August 22nd

The Strong Man

             And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.  But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

Mark 3: 23-27

            Jesus was healing again.  This time he was casting out demons and individuals who had been mentally or physically tormented were being healed and given peace.  The religious leaders had no explanation of how a mere man could be doing this…so they said that Jesus himself was possessed and was casting out demons because Satan was trying to deceive the people.

            Jesus dismissed that accusation as ridiculous.  If a house is divided against itself, it will crumble.  That is just simple logic.  He then throws out this tiny parable that carries tremendous weight.

            There is a strong man who owns a house filled with treasure.  There is a thief who wants to steal the treasure, but the strong man stands in the way.  In order to take the treasure, the thief must first subdue the strong man and tie him up…which means he must be stronger.  Then the treasure will be his.  Whenever I have taught this passage to students, it has proven vexing to them for a couple of simple reasons:

·         God is good, so He can’t be the thief.  He is always described as rich and powerful so He must be the strong man in the story.

·         Satan is bad, so he must be the thief.  He cannot be the strong man because we don’t like describing our enemy that way.

The roles are actually reversed and it can be hard to wrap our minds around.  Satan is the Strong Man.  He is powerful and in charge of this earth and the souls that inhabit it.  We are living in his house and the sons and daughters of God are the treasure, more precious than anything else in creation for we are made in the very image of God the Creator.

            Jesus wants that treasure and wants nothing more than to steal every soul that Satan hordes as his own.  So Jesus came to earth as a thief in the night.  He snuck into human history in the form of a lowly baby and only a few shepherds noticed.  He snuck into Hell in a way that no one expected, dying a criminal’s death and taking upon His shoulders the weight and sin of humanity.  When He came face to face with Satan and Death, Jesus showed that He was stronger and broke the power of sin that held the children of God in captivity.  The Thief came to earth to steal you and to steal me and bring us back home.

            Some important take-aways from this tiny story:

·         Jesus is stronger than Satan…and not just by a little.  We are not engaged in a terrible battle between the light and the dark where the outcome is in question.  Jesus is already the clear winner; we just have not seen the ending yet.

·         We are treasure.  We are what is being fought over.  Not money or jewels or land or water.  We are the treasure.  Young or Old, Men or Women, Disabled or Typical…we are the treasure.  We are precious to God and that is why we are targeted by the enemy.

·         The Crucifixion was not Jesus at His weakest.  It was Jesus in His strength.  His suffering and death were how He took on the sins of the world so that He could sneak into Hell and have a confrontation with the enemy.

Jesus’ life on earth was the greatest heist story ever told, and you and I and our children and all the sons and daughters of the King were the prize that He risked everything for.

            I find that pretty cool.

A moment to reflect:

You are treasure.  Sit in that for a while.