Sermon for Time after Pentecost – Mark 3:20-35

So, Jesus tells a lot of parables. What’s your favorite one? (ASK) Here’s one that I bet no one ever mentions. “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.” The parable of grand larceny. It’s not cheating – no trickery. It’s not stealing – no sneaking. No, Jesus means storming in, tying everyone up, and PLUNDERING – taking EVERYTHING, like even ripping out windows and doors. That’s not far-fetched – think about how building materials get stolen all the time from houses being renovated in a bad neighborhood. Jesus is talking about an epic robbery. How disturbing is that? I don’t hear anything about a felony conviction. Is Jesus actually telling us how to get away with crime? That CAN’T be right, can it? What’s Jesus up to here?

Well, we’ve got Jesus casting out demons in the middle of a crowd. And along comes this gaggle of scribes from the big temple in Jerusalem. They know Jesus really is casting out demons. They should be ecstatic, right? No! THEY’RE supposed to be God’s chosen leaders. THEY’RE supposed to be the ones casting out demons, but you get the feeling that doesn’t happen much. Think they’re a little jealous? They say, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” But it’s actually not slander. After all, Jesus didn’t go to rabbi school. He wasn’t trained like them. How could he possibly know how to cast out demons in the name of God? Beelzebul is the only possible explanation, based on everything they’ve ever learned about God.

That’s crucial to understand, because we jump to the conclusion that these scribes must either be stupid or faithless for not recognizing the obvious power of God right in front of their noses. But it takes a lot of faith to drive you to do all the work it takes to become a scribe. They’re serious people. And they’re not skeptics. They don’t think Jesus is just putting on a show. They believe demons are absolutely real, and Jesus is absolutely casting them out. So somehow Jesus gets close and tells them, “Hold on. How can Satan cast out Satan?” If Satan is so powerful and so determined to conquer the world, do you honestly think Satan is so stupid as to defeat his own minions? After all, if Satan was his own worst enemy, Jesus wouldn’t have much to do much of anything but let the inevitable play itself out. But that’s not the situation. Jesus reinforces that Satan is real and powerful and hellbent on conquering the world. That’s what Jesus means by the strong man in his parable. He means Satan, and the strong man’s house is this broken world, where Satan holds great sway. What else could explain all our daily injustices and violence?

But right here we get derailed. Is Satan real? If we did a poll right here in the Sanctuary this morning, we would not be unanimous. None of our creeds talk about Satan, even though Jesus does. But Jesus knows we’ll get off track, so he also tells the scribes, “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” He’s not talking about the strong man’s house. He means the church. The house of God. See, Jesus comes as the stranger, demonstrating the power of God. The scribes can’t understand, because Jesus shatters everything they know about righteousness. He touches the unclean. He baptizes gentiles. He breaks the Sabbath. The scribes can’t see the lives that Jesus transforms. They only see sin and blasphemy, and there’s only one answer. Crucify Jesus to end his campaign of unrighteouosness. We have the same problem. We have all these preconceptions about who God calls to ministry. Congregations still refuse to call women, gay, lesbian, or transgendered people, other races, the list goes on. Or we decide who’s worthy to receive the sacraments. We think we’re defeating unrighteousness. But it’s only a bitter battle about sin and righteousness, and it will kill us because we have no righteousness of our own. All have sinned. We’re as naked as Adam and Eve. We are dead.

But Jesus doesn’t have much use for death, does he? They crucified and buried him, but after three days he is risen from the grave, and that’s when he really gets to work on us. Because he takes all of our sin willingly upon himself, and puts it all to death on the cross, just so that we would rise with him in his resurrection. That’s the only thing that actually glorifies God. Not our doctrines or our good works or our piousness. These all scatter like dust. But the power of God endures forever and will never be defeated. Jesus proves it each and every time he tells us, “I forgive you”, and that word is the power of God to bring life out of death. I know I constantly talk about forgiveness, but we keep mistaking forgiveness for denial or making excuses or just sweeping the past under the rug. True forgiveness is God saying “I have delivered you through everything and I am doing a new thing with you right now whether you like it or not.” Not even Satan can stand against that, and even if you don’t believe in Satan, Jesus says all the same, “his end has come.”

The thing is, from the beginning of time Satan has always worked by the lies of accusation and exclusion. You are unrighteoous and unfit for the kingdom of God. We hear that and figure it’s a done deal. That’s why Jesus says one of the most misunderstood verses in all of scripture, the so called “unforgivable sin”. “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” People think Jesus is talking about some kind of unforgiveable profanity, but he’s not. Jesus is talking about the person who says “God can’t forgive me.” Sometimes that’s us, when we buy Satan’s lie. But we don’t stay there. Thanks be that God defeats Satan with his own words. What Satan will never get is that it’s precisely by knowing just how unfit we really are, that Jesus can draw us together into one house of God, where no one is any better than anyone else. That’s the whole point of Jesus’ parable. Jesus isn’t telling us how to be felons. Jesus is telling us how HE binds the strong man and plunders his house. Folks, we’re the plunder. We don’t get here by merit. We’re here because Jesus put us here to save us from ourselves. And Jesus doesn’t say rob or steal. He says PLUNDER, because he’s going to get ALL of us. That’s why THIS house is the one place where we equally belong. So in the house of God, why shouldn’t anyone be called to proclaim the Word of God? Doesn’t faith make us see right through the things that look like sin, so that we will hear the truth of God proclaimed? Faith makes sure we know it when we hear it. Like Paul says in his letter, “We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

Besides, in the end, everything looks like sin if you just look closely enough. Why keep looking? You already know what you’ll find. But Jesus means it when he says “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.” So go and sin boldly, but trust in Jesus even more boldly, because even though our most pious works make a mess, our neighbors need them all the same, and forgiveness will be waiting for you when all is said and done. Thanks be to God. Amen.