Sunday, February 3, 2019

An Extraordinary, Ordinary Day - Luke 4:31-37


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 
Do you notice how ordinary most days are? Get up, make the coffee, make lunches; shower, shampoo and shave; get dressed, go to work, do your thing; come home, make dinner, eat dinner, do the chores, do the homework, and go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Most days are pretty routine and ordinary.

It was just an ordinary day for Jesus. A little travel, a little teaching, a little preaching, a little visiting. Oh, yes – He does all of these things with authority and it amazes those who are around and listening, but even that is a somewhat ordinary reaction when Jesus is there.

Ordinary is, well, ordinary…until it isn’t.

Our ordinary days get interrupted by lots of things. As I am was writing this sermon, my life was interrupted by news that my uncle passed away. My dad’s family of dad plus four brothers and five sisters is now four sisters and two brothers. The generation is slowly passing from this life of waiting to being asleep in Jesus. Your ordinary days get interrupted by all sorts of things, as well – flowers from your spouse, sick kids, an unexpected buy-one-get-one-free deal, you forgot today is the algebra test, a speeding ticket, recognition for a job well done. Some interruptions are pleasant; some aren’t so much.

Jesus’ ordinary day is interrupted by the devil. The devil arrives, in the form of this demon-possessed man. It’s loud, obnoxious, and when he starts hollering, yelling, and carrying on, everyone notices. He’s an attention getter, that devil. Maybe I should say he’s an attention magnet – he wants to pull everyone’s attention away from Jesus.

You know this, don’t you? The devil comes at us, trying to get out attention. He does it a little less flamboyantly, though, than he did in the Capernaum synagogue. He knows that if he were to show up as, say, a man in a red suit with a pitchfork you would be savvy enough to tell him to get behind you and begone. So, he doesn’t do that. Instead, he practices being subversive…he sneaks in on the periphery, in our low moments, when we cease listening to the Word of the Lord and instead are listening to the siren songs that wail around us. Sometimes he does it through very worldly ways.

·       It’s getting close to tax time. You know, he whispers, the government has no business using your tax dollars to fund abortions. Why, cheating on your taxes…that’s practically a Christian thing to do!

·       Sometimes the lies are in the form of dignity – or righteous indignation, whichever the case might be. He says, it’s your right to make those choices, it’s your personality, it’s your freedom to show someone how good you are…yeah, at his or her expense.

Sometimes, he tries to argue that God’s out to get you…wants to destroy you, like he says in this morning’s text.

·       He comes to tell you that with your particular sins, there’s no way God can forgive you. Surely, a Christian – a baptized child of God – wouldn’t have done such a thing as what you are trying to hide.

·       He tries to convince you that his persuasive powers are more powerful than the word of the Lord – that somehow God is lying but he, the devil, is telling you the truth.

·       Sometimes he assures you that, yes, you are forgiven of your past sins, but because you remain stuck in those sins and keep repeating them over and over – and over – your future forgiveness is in doubt.

·       Or, a slight variation on that one is since you can’t seem to beat ‘em, you may as well join ‘em, because – after all – you are baptized, so God has to forgive you, right?

Jesus has several ways of responding. Sometimes, He rebukes satan. He calls him out with the very Word of God. Satan tries to use that Word against us, so Jesus does the same to him. You’ll see this in a few weeks when Jesus, Himself, is tempted by Satan. But in today’s text, Jesus gives the devil the silent treatment. That is to say, He silences the devil’s voice with just a word: Silence! Jesus doesn’t need a satanic voice to be his mouthpiece, telling the crowd that He is the Holy One of God. No…Jesus will use others for that purpose of witness and proclamation. The devil doesn’t get that privilege. Jesus shuts him up and out.

On vicarage, my internship year, I had a teenager tell me in Bible class that she thought the devil was just a figment of the church’s collective imagination, something made up to keep kids in line. A sadistic Santa Claus, if you will. This is wrong thinking; this is dangerous thinking. Do not misunderstand me. The devil is real. He is our enemy. We ignore the devil at great peril.

But, while we must respect him you should never be terrified of him. Don’t ever think you are hopeless, helpless, and impotent if he draws near to you. Never forget this: the devil has been defeated. He has been placed under the authority of our Lord. Jesus has put satan in his place, under His authority - His authority of Who He is and Whose He is: He is the Word of God, the author of life, the Word  that created life, that spoke all things into existence and who brings life back from the grave that satan thought belonged to him.

Christ’s authority rests on this: He is God. His authority rests in what He has done to rescue us from satan’s power. His authority was demonstrated when Jesus took sin and satan, death and the grave on their own terms. He has died. He has risen. Christ is the conquerer. Therefore, sin and satan, death and the grave have no authority over Jesus.

And because you are baptized into Christ, because you are baptized into Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection, you are covered in the authority of Christ and satan...well, he has no authority over you, either.

Isn’t it interesting – the Jesus who silenced the demons with one word, allowed Himself to be pushed, pushed, pushed, seemingly powerless to stop the devil. But, finally, He drew the line through the cross and stopped at the tomb. He let Himself be pushed into the tomb because that is where were – held captive, kidnapped by satan. Jesus took the battle to the depths of hell to proclaim His victory, satan’s defeat, and your rescue.

So, today is a routine day. We gather for Bible study and for worship. We’ll go eat and we’ll go grocery shop. We’ll visit someone who’s sick and we’ll call someone who is lonely. We’ll speak a word of comfort and a word of hope, offer a prayer for strength and a prayer for healing. And, through you, as in Capernaum, the Word of the Lord continues to be spread. We walk along side those to whom the devil is whispering all those lies we mentioned earlier and we’ll not whisper, but proclaim. Through you and I, the Word continues to be delivered in our homes and in our community; the Word that tells of the devil’s defeat and Christ’s conquering; the certainty of sins forgiven and eternity won, seen through the mouth of the empty tomb of Jesus.

We speak and breath the word of life into a world of death. The authority of Jesus stands behind us. The authority of Jesus rests in us, in the Word we speak. Do not let satanic deception distract us. Don’t underestimate him, or his subtlety, but don’t forget who won the battle and the war or where our Lord, under His authority, has sent His enemies.

The devil was not allowed to repeat it, but you can, you may, you will say it: Jesus is the Master, the One who has conquered all. He is the Messiah, the Holy One of God.


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