The Third Sunday of Lent
Luke 11:14-28
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I.
Jesus and Beelzebul
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Be-el′zebul, the prince of demons”; 16 while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul. 19 And if I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; 22 but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. 23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
The Return of the Unclean Spirit
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
True Blessedness
27 As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
There is no such thing as neutrality.
Not in the political world. Not in the religious world. Not in the demonic world. Not even in the world of science (as in “follow the science.”)
Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent, make that clear.
He says:
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus restates this positively, after telling His disciples not to stop a non-disciple from casting out demons in Jesus’ Name:
“Do not forbid him; for he that is not against you is for you.”
Jesus is clear. A man is either on His side or not.
Yet, as Christians, we are beset on all sides by appeals to neutrality.
Why? When such a thing, by Our Lord’s own lips, cannot be?
II.
Today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel is an appeal by Jesus for consistency in the face of the world’s sinful inconsistency.
First, Jesus calls out the inconsistency of a hostile crowd of onlookers. He has just cast out a demon from a dumb man, who now begins to speak.
Jesus is accused of using Beelzebul, the prince of demons, to cast out the lesser demons.
In a way, this makes sense. If Hitler is in charge of the Gestapo, then Hitler can order the Gestapo to stop torturing a victim.
But Jesus retorts that this is not a chain-of-command question, but a question of propaganda: who do you believe Jesus is? The Christ or the Devil?
Later on, in Luke 11:37-54, Jesus is invited and accepts and invitation to dine with the Pharisees and Lawyers.
In what has to be an example of the worst dinner party gone wrong, we read:
“While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness.’”
Last week, I spoke at length on the framing in Mathew’s Gospel of the story of Jesus healing of the Canaanite women.
I think Luke applies the same frame here, though Luke only refers to the people. In the next chapter, in Luke 12:1-2, Jesus says:
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”
The leaven is hypocrisy, or, put another way, inconsistency.
So, when the Pharisee-leavened crowd challenges Jesus with a chain-of-command question, accusing Him of being in league with the devil, He responds that they themselves cast out demons, and, oh, by-the-way, in whose name are they doing so?
If it is in God’s Name (by “the finger of God”) then they should recognize that the same God is at work in Jesus. But, since they do not recognize God at work in Jesus, they must be of the devil.
Elsewhere, in Matthew 22:29, Jesus addresses the failure to recognize Him as a failure to read and know the Bible, and, therefore, to know God:
“But Jesus answered them, ‘You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.’”
In other words, the kingdom of God has come, and Israel is busy opposing it. They are on the wrong side.
Jesus says:
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
There is no neutrality when it comes to the kingdom of God. You are either actively a part of it and working to expand its reach throughout the world, or you are actively opposing it.
Your silence is complicit, and your neutrality is a vote for Hell.
By the way, Jesus is very clear what that kingdom-expanding work is. He says in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you….”
“Go.” Do not stay put. You don’t have to go very far, just don’t be idle or do nothing.
“Make disciples.” This means to teach, but it also means formation for life in right living. Living in and working for the growth of God’s kingdom is a way of life.
“Of all nations.” No exceptions. One’s inherited culture, religion, and way of life are no excuse for not becoming a Christian. The Church must leave no corner of the earth untouched and unclaimed for Jesus.
“To observe all that I have commanded you.” Or, as the NIV puts it, obey. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
I ask you: do you detect a note of neutrality in the Great Commission?
I do not.
Does it sound to you as if Jesus would be okay with polite (or not-so-polite) refusals to His commands?
No, it does not.
No king extends His kingdom by allowing indifference to His rule.
Jesus has left us with commandments that we must teach others to obey, not to go around giving unsought advice, only to have that advice rejected.
Discipleship is not a take it or leave it proposition. You are either a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not (yet). There is no neutral position.
It is up to the Church wage all-out assault on the bastions of unbelief — especially when they masquerade as neutral — and bring about the obedience to Christ’s commands that He requires of the nations.
Incidentally, if this raises the specter of Christian Nationalism in your mind (or, if you get asked if you’re a Christian Nationalist), first, understand that that is a gotcha question. The person asking you is straight from the Pharisee-leavened crowd of today’s gospel lesson. He is not a friendly.
Second, you could do worse than to quote scripture, which is what Jesus always did. Quote Matthew 28:19-20 to your accuser (or to yourself if you need convincing). Ask your accuser to tell you what it means. Or ask yourself what it means.
Your accuser will know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not neutral even if you, as His follower, aren’t quite there yet.
III.
Let me help you get there.
You are still hanging on to this idea of neutrality. But neutrality is impossible for three reasons.
The first, as we’ve seen, is that there is no neutrality in Scripture.
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
But also, this from Deuteronomy 13:1-4:
“If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
God is testing you. By what means? By His word. By what reference or standard? By the standard of Himself, by the standard of His Truth, by the standard of His own Word.
God’s Word is the baseline reference point and standard for all truth. There can be no understanding of what is true and what is not true without reference to the Truth Himself.
Or, as Jesus puts it in His prayer to the Father for His disciples in John 17:17:
“Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth.”
In other words, Jesus is asking His Father to make His followers holy according to the true standard of holiness that God has set.
In short, there is no neutrality in God’s revealed Word.
But surely, reasonable people can agree to disagree. After all, doesn’t God Himself say in Isaiah 1:18:
“Come now, let us reason together….”
Indeed, He does.
So, let us apply the rules of reason and logic. If one part of a conjoined proposition is false, then the entire statement is false:
“David was the king, and David was the Christ” = FALSE. The first statement is true, the second is false. But just because the first statement is true does not make the proposition neutral. The proposition is either true or false.
Propositions either follow from their premise or they do not. They may be unclear or clear. They may be partially true, wholly true, or completely false, but they are never neutral. There is either valid reasoning or invalid reasoning. There can be no neutral reasoning.
This is why Isaiah continues in vv. 18-20:
“Come now, let us reason together,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
In other words, all reason (for it to be reasonable) proceeds from the premise that the the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
You are still struggling. You don’t want to let go of the idea that there is some corner of the universe where you can flee.
Some principality like Switzerland.
If you can just get there, you’ll take your stand against this small-minded preacher and prove you are a good and decent person.
So, you flee to science. Yes, that science.
Let’s have a look at the science.
You are excited because neutral is a chemical term! Pure water at room temperature has a pH of 7 and is neither an acid nor a base, it is neutral. In fact, you are so happy because pH 7 is the very definition of neutral. It is the reference point.
You’ve found your Switzerland!
However, because pure water at room temperature is the reference point, it is also the one thing you must affirm. Orange juice with its pH of 3 would not be an acid without reference to water’s pH 7. Ammonia with its pH of 11 would not be a base without reference to water’s pH 7.
If you’re “neutral” about pure water at room temperature having a pH of 7 then you have destroyed all your science.
Now, who does the Christian understand to be the baseline, the reference point for all things?
IV.
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God (John 1:1, 14) is the baseline, the reference point, not just for believing Christians, but for the whole creation, whether the unbelieving creatures acknowledge Him or not.
This is because He is fully God and fully man.
He unites in Himself, in one Person, both the uncreated nature of God and the created nature of man, which he took from His mother, Mary.
This proposition allows for no neutrality. It either is true or it is not true, just as the chemist presupposes that a solution with a pH of 7 is neither acid nor base. The chemist can do this because he presupposes there are constants in nature.
But even the definition of the standard hydrogen electrode, upon which he bases his pH scale, comes down to international scientific consensus and is nothing more than a recommendation.1
That’s funny if you think about it. A so-called “constant of nature” boils down to an international committee’s recommendation.
Still, it is a recommendation upon which the chemist bases all of his work. In no way can he afford to be neutral about it. Chemistry would become impossible the moment be tried to be neutral about it.
Likewise, for the Christian. The moment he allows for any possible neutrality — some civic space (the public school), some aspect of his character (his “sexuality”), some corner of his mind (what he likes to call his “free will”) — he destroys his faith.
Is there some principle, some standard, some behavior, some form of government that he is allowed to have or to hold, that is somehow exempt from his obligation to refer all things to Jesus Christ for judgment as his standard?
Or do you not know what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5?
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
The following line of argument is un-Christian (though I hear it from Christians all the time).
It goes like this: “Jesus never said anything about abortion, or homosexuality, or feminism, or gambling, or transgenderism, or prayer in schools….”
Christians make these feeble arguments because they are hoping that the Bible will allow them some neutral zone. But Jesus need not have mentioned these by name to speak of and to everything.
John 1:3 says:
“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
All things mean all things. All things bear the mark of their creator and declare how they stand before Him.
Acts 15:18:
“Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”
If we are God’s own work, then surely, we are not neutral. We are either for Him or against Him.
V.
Today’s gospel lesson ends with an odd coda, odd at least to modern ears. This is not how we praise speakers we like nowadays. It goes:
“As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’”
If Jesus’ response sounds familiar that may be because it reminds you of what we heard the first Sunday of Lent. When tempted by Satan, Jesus countered each temptation with the Word of God.
In fact, it was in response to the first temptation that He said:
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”2
Both times Jesus is making a plea for consistency. He is putting Satan and everyone else on notice that there is no neutral ground.
Every inch of creation is claimed for God and contested by Satan.
Moreover, Jesus asserts in today’s gospel that he is the stronger of the two and that He will win:
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil.”
What this means is that if there is some part of your private or public life that is held by Satan, sooner or later Christ will recapture it and divide the spoils.
To whom will He divide the spoils?
To His believing Church.
Jesus means to give this world to God’s children.
Psalm 2:8-9 says:
“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Specifically, the heathen nations are promised to Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, as His inheritance, but, as Paul makes clear in Romans 8:15-17, we heirs, through Christ, of that same inheritance:
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Part of that suffering means letting go of the sense of safety that you may be clinging to in still thinking that there is some neutral place for you to go be a Christian and not have to face the consequences of your Christianity.
For Americans, maybe that sense of sacred neutrality has to do with the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause and also that, for so long — all of our history until the 1960s — it was understood that this was a Christian Nation.
This did not mean that we had an established church at the federal level (though many states had established churches) but that Christianity was privileged in law and custom.
After all, it was the Christian sabbath, Sunday, that was the subject of blue laws.
Now, we see that Satan will be privileged in the classroom and in the statehouse, all in the name of a neutrality that Jesus has told us does not exist.
Recently, the Satanic Temple’s director of ministry, wrote in an email, about their plan to send Satanic Temple chaplains into Florida public schools:
“Our ministers look forward to participating in opportunities to do good in the community, including the opportunities created by this bill, right alongside the clergy of other religions.”3
This satanic group understands that there is no neutrality, but they are using the naivete of Christians — who think there is neutrality, and, Gee, if only we could just get back to it (like we had in the 90s!) — against them.
I came of age during the 1990s. It wasn’t neutral then either.
The Satanic Temple is not a serious group. By their own admission, they do not even believe in Satan. They mock religion, specifically the Christian faith.
Their purpose is to mock you and drive Christ from the public square. They are your enemy.
By whose authority do they cast out God from the public square — a square that to this day still has one or more Christian churches situated on it?
By the authority of Beelzebub?
No. (Remember, they don’t believe in Beelzebub.)
By the authority of a godless neutrality supposedly found in the First Amendment!
Don’t be fooled. The states that ratified the First Amendment also had blasphemy laws on the books.
It is a myth that our founding was secular. And it certainly was not neutral.
Our country is not neutral and unless Christians wake up and start to organize politically we will find ourselves opposing God, working against Jesus, and undermining the kingdom.
Satan is not divided against himself. He is organized and knows what time it is. Many Christians, however, are like the formerly possessed man we read about today, who, if they are not watchful, will find themselves possessed again, and this time by a legion of devils.
Then it will be truly said of Christians in America that:
“The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
The baptism rite from the 1662 prayer book puts the charge to us this way:
“We receive this Child into the congregation of Christ’s flock, and do sign him with the sign of the Cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner, against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end. Amen.”4
You join the Church, it seems you go looking for a fight. That’s what the prayer book says.
There is an election coming up, but Christian political action is not about “voting harder.” In fact, on balance, Christians been voting the right way.
There is a bill proposed in Alabama right now that would strictly limit gender to biological sex. This is nothing more than the equivalent of an attempt to save the pH standard, to let water be water in order to save Chemistry. But, in this case, it is a political attempt to save men as men and women as women.
Recognizing that God is the author of life, again in Alabama, the Supreme Court there recently extended protection to unborn children, the "byproduct" of IVF, and otherwise abandoned to a frozen limbo, usually before they are destroyed.
Even in California, as recently as 2008, residents voted to uphold the biblical definition of marriage. But Satan is not divided against Satan and so the people’s will was undone.
If you’re wondering why, then you need to understand what Paul said in Ephesians 6:12:
“For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
This not just a call to prayer, though it is certainly that. This is a call to understand, as Jesus put it in today’s gospel, that it is by the finger of God that He casts out demons.
Therefore, the kingdom of God has come upon us.
God’s kingdom has laws. His kingdom is a political force, and, through His Church, this kingdom must make its full weight felt on the body politic in order to strike fear into God’s enemies. God’s kingdom must not be neutralized or spiritualized into irrelevance by the passive pietism of its Christian citizens.
The Irish once understood this and the wrote they norms of Roman Catholic Christian social teaching into their constitution, they are about to strip mothers of their rights.
God says in Exodus 23:27:
“I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.”
We need to normalize the confusion of God’s enemies through Christian political action.
We need to get good at it again. Churches, individual congregations, need to learn how to do this once more.
Christ left us with commandments for the here and now. We are to teach the nations to obey them. Not only is it for their own good — everyone benefits by good laws — it is now urgently necessary for the safety and protection of the Church.
We must, once again, make our Alleluias heard in the halls of power, in the courts, in the legislative chambers, and on the streets.
[“Alleluia.” Otto Preminger’s The Cardinal. 1963.]
But it will take more than singing.
We are not allowed to be neutral or indifferent about God’s claims on His creation or His rule of creation.
We are to enter into the political fray, acknowledge Christ as the head of state (In God We Trust), and establish His commandments in law. Amen.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. As Christians, we are beset on all sides by appeals to ____________.
2. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is ____________ me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
3. Jesus is accused of using ____________, the prince of demons, to cast out the lesser demons.
4. Luke intends for his reader to see the ____________ of the Pharisees at work in the hostile crowd confronting Jesus.
5. The leaven of the Pharisees refers to ____________ or ____________.
6. The failure to recognize Jesus as Son of God and Christ is because of a person’s failure to read and know the ____________ and ____________.
7. Explain why the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is not a neutral statement.
8. Like the pH scale for Chemistry, God’s Word is the baseline reference point and standard for all ____________.
9. Explain why the Bible is the one thing you must affirm if you want to know the truth.
10. A so-called “constant of nature” in Chemistry boils down to an international committee’s ____________.
11. Explain why this is an un-Christian argument: “Jesus never said anything about abortion, homosexuality, feminism, gambling, transgenderism, or prayer in schools….”
12. You join the Church, it seems you go looking for a ____________. That’s what the prayer book says.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or both of the following: 1) Count how many times the word neutral is mentioned. 2) Discuss with your parents about a time when you (or they) had to choose a side. What were the consequences? How did things turn out?
(1) neutrality; (2) against; (3) Beelzebul; (4) leaven; (5) hypocrisy/inconsistency; (6) Bible/God; (7) discipleship is not a take it or leave it proposition; (8) truth; (9) If God’s Word is truth (John 17:17) then to deny it (or remain ignorant of it) is to destroy the very possibility of truth; (10) recommendation; (11) As Creator and Lord of all, Jesus need not have mentioned a thing by name to speak of and to everything; (12) fight
The recommended absolute electrode potential of the hydrogen electrode is: E⚬(H+/H2)H2O(abs)=(4.44±0.02) Vat298.15 K. See: “IUPAC - Standard Hydrogen Electrode (S05917).” n.d. Goldbook.iupac.org. https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05917.
“Satanic Temple ‘Looks Forward to Participating’ If Florida School Chaplain Bill Passes.” n.d. Tallahassee Democrat. Accessed February 29, 2024. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/28/satanic-temple-awaits-passage-of-florida-school-chaplains-bill/72702146007/.
“Publick Baptism of Infants.” n.d. Www.eskimo.com. Accessed February 29, 2024. https://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/baptism/index.html.
The Neutral Mind