Satan and his demons know something that many
people don’t have a clue about. They know something that, sad to
say, many Christians all too frequently take for granted. What
they know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is that Jesus Christ is
the Holy One of God. That confession about Jesus
was wrung out of the evil spirit in today’s Gospel when he was
confronted by the authority and power of our Lord’s Person and
Word.
Jesus is the Christ. The devil knows that. He’s
the Son of God. The devil knows that too, and he’s not at all
happy about it. Jesus is God become Man. He’s the Savior. He’s
the Seed of the woman prophesied in Genesis chapter three, who
goes to the mat with the hellish serpent and crushes his head.
Scripture says the Son of God was manifested in the flesh
precisely in order to destroy the works of the devil.
The epistle to the Hebrews says that Jesus shared our flesh
and blood so that through His death He might destroy the devil who
has the power of death, and deliver those who through fear of
death were subject to lifelong bondage. The devils of
hell quake with fear before the authority and might of the Son of
God. They know He came to lead them captive and vanquish them
forever.
Jesus also came to deliver you – to rescue you and
set you free. He came to redeem you from sin, death and the devil
with His holy precious blood and His innocent sufferings and
death. He came to shatter the hellish shackles that hold you
captive. That’s what His holy life, His Cross, and His
resurrection are all about. This is how Jesus sets you free, how
He wins your forgiveness and saves you and makes you God’s child
through faith in His Name.
The evil spirit in the synagogue in today’s Gospel
reading knew all these things about Jesus. That’s what threw the
spirit into a panic, causing him to cry out: What do you
want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I
know who You are – the Holy One of God. I know who You
are, the spirit said. As far as the hosts of hell are
concerned, there’s absolutely no question about Jesus’ identity
and authority as God in the flesh. After all, who created all the
angels if it wasn’t the Son of God? The demons were angels who
fell from their original perfection when they followed Satan in
his rebellion against God. They know who Jesus is. They know
He’s the God of peace who will crush Satan beneath our feet.
The demons believe that God is One, and that God became Man in
Jesus Christ, and they tremble in fear, Scripture says.
As far as the devils are concerned, Jesus is the
enemy. After all, He’s the One sent by His heavenly Father to
reconcile our fallen human race to God. He’s the One who came
down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, the One who
willingly embraced the Cross so we could be forgiven and saved.
Jesus is the One who will ultimately make all things new. He’s the
One who undoes the damning work of the devil and will one day
restore God’s ruined creation back to its original state of
perfection.
In today’s Gospel Mark describes a poor tormented
man possessed by an evil spirit. This man’s life was no doubt a
living hell. He’d lost control of himself and was under the
control of something that hated him and wanted to destroy him.
This man was the plaything of the devil, driven here and there,
restless and frenzied and completely devoid of the peace of God.
He was without hope and without God in the world,
and the torture he suffered on earth foreshadowed the infinitely
worse tortures of hell.
But the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of
the devil. He came to destroy sin and unbelief and satanic
bondage. And what this poor man was helpless to do himself, Jesus
did for him. There in the synagogue of Capernaum our Lord
confronted the devil. He faced the devil down, just as He did
during the forty days of temptation in the wilderness. Just as He
did in the countless other exorcisms He performed in His
ministry. Just as He did in Gethsemane when the dark and awful
reality of the Cross loomed large over Him. Jesus faced the devil
down and the devil blinked. The devil lost the contest. The
devil’s head was crushed just as it would be forever when Jesus
died and was raised again, and Jesus emerged from the struggle
victorious.
Here’s how you should look at Jesus’ sufferings,
death and resurrection – as the crowning laurels of His victory
over sin, death and the devil. Now be aware that where the devil
is, there also is sin and death. The story of how the devil
deceived and overcame Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is proof
that sin, death and the devil hang out together on the bad side of
town. Where one is, the other two are close at hand. Because of
Adam’s disobedience, all human beings are born into this world in
bondage to sin, death and devil. And all are in need of that
deliverance Jesus alone can give.
Our Lord’s resurrection is proof – as they say here
in Catawba County – that Jesus has “whupped” the devil. The
devil’s authority has been ripped out of his scaly hands by
Jesus. The devil’s tinsel crown has been crushed into the dust by
Jesus. The devil’s favorite weapon of intimidation – death – has
been rendered powerless by Jesus. By our Baptism into Jesus’
death and resurrection we Christians now share in our Lord’s
victory over Satan. We, the redeemed, march behind our Lord in
triumphant procession. We are forgiven. The shackles of sin and
death have fallen from our wrists and ankles. We are free in
Jesus. We belong to God now.
St. Mark tells us how the people in the synagogue
were amazed at our Lord’s teaching, because He taught with
authority. He taught as someone who knew firsthand what He was
talking about. He wasn’t like the teachers of the Law who droned
on and on and couldn’t say a thing without quoting some earlier
teacher as an authority. You could say that the words of our Lord
had Divine “oommph” to them. They had Divine “oommph” because
Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Second Person of the Godhead
come down from heaven to tell us the truth about God and the truth
about ourselves and to be our Way and Truth and Life.
He is the Holy One of God who came to transform
sinners into “holy ones” -- to make them saints, by the power of
His saving Word. He came to make you a new creation, and that’s
exactly what He does every time His Gospel is faithfully taught
and proclaimed in your midst. Sometimes our Divine Service may
seem a little placid, running on familiar tracks through familiar
territory. But if you lift the curtain of the Divine Service and
peer behind the scenes, you’ll see Jesus, the Holy One of God at
work through Word and Sacrament to continually set you free from
Satan and to keep you free forever.
If God forgives you in Christ, Satan has no claim
on you. The title to your soul has been ripped out of the devil’s
hands by Jesus. Christ died for you to set you free from the
devil’s chains. On the Cross He won your forgiveness, your life
and salvation. You have been bought with a price and belong to
God now. And every time you have your sins absolved, every time
you hear the Good News of Jesus’ victory over all evil things
proclaimed, every time you take your Savior’s Body and Blood into
your mouth in penitent faith, Jesus is at work keeping you free.
He’s at work keeping you firmly rooted in the Gospel of His mercy
and forgiveness.
That’s what’s going on behind the scenes here in
the Divine Service. There’s something earthshaking happening
here, if we could only see. There’s something hell-harrowing
happening here. It’s not something to take for granted. It’s not
something ho-hum. It’s something to rejoice in, something to
hunger for, something to participate in regularly week after week
through faith in God’s gracious gift in Christ. The Holy One of
God has soundly defeated the devil. He has defeated the devil,
and the devil’s cronies, sin and death, for you.
So knowing this, we make the confession of faith
Peter made in the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Jesus is
the Holy One of God who has the words of eternal
life. That may sound like what the evil spirit in today’s
Gospel said about Jesus but it’s profoundly different. The demon
cried out in despair and hatred because he knew Jesus had come to
break all demonic bondage and power. We, on the other hand,
confess Jesus in faith and love because we know He didn’t come to
destroy our lives but to save them. He came to reconcile us to God
and make us His holy people. That’s what He does as the Holy One
of God.
So although the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion seeking someone to devour, he can’t touch us
if we’re rooted firmly in Christ. Trusting in Jesus, we resist
the devil, firm in our faith that our Lord has overcome all
satanic powers. Jesus is the Victor over sin, death and the
devil, and in Him we are victorious too. That’s something to
remember always.
In Nomine Patris. . .
