Reflection: Binding the Strong Man (June 10, 2012)

The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 3:8-15; 2 Cor. 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35

One might think that Satan is having some real PR problems. For some time now, the idea that there is actually a personal being that is wholly evil and destructively opposed to God has been dismissed as myth, superstition, or ignorance. Now, through books like Love Wins by Rob Bell, even popular Christian leaders are saying that there is no such a thing as hell. Yes, it seems that Satan has lost his power, influence, and notoriety in our culture. But rather than being a point of weakness for him, it is precisely the way in which he has worked to become stronger.

When Jesus encountered the power of Satan during His earthly ministry, Satan was so strong that he was attacking people directly. We see the various ways that Satan harassed, hindered, and controlled people in the ways that Jesus attended to their needs, including driving out the demons that possessed some people. But the religious leaders of the Jews accused Jesus of being allied with Satan. They knew how strong Satan was. They also knew that no mere man could overpower Satan in the ways that Jesus was doing. Unwilling to consider that Jesus was from God, the leaders were left with only one other explanation. But Jesus set them straight and He explained what He was doing: binding the strong man.

We can see the effects in our world of ignoring, explaining away, and dismissing the power of Satan rather than binding him and robbing him of his influence. While there's little we can do to change this situation for our world, we can effectively deal with this same issue in our homes, families, and individual lives. Unfortunately, we have failed to do this in many ways. We have embraced the media influences, entertainments, values, attitudes, and priorities of our culture without recognizing that much of it is used by Satan as his means to harass, hinder, and control people in our age. Even us. Rather than rooting out this stealthy enemy to bind him, we ignore, explain away, and dismiss his power and influence in our lives. We tend to forget that Satan has been defeated, crushed by the Savior who came to set us free from the tyranny of the strong man, and that we have been rescued from the grasp of the strong man bent on our destruction by the power of God. By that power, we too can bind the strong man in our lives.

Audio file of the sermon "Binding the Strong Man"