Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran.
Luke 11:14-23
Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” 16 while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
IN NOMINE JESU
The Finger of God
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear
saints of God, have you ever heard of Benny Hinn? He’s a televangelist who
holds huge healing campaigns. If you ever see one of his campaigns on TV,
you’ll see people fainting when he touches them, screaming in the aisles, that
sort of thing. It’s riveting and dramatic, but is it real? No. Benny Hinn is a
false healer and a false prophet. How do I know?
It’s not because there is no
such thing as miraculous healings. We must beware the impulse to follow the
prevailing spirit of our age, cold materialism, and declare that there is nothing
in the universe but natural events, and that miracles are impossible. That is
not what the Bible says. James 5 says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call
for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is
sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,
that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it
is working.” Miraculous healings do truly happen.
Ok,
then, how do I know that Benny Hinn is a false healer and a false prophet?
First, because many people, reporters, scholars, people from Hinn’s hometown,
have all tried to verify his healings. There is not one that can be verified.
Not one. Second, his prophesies have not come true. Deuteronomy 18 says, “If
what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come
true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken
presumptuously.” In the nineties Hinn predicted the eradication of homosexuals
in the U.S., the death of Castro, the resurrection of thousands of people, and
the end of the world, twice. Needless to say, none of these things happened.
Compare
Hinn’s record to Jesus’. Jesus’ prophecies did
come true. Jesus’ healings were real.
The Pharisees knew how to test a claim of healing just as well as you and I do.
They would have liked nothing better than to test Jesus’ miracles and find out
that he was a fraud. Remember the healing of the man born blind, in John 9?
After he is healed, the Pharisees drag him and his parents into the synagogue
and closely question them, only to find out that the man really was born blind,
and really had been healed by Jesus.
In
the Gospel reading for today, the Pharisees don’t try claim that Jesus didn’t
heal the mute man. They can’t deny the miracle; they just watched it happen. So
they are forced to explain it. They say, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the
prince of demons.”
Beelzebul
or Beelzebub – the name appears both ways in the Bible – might have originally
meant “Lord of the High Places.” It was one of the names of the Philistine god
Baal. But in Hebrew, Beelzebul sounds just like “Lord of Flies.” Lord of the
dung heap. The Israelites thought this was funny, and they liked to use it as a
derogatory word for an idol. By the Second Temple period, when Jesus lived,
Beelzebul had simply become shorthand for Satan. But it still would have
literally meant, “Lord of Flies.”
The
Pharisees are saying that Jesus is casting out demons by the power of Satan.
Luke records Jesus’ response: “But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, ‘Every
kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.
And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For
you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by
Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your
judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom
of God has come upon you.’”
We
tend to hear this passage and focus on the “kingdom divided” part. That phrase
is extra familiar to us, because Abraham Lincoln used it in the Gettysburg
address. But the part that really would have shaken the crowd is Jesus’
reference to the “finger of God.”
That
phrase shows up in only two other places in Scripture. One is when God is
inscribing the Ten Commandments. The other was in our Old Testament reading for
today, about the plagues of Egypt. Remember that when Moses first goes to
Pharaoh, to ask for freedom for his people, Pharaoh tests the strength of
Moses’ claims. He has his own magicians try to do the same things that Moses
does through the power of God. At first they succeed. They replicate turning a
staff into a snake, they replicate the plagues of frogs and blood. But then
comes the plague of gnats. The magicians cannot replicate that plague, and that
freaks them out. Moses tells us, “the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the
finger of God.’” But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not listen to them.
So God sent something even nastier, swarms and swarms of flies. Moses writes,
“the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.”
By
saying that the demon in the mute man had been cast out by the finger of God,
it is as if Jesus is saying, “Speaking of Beelzebul, speaking of flies,
remember the swarms of flies that overtook Pharaoh when he hardened his heart,
and refused to recognize that the miracles he saw were from the finger of God.”
The
Pharisees, remember, would have known the story of the plagues of Egypt word
for word. Memorizing the Torah was part of their training. But the crowd would
have know the story too. Every Passover they recited the story of their
deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh.
They knew that particular section of the Torah inside and out. They
would have got Jesus’ reference easily. The crowd would have heard those words,
“the finger of God,” and immediately thought of Pharaoh, hardening his heart to
the presence of God despite the plain
evidence of the miracles right before his eyes.
Jesus
is saying to the crowd and to the Pharisees, don’t be like Pharaoh. Don’t
harden your hearts, refusing to see the Finger of God among you. Don’t miss
that the kingdom of God has come upon you. At this point, Pharaoh’s magicians are
seeing more clearly than you. Pay attention!
Jesus
is saying that the story of the Exodus prefigured Him. He is the Finger of God,
walking around on earth. And more than that, He is storming Satan’s stronghold.
Jesus goes on to say, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house,
his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him,
he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.”
It’s
sort of odd to hear Jesus portraying himself as a home invader, but God has
done this before. In the Exodus, God bound Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler in
the world, and plundered him while delivering Israel from slavery. Do you
remember? Exodus 12 says, “The people of Israel had also done as Moses told
them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for
clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the
Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the
Egyptians.”
Just
so, in His incarnation, Jesus invaded Satan’s kingdom. Jesus calls Satan the
“ruler of this world.” Satan had dominion over this world, including you and
me. We were his possessions. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He
bound Satan, plundering him, and ransoming you. We read in John 12, when Jesus
prophesies His death on the cross, these words, “Now is the judgment of this
world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up
from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Jesus
looked weak in that moment as He hung on the cross, but he was really the
Strong Man. He stripped the devil of his armor and divided the spoil, namely,
you. Then, He baptized you, He brought you into His kingdom, made you His people. Thanks be to God!
That
Good News gives our Gospel reading a third layer of meaning. The Pharisees were
God’s chosen people, and yet they hardened their hearts. Now you, dear
Christians, are God’s chosen people. So we have to ask a difficult question of
ourselves: how are we hardening our hearts?
Our
epistle reading says, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness
must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no
filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but
instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone
who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater),
has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Let me repeat that last
phrase, “has no inheritance in the kingdom of God.” The Pharisees had an
inheritance by the circumcision of the flesh, but put themselves out of their
inheritance by their hard-heartedness. You too have an inheritance by
circumcision, as Paul says in Colossians 2, you were circumcised by your
baptism into Christ.
Our
epistle reading makes it clear, however, that you cannot have a part in the
inheritance if you harden your heart by purposefully sinning. Remember that in Ephesians Paul is
talking to Christians. He says, no sexual immorality. That means no premarital
sex, no cohabitating, no pornography, no lust, and no adultery.
Impurity
should not even be named among you. “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk
nor crude joking.” No coveting, because that is really idolatry.
Sexual
immorality, impurity, covetousness, idolatry? This is not how Christians ought
to live! Dear saints, repent of these sins. Turn away from them, lest your
hearts be hardened. The kingdom of God has come upon you! The Finger of God is
among you!
Where?
Here! In the church, where you hear the Law proclaimed in all its terror, and
you are stricken with guilt, and resolve to live better lives. When the Holy
Spirit turns you away from yourself, and to the forgiveness won for you by your
suffering, bleeding Savior.
Where
is the Finger of God? In baptism! There He is, calling the little child. Today
He will call Brendan Serina. He will purge him of his stain of sin, wash him
white as snow, and make him His own child. Just as He did to you when you were
brought to these waters.
Where
is the Finger of God? In the Lord’s Supper! Literally, the flesh of God is
there. In the Gospel of John Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true
drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in
him.”
I
am reminded of Moses in Exodus 33. He asks, and this is so presumptuous, he
asks to look on God’s unveiled glory. God tells him that no man can do that and
live. But then God gives Moses a tremendous gift. He hides him in the cleft of
a rock, covers the opening with His hand, and passes by. Then God removes His
hand and allows Moses to see His back.
Something
similar happens at every communion table. You should not be able to eat the
body and blood of Christ. He is God! He is holy and pure! And you are not! When
the finger of God touches you as that wafer goes into your mouth, you should
come undone! But you do not. Just as God made provision for Moses, He makes
provision for you. In my mind’s eye I see God holding you upright, bracing you
and keeping you together as the finger of God touches your flesh. And instead
of being obliterated for bringing the sinful into contact with the holy, the
sin is purged from you.
How
can you stand the presence, much less the touch, of God? Jesus gives you his
righteousness, making you a truly deserving recipient of Christ’s Body and
blood. Luther calls this the Great Swap. On the cross, Jesus got all your sin
and at your Baptism you got all His righteousness. Paul says, “He made him to
be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God.” That is the work of the Finger of God. That is the coming of the kingdom
of God.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
