Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Luke 11:14-28):
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Mëë ci Yecu nɔmɔ lar, cu ciek mi te rɛy bunä jɔwdɛ kap nhial. Cuɛ jɛ jiök i̱, "Ca muɔɔr ëë daap ji̱, kä ci luɛth poth!" Kä cuɛ wee i̱, "Puɔ̱th akɛ nɛy tin liɛŋkɛ ruac Kuɔth kä ka̱pkɛ kɛ."
Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I’d like you to think about these words very carefully from Romans 7, where St Paul writes:
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Think about these words. Meditate on them, ponder them, consider them. Think about the first words from this quote which St Paul says, “I do not understand.” What an amazing thing that even someone as blessed and as wise as the apostle Paul, still, after all his searching, his persecutions, his experience, he says, “I do not understand my own actions.” Someone like this who was one of the first to preach the gospel, who understands many mysteries of the faith, still doesn’t understand his own actions.
To be without understanding is a dangerous thing. There are many times in the New Testament where people who are unbelievers are called people “without understanding.”
Where there is no understanding, there is darkness, uncertainty, fear. Where there is no understanding, there is the devil. But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, he turns on the light, he enlightens our understanding. St John calls Jesus the “one who enlightens all people.”
When St Paul says, “I do not understand my own actions”, he acknowledges a deep truth: He knows that he is a sinner, and that all his thoughts, words and actions are corrupted by sin. And because of this, he is actually unable to know and comprehend his actions fully. He can’t understand his actions. He doesn’t understand his own actions.
Nevertheless, he is still in the hands of Jesus. He understands this. He says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He understands Jesus’ actions, he understands his miracles, his suffering, his death and his resurrection from the dead. But when he says, “I do not understand my own actions”, he says, I am dangerous, I can’t be trusted, but I am safe with Jesus.
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Our reading today is a strange reading. It is about things that many people don’t understand. Jesus tells his listeners about demons.
And today there are many people who are fascinated with demons. There are plenty of TV shows and movies and books about supernatural topics: vampires, mediums, and all that sort of thing. People are fascinated by demons.
Why do you think that is? Why are people fascinated by evil things? Why does it seem for a lot of people that evil things are more fascinating than good things?
I would suggest that people simply “don’t understand their own actions.” But unlike St Paul, they don’t understand the actions of Jesus.
And for us as Christians, we also don’t understand our own actions. Why is it that we get angry with those people that we love? You love them, don’t you? You know that it’s in your best interests to treat them well, don’t you? Then why do you pour out all your fire on them?
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
What about all the times when you wanted to do something good but you decided to sit around and do nothing instead? What about the times when someone did something wrong to you, and you really wanted to see them suffer? Or what about the times when you said something about someone behind their back that you know you would never say to their face? You know it’s wrong, don’t you? So why do you do it?
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Listen and understand these words, and consider them. Psalm 51 says, “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Many people think they are sinners just because they sin. If you ask a person, “are you a sinner?”, they might say, “Well, not for a while – not really…” But the true teaching of Jesus is that we are sinners, not because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. If we don’t understand this, we probably have never understood the entire gospel.
The poison stream comes from the poison river. The corrupt words come from a corrupt heart.
If we don’t understand this, we don’t know what Christ came to die for. If you think the forgiveness of sins only has to do with forgiving a few slip-ups and all those times you had an extra biscuit or ice-cream when no one was looking, think again. Jesus died for you as a whole person, because your whole body, your whole soul, your whole nature is corrupted with sin.
I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I do not understand my own actions.
Now God didn’t create your sin. When he created everything we read, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” But sin corrupts everything. The devil corrupts everything. And the devil sticks and clings to everything that is bad.
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When there’s something around that’s going rotten, the worms and the bugs settle in. The flies start to hover around. This is what demons and the devil have to do with sin.
We read in our reading:
Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marvelled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.
What’s going on here? Jesus casts out a demon from a man, and some people see that he is healed and praise Jesus for it. Some people think that even though he speaking, he must be sicker than he was before. This must be another stage of his sickness! They think that Jesus is casting out demons not by the power of God, but by the power of the prince of demons, by the power of Beelzebul.
The name “Beelzebul” or “Beelzebub” literally means the “Lord of the flies”. And this is exactly how demons are: they are like flies that hover around something rotten, something dead, something corrupt.
Some people in the crowd think that Jesus must be a like a giant fly who has come to scare off all the other flies.
But we read:
But [Jesus] 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 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.
Jesus says here to the people: “demons stick together”. Flies don’t chase away flies. They all join forces.
But Jesus is not just another fly. He casts out demons by the finger of God, by the Holy Spirit.
So one thing we know so far about demons is that they stick together. And when demons are cast out by Jesus, they are cast out by the finger of God.
We read on:
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides the spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Jesus speaks here about a strong man, a soldier who guards his palace. This strong man is the devil. And the devil appears like a very strong man. Sin and corruption and suffering in the world also appear to be a stronger force than good, sometimes. In the same way, the devil can appear like a very strong man. But when Jesus comes along, he attacks the devil’s house and destroys it. Jesus is a stronger man than the devil.
There is a temptation for some people to think that the devil and Jesus are equally powerful. But that’s simply not true.
Remember Jesus on the cross. This was the time when everything looked as though the devil had won the day. But in actual fact, it was the time when the devil was defeated, because sin was paid for with Jesus blood, and so the devil has no more power.
So two things we know now about Jesus and demons: Demons stick together, but Jesus casts them out by the finger of God. And also, Jesus is stronger than the devil – he has won the victory over the devil and the devil can’t hurt us.
And now Jesus says in our reading:
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, “I will return to the house from which I came.” And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
Have you ever had a situation like this? Have you ever had a situation where you recovered from something, or you got to a stage in life where you were happy, and then you fell more deeply than you had ever fallen before? Perhaps you were aware of a fault, and you tried really hard to do better, and then you fell again and again, and messed up even worse than you ever had before?
In this little passage, Jesus describes how the devil leads people into despair. And it is an easy thing to despair. It’s easy to think that there’s no point in moving forward, because no matter what we do we think there’s nothing we can do that can make things better. It’s easy thing to think that bad things are going to happen to us anyway, so there’s no point in trying.
It’s a scary thing that Jesus describes when he speaks about these seven demons returning to a person who has been cleaned and swept out.
And so like St Paul, many of us will throw up our hands and say, “I don’t understand my own actions. I do not do the good I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate.” I don’t understand how to keep these demons out. I don’t know how to improve things in my life. I don’t know how to keep myself afloat.
And we know how much depression there is in our communities, how much darkness there is, how much uncertainty, how much suffering. And not just in our own communities, but in our own homes, and in our own hearts.
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But then at the end of our gospel there’s a little glimmer of light. There’s one last twist in our reading, where a woman in the crowd yells out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that gave you suck!”
You beautiful boy! You lovely young man! Thank you for revealing to me this teaching! Your mother must be proud! I have a son, she says, and I wish he was like you. How I wish that you were in my womb and how I wish that my breasts gave you milk!
(It all gets a bit earthy!!)
And Jesus doesn’t say, “No my mother is not blessed.” He says, “Yes, but rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Here is the powerful word which we need to keep close.
We don’t understand our actions, we don’t understand how the devil uses us to do damage here and there and all over the place.
But one thing we do know: We have heard the word of God. And when the word of God goes into our ears, we know the house that has been swept out and cleaned is not empty. There is no room for seven demons. There is only room for the strong words that belong to the strong man, Jesus, who has destroyed the power of the devil.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
And so may we who have heard the word of God, may we also keep it, cherish it, keep it close with us, keep it churning over with us. May we not only hear the word of God, but also keep thinking over it. May we not only put the word of God in our mouth, but also chew on it. May the word of God not only wash over us, but also settle in and marinade us.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
And so remember the words that Jesus has spoken to you particularly.
Baptism now saves you.
I forgive you all your sins.
Take, eat, this is my body. Take and drink, this is my blood.
I have written you in the palms of my hand.
We don’t understand our actions. But this we do know: the devil is filth, and he loves our filth. But when Jesus speaks his words of forgiveness to us, which he won on the cross for us, there is no room for the devil. When the word of God fills the house, then there is no room for the devil. We don’t understand our own actions, but there is something that is clearer than our own understanding, that is more powerful than our own understanding, and that is the word of God, the gospel which is the power to salvation.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Lord God heavenly Father, we have heard your words with our own ears. Sow it deep into our hearts, bury it deep within us, so that we may also keep it, and keep it close with us all the time. You have put away the devil from us and defeated him. Fill us with your Word, and with your Holy Spirit, that everything which wants to harm us may be crushed by the finger of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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