Lent Midweek 3

SERMON 3: LENTEN MIDWEEK 2 "The Real Battle" Luke 22:39-62 When I was younger, I read a few of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories. If you don't know don't know that much about Sherlock Holmes I'll just give you the basics. Holmes is the main figure in the series; he's a private detective in London and he is the master of logical thinking, careful reasoning based on evidence, solving crimes, and so on. At one point in the series, Holmes reveals that behind a crime wave in London-blackmail, murder, and so on-behind it all is a single connection-or better, a single person: "Professor Moriarty" is his name. Everyone else involved in the crime wave is just a two-bit figure. Like a spider weaving a web, Professor Moriarty is the root cause and the guiding mind, and so Holmes is out to find and outwit and defeat his great enemy. The other people involved play their roles-but the real enemy is that one person. He's never visibly present at the scene of a crime-but he's behind it all. Why do I bring this up tonight, when we are reading and pondering Jesus's agony in the garden, his arrest, and Peter's denial? Well, to answer that question, let me ask another one. How many people are key to these verses from Luke 22? One person comes to mind right away of course-the Lord Jesus. And others are there-twelve apostles, counting Judas, and some of the chief priests and the temple guard and a servant girl and a couple of others and several crowds of people. And they all play their part, so to speak. But Luke's Gospel reveals in a unique way that behind it all is one figure, one person if I can use that term. Satan. There's Jesus. And there is his great enemy, who isn't even named in the verses that we read tonight. But let me show you what I mean and let me also say that all these verses I'm going to mention are found in Luke's Gospel, and remarkably, only in Luke's Gospel. Like Matthew and Mark, Luke tells us that early in his ministry the Lord Jesus was directly tempted by Satan. When that event is over, however, only Luke makes this direct statement: "And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time." Satan would be back. Here's another one, and you might remember it from our Ash Wednesday reading. There Luke begins to tell the events of that Passover meal and the night when Jesus was going to be betrayed. First, he says that the chief priests and their allies were looking for a way to destroy Jesus. And then he writes, "Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot ... and he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Jesus to them." John's Gospel has a very similar statement. But Luke is making it clear that now the moment for which Satan has been waiting-that opportune time-has come. Satan is behind the plan, the plot to arrest Jesus. And then there is this, from last week's reading, from verse 31: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you all, that he might sift you all like wheat." Now, yes, next comes Jesus's promise of Peter's turning back again after it's all said and done. But the fact remains-Satan is going to separate, sift, winnow, shake the apostles and see who is "wheat," and who is "chaff," blown away by the wind. So, yes, in this reading tonight, there is Judas, and there are the chief priests and their allies. There're the apostles. But Satan is directing, influencing, attacking all of them. He's behind it all. And so, in a way, there are really only two figures, two "persons" who matter. Satan ... and Jesus. And Jesus knows that. He knows it. He's the one who warns the apostles in the garden that night, he warns them: "Pray." "Pray," he says. "Temptation is coming against you; the tempter is coming against you; Satan is coming against you. Pray so that you won't enter into it. Because if you do, you won't be able to stand. You're not solid enough, you're not strong enough; you'll blow away like chaff." Jesus knows that Satan is behind it all, under it all. The chief priests and their group think that it's their clever, secret plan that made it all work. Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and they bring force against him. It looks like it was all their plan, and that their plan worked. But Jesus knows better. He says, "I used to be in the temple courtyards every day, and if you wanted to arrest me as if I were a robber, you could have done it then. But it's happening now because this is your hour and even more ... this is the power of darkness." The power of darkness-Satan's power. When the disciples ignore Jesus's warning for them to pray, how do they fare when Satan attacks? They scatter like chaff. While Jesus is praying in an agony that none of us can come close to imagining ... the apostles fall asleep. And then one of the twelve betrays Jesus with a kiss, and Jesus has to undo the violence of another one. And then Peter-who promised that he was ready to go with Jesus to prison and to death, is following ... from a distance. And speaking through a servant girl and two others, Satan comes at Peter, and Satan sifts him, and Peter is undone. Jesus said it would happen. And on his way to stand before the Sanhedrin Jesus looks straight at Peter ... and Peter remembers. But Luke tells us that Peter only remembers the bad news. He didn't remember that Jesus promised that Peter would turn again. And so, Peter is undone. He goes outside, and he weeps bitterly. Not until the first Easter morning will Peter be restored ... as Jesus promised he would be. In a way, then, every other human figure in this reading gets thinner and thinner, less and less substantial, until they almost disappear. Yes, of course, the religious authorities still have Jesus under arrest-but the power behind their evil is the evil one. And so, this reading shows Jesus and Satan, Jesus vs. Satan, Satan out to destroy Jesus. And if it doesn't sound too dramatic to say it, on one level-Satan will win. Satan will succeed. And here is the truly amazing thing about that-Jesus knows that, too, and he willingly accepts it. While the apostles were sleeping, Jesus was praying and praying, in an agony that no one else has ever known. He knew what was coming, and despite the mystery of his agony and struggle, his prayer and his choice were clear: "Father, your will be done. Father, I will drink the cup." This cup is full to the brim. It's full of God's response to evil and sin, it's full of God's rightful and righteous judgment, and it's a cup that is prepared for people who are guilty, and people who are evil. The Old Testament prophets spoke fairly often of this cup-it's for God's enemies to drink. But Jesus will drink it, though he's the only person ever to live who deserves not one drop from that cup. The path toward drinking that cup runs through arrest and trial, unjust and unfair accusations, spitting and beating and suffering and death-all the while carrying on his shoulders the weight of evil and Satan's hatred and the cowardice and the failure of the disciples. That's enough to destroy anyone. It's enough to destroy everyone. And Satan and his allies, are out to destroy Jesus. And in a way they will succeed. The perfectly innocent Jesus will be numbered among the transgressors. And he will die, commending his spirit to the Father. The wages of sin is death. And Jesus will die. This much is crystal clear: Satan hates God, and he hates Jesus. So, without a doubt we say that that night, Satan meant all of this for evil-evil against Judas, against the other apostles, against everyone. And Satan meant this for evil against Jesus. But here is the glory and here is the wonder, and here is the praise. God meant it for good. He meant it all for good. Pause with me over just one small piece of this reading, something that goes by so quickly that we might overlook it, we might miss what it means. Verse 61: "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter." Jesus is bound, he's arrested, he's on his way to death. But Luke still calls him, "The Lord." And in the cramped quarters of ancient Jerusalem, there is Peter in the courtyard of the high priest's house and now they lead Jesus out of that house, and he can turn and see the man who has just denied that he even knows Jesus. And at that moment, Luke tells us, all that Peter can remember is the Lord's prediction that Peter would deny Jesus; that's what Peter remembers. What Simon Peter doesn't remember yet is that Jesus has prayed for him. What Simon doesn't remember in that instant is that the time will come when Simon the traitor, the turncoat, will turn again, as Jesus said. Jesus said it, and Simon's faith will return, and he will strengthen the others who, like him, have been sifted like wheat. Simon doesn't seem to remember the promise. But Jesus does because he made the promise. Jesus knew that God meant all of this for good. For Simon's good. And for your good, and for mine. All the evil, and all the authority of the evil one, came against the innocent Son of God. Every sin, every accusation, every temptation came against Jesus like a storm. And like a storm, it had an end; the evil spent itself, expended itself, and Jesus died. But then, because God is the God of life and reversal, the God who takes evil and uses it for good, God the Father raised his Son from the dead, never to die again. Even death itself has no power any more in the case of Jesus the Lord, God's Son. And if death has no power, that means that sin has no power either. And if death and sin have no power, that means that Satan is defeated. And God wins-in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The reading for tonight moves us toward that seeming defeat and destruction, and that perfect victory. We see Satan and Jesus, and we know how the contest was finished. God wins on Easter-and we win on Easter, too. Brothers and sisters, Satan is still working for evil in our lives, in our world. Now, even in the reading tonight, you have to look carefully to see Satan at work; he's behind the scenes, but he is there. In our day, we have amazing technology and science and godly gifts of human reason. But all of that, I suspect, can influence our thinking and partially blind us so that we go for long stretches without taking seriously Satan's power or his attacks. How can we remember, and be more vigilant, and how can we respond when we see Satan's power coming against us? To help you remember that Satan is still at work, just slow down when you get to the seventh and last petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Deliver us from evil," we pray. In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther correctly reminds us that this really says, "Deliver us from the Evil One," that is, from Satan. So, every time you pray the Lord's Prayer, let that be a good reminder. And two more helps also come from Luther, and they are the "little prayers" in the Small Catechism that we can pray at morning and at evening. Both prayers end the same way: "Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me." Be aware. The question of how Satan's attacks come against us is a huge topic. No time to explore that fully. So, for tonight, just two words will be enough: Temptation, and Accusation. Satan wants to turn us from God's will, God's ways; he wants to turn us to his ways, to sin. And he wants even more to take our sins-after he has succeeded in tempting us-and to condemn us, to make us discouraged, and if he can, to make us despair over ourselves and over our lives. Again-big topics. What to say about them tonight? Remember in the reading how Peter was following Jesus ... but from a distance? Well, when you realize that Satan is tempting you to sin, by faith claim the promise that you are not at a distance from Jesus. No, you are right up there, right up close, right behind Jesus, and say, "In the power of the new life that I have with my Lord-no to your temptation! I am baptized and I am grafted together with Jesus. So ... No. I'm not going to get even, I'm not going to be selfish, I'm not going to murder someone else with gossip. No. I am right up here, right behind Jesus. I am baptized into him. And I will follow him." As Christians we do, of course, still sin-you may have noticed. When Satan takes the sins you have committed-and he seems to remember them all-and he throws them in your face, then you do the same thing as before. You claim your place right there behind Jesus, you grab hold of your baptism, and you hide there. And that way, all of Satan's accusations strike Jesus ... but they fall to the ground, they disappear, because they strike the risen, living Jesus who took your sins into the tomb and left them there. Satan's evil came against Jesus, and it killed him, but God his Father raised him from the dead. And Jesus chose that path, knowing that Satan meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. And you and I-we stay right there today and forever, right there behind Jesus. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.