All Eyes on Jesus - The Stronger Man

Third Sunday in Lent, Oculi                  
March 20, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
All Eyes on Jesus, the Stronger Man

   All eyes on Jesus.  The 3^rd Sunday in Lent is “Oculi Sunday,” a name that comes from the first line of the Introit in Latin, Oculi mei semper ad Dominum.  My eyes are ever toward the LORD.   All eyes on Jesus. 

   And it’s no wonder all eyes are on Jesus: He casts out a demon and restores a man's ability to speak.  

   As Jesus is greater than Moses, so the finger of God revealed in His ministry is greater than what Pharaoh’s eyes saw.  For through Moses and Aaron the finger of God struck with plagues of swarming gnats and flies, seeking in vain to break the hardened heart of Pharoah, the strong man of Egypt.  

   

Again for Moses, on Mount Sinai the finger of God wrote the Torah, the Law for Israel, on stone tablets.  But Jesus reveals the finger of God in a miracle of mercy, freeing a soul from the power of a demon, and loosing his tongue to give thanks to God through Jesus of Nazareth.  Plagues and Laws from God through Moses.  Grace and the Truth of the Gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ.  Yes indeed, all eyes on Jesus, the Christ of God.   

    All eyes on Jesus.  But not all eyes see Jesus with wonder and joy.  In what must be one of the worst examples ever of foolish talk and crude joking, some in the crowd respond to the Lord’s marvelous demonstration of power and mercy with snide comments.  A ridiculous accusation that Jesus casts out demons by the power of Beelzebul, which was a popular name for the Devil.  This leads to what was for Abraham Lincoln one of his most famous quotes, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Lincoln was referring to the Union of these United States at the time of the Civil War.  Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Satan.  If, explains Jesus, He is casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the Lord of the Flies, well then Satan has division in his ranks, and his kingdom would soon fall.  A house divided cannot stand.      

    Which of course was exactly the case.  You see, in the end, Jesus uses Satan’s hatred, of God and man, against the accuser, in order to destroy his kingdom.  Strategically it was a terrible idea for Satan to drive sinners to kill Jesus, because Christ’s death is the undoing of Satan’s power.  Satan can only use the Law of God to hold our sins over us and keep us enslaved in his palace as long as the requirements of the Law have not been fulfilled.  This work of perfectly fulfilling the Law is what Jesus completes on the Cross, and by His sabbath rest in the tomb.  Satan loses His kingdom by driving the Jews and Romans to kill Jesus. 

    But Satan couldn’t help himself.  In the wilderness, Satan tried to turn Jesus from His path, as if he knows the danger to himself.  But now, the temptation for Satan to drive sinners to kill the Son of God is too great.  Satan strikes the Son of God, and is himself undone.  The literal finger of God, along with the rest of Mary’s Son, hangs dead on a Cross, and so opens the way of Life to humanity.  God’s ways are definitely not our ways.  

    All eyes on Jesus.  And your ears too.  Because the King of Heaven, now come down to earth, wants to make sure you know what’s going on.  So Jesus continues to teach about cosmic politics:  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 armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. 

    A strong man.  Did we think we were done with strong man politics?  This has certainly been the dream for a certain class of politicians and pundits.  For the last 50 years, in both America and Europe, many have maintained and clung stubbornly to the idea that we modern, enlightened westerners have, somehow, evolved past strong man politics.   

    But Vladimir Putin had other ideas.  Bullies prey on those who cannot or will not defend themselves.  And so the Western World once again must learn a bitter lesson, while Ukrainians watch their country burn, and many suffer and die. 

    Putin may have miscalculated.  He certainly appears to have overestimated the effectiveness of his own army.  But he was not wrong to believe that strong man politics continue.  Our world is a chaotic mess, and mustering the international chutzpah to stand up to a bully is hard.  Especially when that bully has weapons of mass destruction with which to threaten the world.  

     It has always been so.  With or without modern weaponry, self-appointed strong men have always tested boundaries, forcing societies which value peace and freedom to stand up and defend themselves.  It has always been so, and sadly, it will continue to be so.  Strong men and evil actors will look for an inch and take a mile, probing weakness and testing the resolve of those who seek peace.  It will continue to be so until that glorious day when the trumpet sounds, and Christ returns to collect His spoil, the prize of His victory over the Devil.  That spoil, that prize, is you.  The spoil that Jesus breaks in and takes from Satan is sinners, sinners like you, and me. 

    All eyes on Jesus.  As we have already discussed, the Stronger Man overcomes the strong man, taking his armor and dividing his spoil.  Which is to say, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and especially of those who believe in Him.  After the Cross and Resurrection, no one needs to remain under Satan’s power, for Christ died, once for all.  But this glorious, holy freedom comes only when we sinners are brought to confess our lost, sinful condition, give up hope that we can save ourselves, and instead trust that Jesus’ apparent defeat is in truth our great victory.  That despite what we deserve, in Christ Jesus we are forgiven, and so declared holy and righteous before God.  And we are.  You are. 

    All eyes on Jesus.  Our number one task as long as we remain Christ’s people here on earth is to 
celebrate and make known the Stronger Man’s victory, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and encourage others to see Him too.  It bears repeating:  Satan has no power to accuse and hold sinners in his wretched kingdom, because Jesus has fulfilled the Law in our place, in everyone’s place.  The perfect life of love, the selfless death of sacrifice, the victorious resurrection and ascension to glory, all these marvelous works of our Lord mean that there is forgiveness to spare for every sin, and for every sinner, forgiveness which the Spirit daily and richly distributes through Word, Water, Wheat and Wine. 

    All eyes on Jesus.  Because there is no middle ground, no neutral parties in this conflict.  Nobody gets to sit out this war on the sidelines.  As Jesus says:  Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  The battle between that ancient lying serpent and the finger of God cannot be a spectator sport; every human being has an eternal stake in the outcome.  Either you are with the Stronger Man, Jesus, for your blessing, or you are with the strong but evil one, Satan.  Either you are filled, freed and led by the Holy Spirit of Christ, or you are deceived and led by demonic powers, that flatter and please and cajole you with earthly pleasures and human reason, hoping to distract you long enough so that you die without hearing and believing the Truth.  As in physics, so also in spiritual matters: vacuums always get filled.  So when life in this world, and our own sin leave us empty, we need to fill up, again and again, regularly for all our lives, on the gifts of the Spirit delivered in Word and Sacrament.  

    All eyes on Jesus, the Stronger Man.  As Jesus was saying 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 Jesus said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

    Keeping our eyes on Jesus can be unpleasant, even frightening.  So we sinner-saints, we Christians sometimes tend to focus on peripherals.  Because Jesus’ teaching and practice are hard!  Sin is out. Love for the unlovable is in. Pretense and hypocrisy are out.  Pride in myself and my goodness are out.  Confessing my sins, and sacrificing for the good of the brother or sister, or for the congregation, this is the Way we are called to walk.  Jesus even promises suffering in this life for the faithful.  The fact is that uncut, 180-proof Jesus can be hard to take.   

    All eyes on Jesus.  This woman in the crowd is not wrong, just focused on the wrong person.  She correctly observes that Mary, Jesus’ mother, had walked in an amazing series of Good Works, which God had prepared in advance for her.  Mary conceived and nurtured in her womb the Son of the Most High.  She fed from her own body the Creator of the Universe.  She washed and protected and taught and loved the Child who would grow up to be the Stronger Man, God in the flesh, the Savior of sinners.  Indeed Mary is most blessed among all women. 

    And yet, we are not to try to find the finger of God in Mary.  She is not to be worshiped, or prayed to, or emphasized too much.  Rather she is to be emulated.  For she heard the Word of God and kept it.  She believed the promises and prophecies of the angel Gabriel and the prophet Simeon.  She told others to listen to her Son, and do whatever what He tells you.  She patiently kept her eyes fixed on Jesus, her Child, watching and waiting, I assume with motherly dread, for the day when the sword Simeon prophesied would pierce her own soul. 

    That soul-piercing sword was the Cross.  Mary’s unique suffering was to see her beloved Child sacrifice Himself for the salvation of this sinful world.  And yet Mary kept the Word of God.  Or better to say the Word kept her.  She clung by God’s grace to the promises, even when her eyes saw things too painful for words.  And yet in that vision is Mary’s life, and the life of the world.    

       All eyes on Jesus, the Stronger Man.  We do not know what might happen in Ukraine, in our nation or beyond.  There are many dangers all around.  Bullies will continue to bully.  But we who trust in Jesus have no real reason to worry.  Whether we suffer or succeed, mourn or rejoice, we know that we have already won, because the Stronger Man has claimed us as His reward.   All eyes on Jesus, Amen.