Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 2 - 2021

April 13, 2021

Text: Luke 4:31-44

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The Gospel is, of course, the forgiveness of sins.  But it doesn’t stop there.  The Good News of our Lord’s coming among us, His life, His passion, His death, and His resurrection indeed brings us absolution of our transgressions, but that’s just the beginning of the Good News. 

For the Gospel means a Great Reset – a real Great Reset, not just another broken and shallow political promise of Utopia on earth, but the real deal, the eradication of every cause of human suffering and chaos in the world and in the universe, as Jesus comes to restore the Garden of Eden.  The Gospel means the forgiveness of sins, but also the eradication of sin, the destruction of death, and the vanquishing of the devil. 

We see it as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the Scriptures and preaches the coming of the kingdom in Capernaum.  For there, in that place, “was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.”  The demon mockingly calls out to Jesus: “Ha!  What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are – the Holy One of God.”  And yes, the demon is right.  He has come to destroy all of them, to release their victims from the clutches of evil, to restore us to Paradise.  And yes indeed, He is the Holy One of Israel. For all of its bluster, the vile demon is under the authority of Jesus: “Be silent and come out of him!”  And the demon has no choice but to obey.  For this is Good News indeed, dear friends, that demons are being cast out, and they will ultimately be cast into the Lake of Fire, never to harass us again.

Moreover, the Gospel deals with physical illness.  For why do we get sick?  Why do our bodies wear out?  Why are there viruses and cancers and auto-immune disorders?  Why are people paralyzed and why do they get dementia? It’s the same old story, dear brothers and sisters: the chaos of evil, the trajectory that leads us to death.  All of this was unleashed at the Fall, and all of this Bad News comes from the same demons that Jesus expels by His Word.

And as people bring the sick to Jesus to heal, the demons see it and they squawk.  Again, they confess the divinity of Jesus, and our Lord casts them out and shuts them up. 

And there is one more thing the demons hate that Jesus does: preaching.  For proclaiming the Good News is to preach the Bad News for them, the fact that God has come to earth, that He will die to pay the blood price for our redemption, that He has come to restore Eden by driving out all demons, including Satan himself.

Indeed, the Gospel is a Good News/Bad News proclamation: Good News for us who are being saved; Bad News for the demons who are being condemned.  And this is why the people marvel at Jesus and His Word, for “His Word possess[es] authority,” the authority over sin, death, and the devil, and the authority to restore Paradise by the coming of His kingdom – and that is the Gospel, the Good News, indeed!

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.