The Third Sunday in Lent (Oculi)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our text for this morning invites us to reflect further on a theme which we began to see unfold two weeks ago on the First Sunday in Lent. Contrary to the Rationalist Enlightenment philosophy which has dominated much of mainstream western Christian thinking for centuries, the Scriptures teach us that spiritual warfare is real. Demonic oppression is all around us. (Just to be clear, demonic oppression and demonic possession don’t necessarily have to be the same thing.) Everyone in the ancient world took spiritual warfare seriously. It wasn’t until modern times that humans decided that the idea of devils and demons was nonsense. I suppose we thought that we had become too “enlightened” for the demons to bother us anymore. But the reality is simple: To be a Christian means to believe and engage in spiritual warfare. There are forces we can’t see or understand which are constantly at odds with one another in this world. Many of the symptoms and issues that we explain away with science are at their core spiritual problems. Christ assumes that we will recognize this. In fact, He demands that we recognize this because to close our eyes to the spiritual realities around us is to no longer be with Him. And as our Lord says in verse 23 of our text, “He who is not with Me is against Me.”
Today we will focus on verses 21-23 of our text, which reads:
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Luke 11:21-23).
In the context of the full reading, it’s clear that this brief analogy of the strong man versus the stronger man is speaking directly to the issue of spiritual warfare. The “strong man” is the devil. And notice what his problem is. The strong man’s problem is that he trusts in his stuff. His strength is fake. His strength is dependent upon his armor and weapons. And the armor and weapons in which the devil trusts is any and all techniques through which he can lead humans to sin and death. Ultimately, his strength isn’t real strength at all. His strength is fake because it’s dependent upon the power of sin and death. The lies, deceit, and temptations through which he leads humans into sin and death are the only source of the devil’s power. And so, he uses these tactics relentlessly against us as he seeks to maintain his influence and control over us.
These tactics of lies, deceit, and temptation seem to work for him so long as no one stronger than he comes around. But this is precisely where the devil’s true problem is. There is a stronger man, Christ Jesus, who came to earth to attack the devil, overcome him, and take away his weapons and armor in which he trusted. However, our Lord’s strength is not dependent upon anything. He is by His very nature strength. And He has defeated the devil through His death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, thus robbing the devil of his power. In one of the stanzas of the great Easter hymn, “Awake, My Heart, with Gladness” (a stanza which is sadly omitted from our Lutheran Service Book), the great hymnwriter Paul Gerhard captures in vivid poetry the essence of the stronger man, Christ, overcoming the strong man through His death and resurrection:
Upon the tomb is standing The Hero, looking round; The foe, his crafts unhanding, Lies beaten on the ground And must his hellish pow’r To Christ deliver o’er, And to the Victor’s bands Must yield his feet and hands (Walther’s Hymnal, 97:3).
Christ has overcome Satan so that he “lies beaten on the ground” and “must yield his feet and hands” to Christ’s restraints. For Jesus is our perfect sacrifice who died in our place to take away our sin. Remember, the devil’s only power is sin and death. By taking away our sin, Christ has dealt with sin. And through His resurrection, Christ has overcome the power of death. As Gerhard writes later in the same hymn:
Grim Death with all its might Cannot my soul affright; He is a pow’rless form, Howe’er he rave and storm (Walther’s Hymnal, 97:5).
Whoever believes in Christ does not have to fear eternal death because eternal life has been promised to us. And now, because Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father, He reigns over all things and ensures that the power of the devil is kept at bay until judgement day. Until then, the devil’s only power is to lead people away from Christ, so that sin and death have power again.
But for those of us who live in the new life of Christ, the devil has no power because sin and death have been defeated and our Lord continues to protect us against the devil’s last remaining trick of drawing us away from Christ. Now, the way in which Christ protects us from the devil is revealed in verse 23: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” This verse reveals two things. First, there is no neutrality in the spiritual battle being waged around us. Either you are with Christ or you are against Him. But second, our Lord draws a distinction between gathering and scattering. Notice how those who are with Christ are gathered while those who are against Him are scattered. This gives us insight into how the devil works to draw us away from our Lord. He doesn’t use general lies, deceit, and temptation against us. He uses specific lies, deceits, and temptations designed to drive us apart—to scatter us. He wants nothing more than to scatter God’s people. Yet it is precisely the reversal of this scattering that defends us against him. For Christ is the Good Shepherd who gathers His people together. Through His Church, He gathers us together around His Word & Sacrament whereby He protects us from the devil.
Now, this has some significant implications for us. Christ gathers us together so that we won’t be scattered by the devil. There are two ways in which the devil tries to scatter us: spiritual scattering and physical scattering.
First is spiritual scattering. The devil absolutely loves it when we are not gathered around one unified doctrine and belief. He loves to exacerbate denominational divisions, divisions of personal beliefs, or any other kind of division imaginable. The devil wants to see us scattered in our beliefs. The only defense against this is to gather together with other Christians to teach and study the Word together rightly. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a right and a wrong way to do this. So many individual Christians or denominations want to ignore the differences in beliefs that we have. They somehow pretend that ignoring our differences creates unity. But it doesn’t. Unity around anything other than the truth is a false unity. There can only be true unity when we are gathered around the truth. And so, we can’t compromise or be ashamed of God’s truth. At the same time, we need to find a way to have reasonable conversations with fellow believers focused on our shared identity in Christ. For it is only when we are gathered together around God’s Word that He will preserve us against spiritual scattering.
Second is physical scattering. As humans, we are physical beings—flesh and blood. We are made to be with one another—so much so that our God became a human like us so that He could be with us and redeem us. Incarnational, physical life together is one of the cornerstones of God’s will for His people. This is why the devil tries so hard to scatter us physically. He does this in so many ways that it’s impossible to number them all. Let me give you a few examples that I perceive to be the biggest threats. The devil physically scatters us by convincing us that so-and-so’s sporting event is a higher priority than church. Besides, we can catch the sermon later online. The devil physically scatters us by convincing us that our kids won’t grow up to be well-rounded adults if we don’t ensure they’re a part of every possible extra-curricular activity—even when they’re on Sunday mornings. The devil also physically scatters us by convincing us that “online church” is just as good as being there in person. Guess what. It’s not. It’s not the same thing at all. Christ commands us to gather physically when He says through the Apostle: “[Do] not giv[e] up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing” (Hebrews 10:25). Online church simply is no replacement for the real thing. It’s only when we are gathered together physically around the Word and Sacraments that God will preserve us against the devil’s scattering.
As we come face to face with the spiritual warfare around us and have serious conversations about priorities, forgiveness, and our faith, I pray that the Lord would grant us clarity and unity around His Word so that we might become blessed as “those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28b). God grant it.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
