Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

January 30-31, 2010

“The Holy One of God”

Luke 4:31-44

Grace, love, joy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is a phrase that occurs only twice in the New Testament; well, three times, but two of those are accounts of the same event. The phrase is, “You are the Holy One of God.” It’s said in our Gospel lesson today, and in the parallel account recorded by St. Mark in his gospel; and it’s said in the sixth chapter of John. But what a difference in the meaning, even when the words are identical. Here, a demon says, “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” In John 6, we find St. Peter saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Same words, but not nearly the same meaning behind them. Spoken by Peter, they are words of faith and trust. Spoken by the demon, they are words of fear and despair. As James wrote in his epistle, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.”

But then, why are we even talking about demons? There’s no such thing, is there? We live in a rational, scientific age; we’re past believing in superstitions like the devil, and demons, right? Take this man in our Gospel lesson today, the one St. Luke tells us had “the spirit of an unclean demon.” He just says that because they didn’t know what else to call it back then. The guy probably had some kind of mental handicap, a chemical imbalance in the brain that caused his wild behavior. Right? Wrong. Trying to explain away the supernatural has been a favorite pastime for some people over the years, but all they’ve done is create a bigger problem. In trying to disprove the supernatural, they have led many to reject the one true God, but they have not done away with the human quest for spirituality. We are born with a need for God; take God out of the equation, and there is a spiritual void that most people will fill one way or another. So what we have now are generations of people seeking spiritual answers, seeking the supernatural, in ways that are not grounded in the truth of God’s Word. And make no mistake; the devil and all his unclean spirits, who are real and active in our world in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend, couldn’t be happier about that.

So let’s say this loud and clear, whether it’s considered rational and scientific or not: the devil is real; demons are real; and they want nothing more than to destroy your faith as a Christian. Denying their existence only gives them a stronger foothold in our lives. The man in our Gospel lesson had no psychological disorder; no chemical imbalance. He was under the control of a demon, unable to cast the evil spirit out of himself, and unable to control it. What he needed was Someone more powerful than evil spirits; One whose “word possessed authority.” This is a concept we understand. Think about our own families. When you were a child, if you had siblings, a brother or sister might try to tell you what to do, but that didn’t mean anything; their word had no authority. But if Mom or Dad told you to do something, that had authority; you knew you better do it. The same was true in our text. The evil spirit could be cast out, but not by just anyone. It had to be Someone whose word had the power and the authority to do it.

There are two groups of beings who know the One who has this authority: evil spirits, and Christian disciples. Those two groups both say of Jesus Christ: “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” But they mean very different things. The demons know Jesus is the Holy One of God, and for them, He is the Destroyer. He is the One who has power over them, and keeps them from harming His people. Jesus Himself tells us in John’s gospel that the devil and his followers want to harm us; He calls the devil a murderer, saying there is no truth in him, and he is the father of lies. St. Peter refers to the devil as prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Think of what the devil did to Job, or what he did to Judas Iscariot when he entered his heart. Jesus’ Word is true; the devil seeks only to harm and cause destruction. So to all evil spirits, the Holy One of God is One to be feared as having the power to destroy them. We see this in the way this demon addresses Him. He knows what is coming: “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” The concept of Jesus as the Savior is completely foreign to his thinking.

Contrast that with the view of Christian disciples. In the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, we have the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand; a wonderful event. Immediately after that, we see Jesus telling the crowd that He is the bread of life; that His body and blood are food and drink for the life of the world. Hard sayings, that many could not accept. When most of the crowd went away, He turned to the Twelve disciples and asked, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Simon Peter responded on their behalf with this tremendous confession of faith: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” The same Jesus who causes such fear and hostility among evil spirits, causes peace, and joy, and salvation among those who believe in Him as their Savior. Identical words, “You are the Holy One of God,” but entirely different meanings.

And the great good news for us is that the Word of Christ, the Word that has the power and authority to cast out and destroy evil spirits, also has the power and authority to create and sustain saving faith. When Jesus was healing the sick and casting out demons in Capernaum, the people there wanted Him to stay with them, and not go anywhere else. It’s hard to blame them for that, having seen all the examples of His divine power. But He came for more than just one town in Galilee. He came for the whole world. He said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

All the people who came to Jesus for healing remind us that we live in a broken world. Every illness, every demon possession, is all a consequence of sin in this world. So Jesus brought His power and authority to us to undo the damage that sin had caused to His creation. Every sickness He healed, every demon He cast out, was a reversal of the curse of sin. Every healing was a sign that pointed to the ultimate healing that comes through Christ. And that ultimate, eternal healing took place on the cross, and in His resurrection, we have the promise that all He did was for us. As He rose from the dead, so we will one day rise from the dead, to live with Him forever in heaven.

And what is behind His promise of salvation? The power and authority of His word - the same Word that created the whole universe out of nothing - The same Word that continues to sustain and keep all things in existence; That very Word became Flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  That Holy Word revealed Himself in Capernaum with power and authority.  All things are possible with His Word.

Jesus' Word creates the Sacraments.  Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God's command and combined with God's Word.  In a similar way, Christ's body and blood are joined to the bread and wine of the sacrament with the Words of Jesus, "Given and Shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."  By the power of His Word, Jesus joins us to Him in His life, suffering, death, and resurrection.  Through baptism, His righteousness becomes our righteousness.  By the power of His Word, He gives us His true body and blood under bread and wine for us Christians to eat and to drink.  Through this sacrament He offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  He strengthens us in the one, true faith that leads to life everlasting. He gathers us all together in one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church that is eternally united with Him.

We know who Jesus is – the Holy One of God. For the demons, that means destruction. But for us, it means forgiveness, life and salvation by His name. For us, it means that Word of life, the Word of power and authority, that all of your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.