucified and risen to save us sinners.  For that is how Jesus overcomes Satan and conquers him.

Jesus compares the devil to a strong man, fully armed, securely guarding his own things.  He's got you in Alcatraz; no way out.  Satan's kingdom is not divided against itself.  And so Jesus must divide and conquer it.  He does so by using the devil's greatest weapon against him, the weapon of death.  Jesus out-strategizes Satan; He deceives the deceiver.  He lures the devil to his defeat by offering Himself up as prey.  Jesus allows Himself to be arrested, captured, bloodied and killed at the hands of the powers of darkness.  He lets the devil have his day.  He lets the devil think he's won by killing him.  But in this way Jesus enters into the devil's fortress of death.  And He ambushes Satan from within his own stronghold.  He breaks down the gates of hell from the inside, coming forth from the grave in victory on Easter morning.  It was by a tree that the devil first overcame man, and so it is also by a tree that the devil is overcome, the tree of Christ's cross.  Satan bruises Christ's heel, but with that same heel the devil's head is crushed.  Christ's blood pays for and takes away your sin, and thus it also takes away the power of the devil to accuse you and hold you captive.  It is written in Hebrews, "The Son of God Himself likewise shared in our flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime held in bondage."
 
That's why the sign that is placed on you in baptism is the sign of the cross.  That is the sign which gives you Christ's victory over the evil one and gives you Christ's own Spirit to guard and keep you safe in the faith.  Only don't forget that as this age draws to its close, that cross inscribed on your forehead and your heart with the water is like a target to the devil.  He wants the trust of your heart to be turned away from Christ.  He wants to make your last state worse than the first.  So beware, for it is written, "Your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour."

If you are alert, you will perceive his stealthy and sly approach.  Just try giving up some bad habit, or try being kind to somebody you particularly dislike.  You will then see the devilish difficulty and strange abundance of reasons that flood your mind to convince you not to bother with such a difficult and tiresome task.  Or think, for example, of the simple proposal not to go to church.  How many reasons are immediately suggested rationalizing your staying away?  Or in your prayers, how difficult is it for you to concentrate and keep your whole mind directed toward the Lord?  You encounter no such difficulties when reading the newspaper or watching TV or a movie.  And the power of evil is even more evident in the uglier things we are tempted to do or say.  No, the devil doesn't rest.  And if you wish to be a follower of Christ, then these are the battles against him and your own fallen nature that you must fight daily.

But our confidence is in this: Christ has already walked this path for us.  He has made the path and shown the victory.  If we stick close to Christ into whom we are baptized, the victory is ours also; in Him we are secure.  The decisive victory has already been won by Christ on Calvary.  There the devil spent his utmost strength and lost.  That victory is for us also.  If we still must be tested and tempted, it is because God wishes for us always to see our desperate need for the Savior and to constantly be taking refuge in Him.

So when the devil tries to make you despair because of your sin and claim you as his own, then you can boldly call the him the liar that he is.  Clinging to Christ and His victory, you can say, "No, Satan, I am not yours.  Christ has died for me and I am forgiven.  I am baptized; I am His.  He has conquered you, and so shall I.  For He is alive in me with His very body and blood."  When faith is strong like that, you can boldly laugh in devil's face.  And he cannot put up with such scorn.  He must then depart from you.  For the Lord Jesus sits upon the throne of your heart.  Then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

(Much of the above was adapted from a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel in Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel, pp. 92 ff.)