September 8, 2019 God’s Kingdom Coming Luke 11:14-32

            Our gospel reading today is a unified whole, but it may come across as disjointed because there are so many references unfamiliar to us.  Let’s take a look at them because they are fascinating, and they also help us understand the richness of Jesus’ teaching.

We start off with Jesus casting out a demon.  You’ll remember that all sorts of things we call medical diseases or handicaps they called demon possession.  In fact, just about every ailment or infirmity was considered a demon.  It seems laughable, but if you consider that bacteria and viruses are basically invisible little creatures teaming all around us, and on us, and in us trying to do us harm, the idea of demon possession doesn’t sound so absurd.

Anyway, Jesus cures a man who has been unable to speak.  You’d think the crowd would be amazed and excited; especially since this is the kind of thing is the thing predicted in the Isaiah passage we read as our poetry for today.  Indeed some were amazed, but some we skeptical.  The skeptics, unable to deny the truth of the exorcism, say Jesus is doing it by the power of Beelzebul, or “Baal, the Prince.”  The name Baalzebub, which is a deliberate corruption meaning “Lord of the Flies,” appears in 2 Kings 1, which we had as our first reading.  In the first century Beelzebul is synonymous with Satan.

Let’s make sure we note something here.  There is no one consistent overarching understanding of evil, Satan, or the devil in the Bible.  Different authors use these concepts differently.  You don’t want to confuse them or else you end up with a real mess.  I confess I’ve watched some episodes of Lucifer on Netflix and I often find myself sitting on my theological high horse as critiquing the way that show plays fast and loose with Christian understandings of evil.

Anyway, for the purpose of what Luke wrote – so we’re talking the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles – there evil, Satan and the devil are all one in the same.  There is a cosmic battle going on over humanity between God’s kingdom and evil’s kingdom.  Evil makes a great show of power.  It appears to be strong and in control.  And for many purposes it is.  However, it is nothing, NOTHING, compared to God’s power.  However, God’s power does not come in great bangs, and pomp, and flashiness.  God’s power will come in the irony of the crucifixion; and later resurrection and ascension.

Jesus says that in this cosmic battle evil cannot turn against itself.  It would fall apart of its own accord.  No, evil is quite unified and it is against God. 

Jesus uses the image of evil as a strong man, fully armed, and guarding his castle.  The battle is real and it will be fierce.  People are fools when they think being a Christian is going to be a sweet tiptoeing through life with flowers, kindness, and niceness at every turn.  It’s not.

But let’s not lose sight of Jesus’ teaching.  Is it up to us to storm the castle of evil?  No.  What does Jesus say, “But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder.”

Who is this one who is stronger than the strong man of Satan?  You almost hear the words of the hymn A Mighty Fortress echoing in the background.  “But now a champion comes to fight, with weapons of the Spirit.  You ask who this may be?  The Lord of hosts is he!  Christ Jesus mighty Lord.  God’s only Son adored.  He holds the field victorious!”

So, let’s not fight battles already fought.  Our champion has already won for us.  Let’s just stay on the right side – the winning side of things!
            And indeed, that is where Jesus’ words take us next.  “When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’  When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.  Then it goes and bring seven other spirits more evil than itself.”  In those days people thought demons hated water, so they congregated in the waterless places of the desert.

Jesus teaching is that there is no middle ground – no having one foot in the camp of God and one foot in the camp of Satan; trying to enjoy the cheap benefits of evil while also sitting back with the real benefits of God.  He’s not being mean.  He’s just stating reality.  Quick cheap thrills don’t last.  Evil’s ways look tempting at first: fun, easy fixes, problems ignored, actions without serious consequences.  But they are a lie.  Real lasting good and blessings come from God.

A woman in the crowd proclaims, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!”  While Mary was indeed blessed this woman claims that Jesus is so wonderful that he is a blessing to his mother.

Jesus does not deny the blessing on his mother but seizes the moment to point to the basis for blessing for all disciples:  those who hear the Word of God and obey it.  This is life lived in God’s kingdom.

The question remains though, will they do it?  Jesus says this is an evil generation.  So, whose side of the battle are they on?  Evil’s.  What will it take for them to change?

Jesus returns to something said earlier.  What does this evil generation want?  A sign.

Now think about it, will a sign really work?  If he were to perform some incredible miracle would it really have a lasting effect?  Nope.  People would just want another and another and another.  Their beliefs would be based on a constant stream of indulgence.  They would never grow or mature.  They would never “hear the Word of God and do it.” 

Jesus is actually mocking them when he talks about the sign of Jonah.  If you remember that story well you’ll remember that it is a satire; not a historically true account.  God told Jonah to go to the foreign city of Nineveh and tell them they were corrupt.  And that God would destroy them soon if they didn’t change their ways.  But Jonah didn’t want to go.  He wanted the Ninevites, enemies of Jews, to get what they had coming to them.  So instead of going to Nineveh Jonah hops on a ship and goes in the opposite direction.  God sends a storm, the sailors eventually throw Jonah overboard and he is swallowed by a big fish.  He spends three days in the belly of the fish having a change of heart.  I suppose living three days in a fish would cause you to have some time for serious contemplation.  And eventually the fish vomits Jonah up on the shore.  Apparently humans cause tummy aches in fish!

Jonah then reluctantly goes to the outskirts of Nineveh and says one sentence only once, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  (Jonah 3:4)  That’s it.  His entire prophetic career in one sentence.  It probably took him about three seconds to utter it.  And then he left.

Here’s a parallel.  An American missionary goes to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, stands on a street corner of the outskirts of the city and says, “Change from your evil ways or bad things will happen to you.”

It’s not going to happen.  It’s not going to make any difference!  But what happens in the story of Jonah?  These evil foreigners immediately change their ways.  They even put sackcloth and ashes on their cattle and chickens!

That is the sign of Jonah that Jesus is referring to.  Not the three days in the fish – which could be interpreted as Jesus’ three days in the tomb.  No, not here.  It’s just the message to change.

That’s Jesus’ words to these crowds.  Hear the Word of God and obey it.  They will receive no sign, no proof.  In other words, they will not be given a relationship of faith with God on their own terms.  A relationship of faith with God happens on God’s terms.

The final piece of our gospel passage is where we will end too – the queen of the South coming to Solomon.  According to 1 Kings 10 and Chronicles 9 the Queen of Sheba, or Queen of the South, traveled from her kingdom in southwest Arabia to test the reports she had heard about Solomon’s wisdom.  After testing him she was convinced that his wisdom came from God. 

Wrapping it all together: Jesus says that at the judgment, people like the Queen of the South, and foreigners like the people of Nineveh will add to their condemnation because they heard the preaching of ones who were lesser than Jesus and they changed.  Yet Jesus, the presence of God on earth, was not enough to make them change.

So what do we do with all this – these strange and challenging images all wrapped together?

I think we all want a sign from God.  We all want proofs to bolster our all too often failing faith.  We can get frustrated and scared at God’s apparent silence and seeming not to care.  But let’s also remember what God has given us.  And that God has given us the entirety of scripture which anticipates our struggles.

God does inspire, maintain, and strengthen faith.  Don’t expect miracles.  But do expect that as you grasp it you will discover the authenticity of others who grasp it too.  And remember, God’s great act of power toppling the strong man of Satan looked like failure to the world.  God works in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.  Don’t always be so bold to ask for big things.  Simply ask for eyes to see this day.  As for grace to have faith to make it through this day until tomorrow.  Sometimes that’s what it takes.  And in time hopefully you can have the sight to see God’s greater plan unfolding on the horizon.  This will not be a plan for you as an individual, but God’s plan for the whole of creation, which includes you.  For while we are important to God as individuals, God is doing far more than just us.  And it is good to be a part of that great whole.