Luke 11.14-22
‘The Lord reigns!’
That was the closing message of yesterday’s reading, and it
is the resounding message of today’s. Yesterday it was the climax of the power
encounter between the living God and an arrogant despot. Today, it is an
episode in the climax of the battle between the Son of God and Satan.
I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase
‘the kingdom of God’? Perhaps a mixture of the parables of Jesus? Or an impression
of heaven? In the Gospels, however, a key element is spiritual conflict, a
cosmic battle. When God comes to reign, evil powers fight back, but are
decisively defeated. Jesus may well have had the exodus story in mind as the classic
scriptural case of God’s victory over evil when he said, ‘If I drive out demons
by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’ For that is
what even the Pharaoh’s magicians recognised, as the God of the Hebrews struck Egypt
again and again. ‘This is the finger of God,’ they exclaimed (Exodus 8.19)!
Startling proof
And most of the crowd on this occasion thought the same
thing. They were ‘amazed’ (.14). Well, there’s an understatement, don’t you think?
Here is a man, afflicted by an evil spirit, who everybody knew could not speak,
and Matthew tells us he was blind as well (Matthew 12.22). And Jesus drives out
the spirit and liberates the man from his demonic prison of silence and darkness.
‘Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see,’ says Matthew. Astonished?
Of course they were, the man’s unchained voice was audible proof of what Jesus had
just done. He had overpowered and expelled the powers of evil. Who, then, could
Jesus be? The promised Messiah, son of David? The one through whom God’s own reign
would arrive?
Ridiculous resistance
But for some, that conclusion was threateningly unwelcome,
so they came up with their own explanation. ‘You think he’s doing all this by
the power of God? That’s fake news! Jesus is driving out demons by the power of
the king of demons.’
Sorry, what?
Jesus brilliantly debunks the illogical stupidity of such
‘alternative facts’. And then he challenges the crowd with the only believable
truth. If his power over evil spirits (which was undeniable, the healed man was
jabbering away over there with all the excitement of his loosened tongue and
shining eyes!) is clear evidence that God is at work (by his finger, Luke, or
by his Spirit, Matthew), then there is only one conclusion. The kingdom of God has
already come among and upon them. The battle is joined, and Jesus wins. ‘The
reason the Son of God appeared,’ says John, ‘was to destroy the devil’s work’
(1 John 3.8).
‘Someone stronger’
And that is exactly what is going on here, and throughout
Jesus’s earthly ministry. Jesus’s comparison is graphic and decisive. Verse 21
portrays Satan gloating over his prisoners. Verse 22 portrays Jesus in combat, attacking
and overpowering, depriving Satan of both his power and his plunder.
Here is the ultimate cosmic war. Jesus and Satan stand toe
to toe in battle. The miracles are an audiovisual that Satan’s cause is
ultimately lost. He can do great damage, as any enemy can; but the die is cast.
He will lose. The picture of the ‘stronger one’ alludes back to [what John the
Baptist said in] 3.15–16. The stronger one is the promised Messiah who brings
fire and the Spirit . . . Jesus’s work means that Satan is no longer in control
of the palace.
(Darrell L. Bock, Luke, p. 211)
And on the cross, Jesus completed the victory that will
ultimately expel Satan from God’s universe altogether.
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