Plundering The Strong Man

​3rd Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 5)                                                     LSB #’s 656, 716, 541
Text – Mark 3:27
 
But no one can enter a strong man’s house & plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.  Then indeed he may plunder his house. 
 
PLUNDERING THE STRONG MAN
 
 
Since I have family visiting this morning, I thought I’d begin this sermon with a quiz.  That way they can show off how knowledgeable they are.  After all, they are my relatives.  It’s a true/false quiz, so everyone should be able to get at least 50% of the answers right.  We begin:
The home you live in is real & not a figment of your imagination.   True or false? 
You live a good life.   True or false? 
You know something that is actually true.    True or false? 
Where I grew up & when I grew up, all of those were easy questions to answer.  Life was very simple, practical & down to earth out in the countryside.  We were raised to work.  That was our purpose in life.  Nothing about it was complicated to understand. 
That doesn’t mean it was easy.  There were the usual hardships that sin brings into this world, but our role as children was clear.  Learn how to work & support yourself in the adult years of life.  And adulthood did not begin when you turned 35 or 40 years old.  It began at 18, or sooner if you were able.   I started hoeing out weeds in farm fields by the age of five. 
You may have noticed that things aren’t quite the same anymore.   It is definitely not legal to make a five-year-old child work in the fields today.   It’s no longer legal to allow one child to ride in the back of a pickup truck, let alone seven of them.  That’s how my parents used to take the neighborhood gang into the city for ice cream cones. 
How we look at the world, & how we understand our purpose in life, makes a huge difference in how we respond to the events of our lives.  From world changing events like the just celebrated 80th anniversary of D-Day,  to the latest gossip in the local neighborhood,  people with differing foundational views on life  will respond in vastly differing ways.   Here are two more questions that will help us get into the Gospel reading from Mark:
The world is basically a good place that is being corrupted by sin.   True or false? 
The world is an evil place from which Jesus is rescuing sinners.    True or false? 
How you answer those can reveal a lot about how you view what God is doing.   Let’s take the sermon text: “But no one can enter a strong man’s house & plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.   Then indeed he may plunder his house.”  (Mark 3:27 ESV)   Who is the strong man?   What is his house?   What are his goods that someone is looking to plunder? 
To help you think through those questions, let’s go back to the June 6th anniversary of D-Day.   Who was the strong man in France at that time?  It was Adolph Hitler.   He had defeated & was controlling the French people.   So, they were the goods that the Allies were seeking to plunder.  What was the strong man’s house?  It was all the territory controlled by the Nazis. 
Clearly, the analogy is not exact, but it does help you to see the point Jesus is making.  Satan is the strong man, & his house is the entire world.  The goods that Jesus seeks to plunder are people enslaved to sin.  In fact, His entire creation is under the curse of sin & Jesus is striving toward bringing all of it back into perfect condition. 
Obviously, Satan is not giving up without a fight.  He has nothing to lose because he’s already been judged.  Nothing worse can happen to him no matter how many lives he destroys.  We see all too well the results of that.  It’s easy to challenge God’s thinking.  Why doesn’t He just end it all now?   I’m a believer.   You’re believers.   Call us home Lord. 
However, God knows that, at least for now,  the longer He waits to end this world,  the more people there’ll be  who come to faith & join us in heaven.  St. Paul explained in his letter to the church at Corinth: “…as grace extends to more & more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.   Therefore, we do not lose heart.   Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”  (2 Corinthians 4:15-16)    When you’re young, if you’re not picking up on that ‘outer self wasting away,’ you will notice it as you get old. 
Yet, the children of God do not lose heart because ‘our inner self is being renewed day by day.’   That’s the reality St. Paul describes, but the reason for it is that the grace of God is being extended to more & more people as the final judgment is delayed.  God’s children see that & are thankful for it in spite of all the suffering that we see, or experience ourselves. 
In Jesus’ death & resurrection, He was binding Satan so He could plunder his house.  You & I are some of the fruits of that raid.   Jesus said, “And I tell you, you are Peter, & on this rock I will build my church, & the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  (Matthew 16:18 ESV) 
In other words, the gates of hell cannot keep the Church from plundering the house of Satan.   Jesus works through the Church, as dilapidated & broken & helpless as it seems, to rescue people straight out of hell.   And that brings us back to the two questions meant to help us get into the Gospel reading from Mark:
The world is basically a good place that is being corrupted by sin.   True or false? 
The world is an evil place from which Jesus is rescuing sinners.     True or false? 
Certainly the world is still being corrupted by sin, but that is not something new.    As Jesus uses the term ‘a strong man’s house,’ He’s referring to this world, Satan’s world.   It is not basically a good place.   You & I know that from personal experience.   In some respect, this world is already hell, but its gates cannot prevail against the Church. 
The Holy Trinity sent the Son to earth in Bethlehem, that He might bind the strong man.  “Then indeed he may plunder his house.”  (Mark 3:27b ESV)   Satan won’t give up the fight, so the Gospel reading last Sunday revealed a heightened level of conflict between Jesus & the leaders of the Jewish people.  They began to plot His destruction.  Today’s Gospel reading focuses on the open & growing hostility to Jesus – from His enemies & from those closest to Him, including His family.  You may have experienced that as well. 
The world is an evil place.   However, Satan can no longer enslave us.   He no longer owns those in whom the Holy Spirit has created faith.  The chains have been broken & Jesus is to this day plundering the dungeons of the devil.  Isaiah prophesied of that:
“Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”  For thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,   & the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, & I will save your children.  I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, & they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.  Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, & your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”  (49:24-26 ESV) 
 
There’s some gory imagery in there probably representing the judgment of hell.  It is our sinful tendency to minimize the horror of sin & unbelief.   Yet, on the final day of time, it is certain that even unbelievers will know that Jesus is the Savior & the Redeemer of all who trusted in Him, the Mighty One of Jacob.  That knowledge will add to their eternal suffering. 
Satan is waging war, whether you are resisting or not.   In this strife, we experience casualties, traitors & triumphs, but the consequences are eternal.   The spiritual dimension is at the root of everything, & God is hidden behind the scenes, though He is very active. 
Because human beings love to be in control of their lives, we find it maddening & frustrating that we cannot clearly perceive or manipulate the spiritual dimension.   For that reason, it is important that we know how to look at our world, & to understand our purpose in life.   Our world is evil, but Jesus is rescuing sinners from that evil.  That news brings us rest. 
Although it is a good thing, our purpose is not simply to work, especially not in the spiritual realm.  Some people following Jesus said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  (John 6:28-29 ESV)   Our chief purpose is to believe in Jesus, that He created us out of love, & that our love in return will bring glory to His name.    And even that work, God prepared in advance for us to do as Ephesians 2:10 tells us. 
Believing that God loves us, puts all the events of life into their proper perspective, even when we cannot understand them.  Knowing that the Almighty God loves you means that He is working all things together for your good.  Sometimes we see that as it’s happening.  At other times we see it in retrospect.   Even other times we may not know until heaven. 
Nothing about that is complicated to understand, but you can only believe that through faith, the faith that God’s Spirit Himself works in you.   That is something you can know that is actually true, but again, knowing that truth comes only by the faith God works in you.   The world cannot understand that because it has rejected its Creator, Savior & Lord. 
If we open our eyes of faith the truth is obvious.  We live in a world that is evil, but Jesus is rescuing & forgiving sinners that one day we may know the truth of a world that is entirely good.  That world will be filled with peace & joy, & it will last forever.  Amen. 
 
 
I walk in danger all the way, the thought shall never leave me that Satan, who has marked his prey, is plotting to deceive me.   This foe with hidden snares may seize me unawares if I should fail to watch & pray.  I walk in danger all the way.    And death pursues me all the way, nowhere I rest securely; he comes by night, he comes by day, he takes his prey most surely.   A failing breath, & I   in death’s strong grasp may lie to face eternity today as death pursues me all the way.     My walk is heavenward  all the way;  await, my soul, the morrow,  when God’s good healing shall allay  all suffering, sin & sorrow.   Then, worldly pomp, begone!  To heaven I now press on.   For all the world I would not stay; my walk is heavenward all the way.  LSB 716:1, 3, 6.