“Who Is Your ‘Strong Man’?”
Text: Mark 3:20-35
6-9-2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Every now and then we have a Scripture reading come up that’s packed with multiple lessons waiting for us to explore. The difficult part is knowing which part to examine. Such is the case today with our Gospel. Should I preach on Jesus and his interaction with His family? Or on discovering who the “strong man” is in Jesus’ parable? Or on what is the “unforgiveable sin”? I learned a long time ago the benefit of not trying to cover everything in one sermon. So, many of you will agree with Gayleen’s advice which was, “Just pick one of them, and go for it.” I respect her input but here’s the problem: All 3 of those issues in the Gospel text are intricately tied together. Because of that, we really need to address them at the same time. That’s what we’ll do and my hope is that you’ll see how these different pieces contribute to the main spiritual lesson in it for us.
First, the background. In the verses just prior to our text, St. Mark tells us the names of the 12 disciples that Jesus called and gave special authority to go out as His representatives with the Gospel. It’s important to note that Jesus also gave them power to cast out demons. Up until this point, Jesus alone had been doing this. Now, He’s going to have help. But keep in mind, this power over the demonic forces came from Christ. He was the source, and it was evidence that He truly was the Son of God as He had been saying. After this commissioning, Jesus returned to His home in Capernaum which is right off the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds gathered around Him as He continued to preach, and heal people, and cast out demons. As you’ll see, that last item attracted a lot of attention. That’s because healing dealt with the physical realm but commanding power over demons dealt with the spiritual realm. In other words, it showed that Jesus was more than just a physician of the body but He also had curing power for the soul.
Enter Jesus’ family. Presumably they came down from Nazareth because they had heard the hubbub about Him. We know from St. John that the brothers and sisters of Jesus didn’t believe in Him yet. All they could see was how busy He was. And rather than marvel at His teachings and divine power, they thought He had gone nuts. It sounds like a good and caring thing as they tried to take Him away from the crowds for some R & R. But was it really? Hang on to that thought because we’ll come back to it later.
Next, we have the scribes. They were the group that spent all their time studying the Scriptures. The religious leaders in Jerusalem sent them to check Jesus out. If He was saying or doing something out of line with God’s Word, they’d catch it. But He wasn’t. They saw the miracles and they couldn’t deny them. The problem was they didn’t like the teachings of Jesus. Rather than looking at the Bible the way that they did, as a legalistic book of do’s and don’ts (which they thought they were doing pretty good at), He explained and applied it to every soul. He showed what real sin was and the need for sinners to repent. And can you believe it? He had the audacity to say they too were sinners who needed to repent and receive forgiveness! On top of that insult, He insisted that everyone who wanted to be saved needed to come to HIM for that forgiveness and believe in HIM for salvation.
Since they couldn’t deny Christ’s supernatural power, they tried to discredit Him and therefore His teaching by attributing His miracles to Satan. Ah yes, the only reason Jesus could cast out demons is because Satan gave Him the power to do so. It was a ridiculous argument and Jesus nailed them on it. Think of it this way. In a war, would the general of the army instruct his troops to start shooting and destroying each other in order look like they were winning? It makes no sense. You’re defeating yourself. Satan is no fool and would never do that. And yet that’s what these guys are accusing Jesus of. He warns them how dangerous their opposition to Him really is.
In fact, He says their false assertion was the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit. Why was this such a fatal sin? Well, it was one thing to say that they didn’t understand the things Jesus was teaching or even to disagree with Him. But this crossed the line. Jesus spoke the truth of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit was working powerfully through that Word to create faith and forgive sins. Now these guys were saying that this power behind the words and miracles of Jesus was Satanic! Which means the Holy Spirit was Satanic. Furthermore, they resisted the Holy Spirit’s work of faith in their own hearts which meant that they refused to believe or seek forgiveness through Jesus. That is the unforgiveable sin because if you reject the gift of faith then you’ll never ask for forgiveness. And if you never ask for forgiveness, your sin and guilt remain which can only lead you to eternal damnation.
We need to back up a little though to the parable of the “strong man” because it contains the good news for us. Jesus says that you can’t break in and plunder a strong man’s house unless you bind him first. Now, some people think that the strong man who’s breaking in is the devil because he’s described as a thief. That’s backwards. Satan is a thief, a murderer, and a liar. His “possessions” are the souls of men and women who he has stolen the faith from. Jesus is the stronger man who overpowers Satan to take back what was rightfully His in the first place. His “strength” was displayed as He resisted the devil’s temptations and lived a perfect life in our place. His strength was shown on the cross as He suffered for all our sins. That crushed the power of Satan over us. Now, that rescuing power is applied to every soul that believes and is Baptized. Through our Baptisms, we are set free from the power of sin, death, and the devil. Through our Baptisms, God claims us as His possession. More than that, He makes us part of His family.
And that explains the words of Jesus about His earthly family. He wasn’t trying to insult or shun His mother Mary or His brothers and sisters. Instead, He was showing how everyone who does the will of God is part of His larger, global family. And what is the will of God? It’s simple. Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. Follow His teachings and let the Holy Spirit transform your life. Live joyfully in that freedom and don’t allow yourself to be recaptured or enslaved by Satan again.
Okay, now it’s time to apply this to our own lives. We need to see the danger in how some of these people reacted to Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit. First, His family. When they went to “save Him from Himself” it sounded like a good thing that they were trying to do. However, sometimes we can find ourselves opposing God and His holy plans by engaging in seemingly good things which are not in and of themselves evil. But they are when they displace God’s will for our lives. This is going to sting as you hear some of these examples so get ready. Are sporting events (whether playing or watching them), leisure time at home or at the lake, more sleep and rest, work at home or at your occupation, or any of a million other things—are they evil in and of themselves? No. But they are when they’re in opposition to God and interfering with your weekly worship. And please, don’t try to wiggle out of it by saying you don’t have any choice. You do. It’s something that we all need to repent of. Yes, I said “all” and I include myself in that.
We don’t like hearing that, do we? I strongly urge you to not go down the path of those scribes in our text. They didn’t like what they heard, so they tried to discredit God’s Word that Jesus was speaking to them. Oh, but nobody here does that, right? Wrong. How about some more examples? There is a certain percentage of you that don’t agree with our policy of Closed Communion where we reserve the Sacrament for those who are in fellowship with us. You say Pastor is “mean” and not “Christ-like.” You say it’s just the “opinion” of Pastor Meyer or the Missouri Synod. Therefore, you quietly declare it to be wrong and even divisive or evil. The problem with that thinking is that I’m just obeying the God’s Word in Scripture. Your argument is with the Holy Spirit and who inspired the Bible because that’s where it comes from. Be careful, because you’re not simply opposing me or Zion or the Synod. You’re opposing God Himself and that’s dangerous spiritually.
What about our doctrinal position on Baptism, or the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion, or cohabitation before marriage, or whether you can “decide” to follow Jesus? Is that also just Pastor’s “opinion” or the out dated “policy” of the Missouri Synod? Just this last week someone shared with me an article by an LGBTQ advocate on 10 Bible passages that Christians supposedly twist into condemning this perverse behavior. You may be tempted to say, “Ah, live and let live!” But friends in Christ, how can you say that? These people are making the same accusation as the scribes calling the Holy Spirit a tool of Satan. They’re pushing this ideology on your children and grandchildren. Many of those kids are buying into it! What will you do? Quietly go along with it because you want to love them even though you know this lifestyle choice is opposed to God’s will? What will you do? Nothing! Why? Because you’re afraid and not prepared to confront this evil and call it what it is. That’s because you bypass the opportunity to discuss it in Bible Class and learn how God’s Word addresses it. That needs to change. In fact, I challenge you to change that trend today.
Jesus makes it all very simple. He says that if you do the will of God then you are part of His holy family. You are brothers and sisters of Christ. And do you remember what the will of God is? Repent and receive the forgiveness that Jesus provides for you. Believe and trust in Him for your salvation from sin. Hunger and thirst for His Word and Sacrament. Even though the family of Jesus had good motives, they were found to be putting other things ahead of God. The scribes didn’t like what Jesus was saying so they tried to discredit Him by saying Satan was responsible for the mighty work of the Holy Spirit. Doing so, they committed a fatal sin for their souls. But the crowds that surrounded Jesus had it right. They put everything else aside in their lives and sat at the feet of Jesus. They willingly received His words of life and salvation. They trusted that He was God’s “strong man” who overpowered Satan and rescued them. Satan is not stronger nor is he equal to Christ. He has been defeated by the holy life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The attentive crowds trusted that Jesus had restored them as God’s possessions, and more importantly, His beloved children. I pray you believe the same thing. Because if you do then you can rest assured that your strong man, Jesus, will continue to protect and preserve from anything spiritual that would threaten to steal your faith from you. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!