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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The devil made me do it!” Many of you may know and perhaps use that sentence, and a few of you may even remember its being popularized on television in the early 1970s by black‑comedian “Flip” Wilson’s drag‑character Geraldine Jones (Wikipedia). In Sunday’s Old Testament Reading, we more or less heard the woman say that the devil made her eat of the tree of which God had commanded them not to eat (Genesis 3:13), and, in tonight’s reading of the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Drawn from the Four Gospel Accounts, we hear passages drawn from the Gospel accounts of St. Luke and St. John that at first listen could lead us to say that the devil made Judas betray Jesus to the leaders of the Jews. Tonight we consider “Satan’s Role”, not only as it relates to Judas’s betrayal, but also as it relates to us and our sin.
At first listen, the verse from St. Luke’s account, that earlier in the week (perhaps Tuesday evening) Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was of the number of the Twelve (Luke 22:3) might be thought to contradict the verses from St. John’s account, that after Judas had taken the piece of bread Satan entered into him (John 13:27). But, believing that all of Holy Scripture is Divinely‑inspired and therefore is without error, we know that these two verses do not contradict each other; we understand instead that the devil repeatedly entered into Judas over a period of time, ultimately persuading Judas to betray Jesus (confer or compare John 13:2).
To whatever extent the devil might have “possessed” Judas eventually, Judas is said first to have gradually permitted the evil spirit to get control of him, in the process driving out the Holy Spirit as Judas yielded to his “besetting” sin (Arndt, ad loc Luke 22:3, 430). Indeed, in keeping with our Lutheran Confessions, we believe, teach, and confess that, when God withdraws His support, then one’s will turns away from God to evil, and so sin is caused by one’s perverted will, not by God (Augsburg Confession & Apology XIX). We may wonder whether and if so why God withdrew His support from the devil after creating him good, thereby permitting him to fall, but Holy Scripture does not reveal those things to us, and so we leave questions of “whether” and “why” in the mystery of God, whose wisdom and knowledge are deep and rich, and whose judgments and ways are unsearchable and inscrutable (Romans 11:33). Regardless, Judas’s guilt is not removed by the influence of the devil (Just, ad loc Luke 22:3, 812), and neither is ours.
Unlike the first man and woman who could have not sinned, we are conceived and born in sin, and so by nature we are without fear, love, or trust in God (Augsburg Confession I:1). As we say with the Small Catechism, the devil, the world, and our sinful nature do not want us to hallow God’s Name or let His Kingdom come; instead, they want to deceive us and mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice (Small Catechism III:11, 18). And, contrary to God’s will, too often we give in to such temptation! Unless we are born from above by the Holy Spirit, we are condemned to the eternal wrath of God (Augsburg Confession I:1-2), the eternal fire prepared—not for us, but—for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Thanks be to God that He calls and enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. For, when we so repent, then God forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be; God forgives it all for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we did in tonight’s Psalm (6), we ask the Lord to save us for the sake of His steadfast love (His “mercy”), and He hears our plea and accepts our prayer.
To be sure, as we heard in the Gospel Reading on Sunday (Matthew 4:1-11), our Lord Jesus Christ did not blame Satan who tempted Him, but Jesus ordered the devil away. And, St. Luke tells us that, after the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time (Luke 4:13), which seems to be when Satan entered Judas, as we heard tonight (confer Luke 22:53; John 14:30). Jesus came in order to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8), and destroy the devil’s work Jesus does. Jesus not only perfectly resists all temptation and so remains without sin (Hebrews 4:15), but, on the cross, Jesus also defeats sin, death, and the devil for us. As He Himself described it, Jesus is the Stronger Man Who enters the house of the strong man, binds him, and plunders his goods (Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21), in this case you and me. As Jesus had prophesied, He was betrayed, and God, in His infinite wisdom and under His control, permitted Satan to have a role in that betrayal that served the greater good of the salvation of all who receive His forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
As we are baptized into Christ, our sins are forgiven; Holy Baptism rescues us from death and the devil and gives us eternal salvation. Like our Lord and Savior, we, too, can order Satan away, pointing to our baptisms as God’s making us His own and removing us from the devil’s house and putting us into God’s own house, the Church. Here, in the Church, those who are baptized privately confess the sins that trouble them most, for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself, by which our sins are forgiven before God in heaven. Here, in the Church, those who are instructed, examined, and so absolved, are admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar, where they receive bread that is Christ’s Body given for them and wine that is Christ’s blood shed for them, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all these ways, God forgives our sin and re‑creates us so that we bring forth the fruits of faith according to our various callings in life.
As we go through this life, we continue to face temptations to sin, of course. Sometimes people imagine the devil on one of their shoulders and an angel on their other shoulder. Such a picture can serve a useful purpose, but such a picture can also trivialize the devil, who Scripture says prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). When we succumb to temptation, forgiveness is available to us, and, with daily repentance, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins and extend our forgiveness to those who sin against us. But we must be especially careful that we do not so gradually permit Satan to get control of us that we fall into open sin and so drive out the Holy Spirit from us; for, the Holy Spirit does not permit sin to rule and gain the upper hand, but the Holy Spirit represses and restrains sin so that it does not do what it wishes (Smalcald Articles III:iii:43-44).
So, tonight in reflecting on “Satan’s Role”, not only as it relates to Judas’s betrayal, but also as it relates to us and our sin, we have realized our own sinfulness and what God has done about our sinfulness in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who died on the cross and rose from the grave, all for us. No, the devil does not “make us do it”, but, yes, God permits Satan to have a role in our lives. God also graciously enables us to endure Satan’s temptations with God’s help and forgives us when we succumb to those temptations, ultimately giving us the fruits of Christ’s cross’s victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil, through His Means of Grace, His Word and especially His Sacraments. Looking forward to our full and eternal appreciation of that victory that begins on the Last Day, we pray now, as we did in the Office Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 521:6):
Jesus, send Your angel legions / When the foe would us enslave.
Hold us fast when sin assaults us; / Come, then, Lord, Your people save.
Overthrow at last the dragon; / Send him to his fiery grave.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +