Homily For The Third Sunday in Lent 2025
We are in the midst of the Lenten season and it is a time of profound spiritual warfare. In the first Sunday, we had Jesus confronting Satan in the Wilderness - achieving complete victory over the evil one. We read in Luke’s account of the temptation that Satan left Jesus until he could find a more opportune time. Satan never rests. He is always seeking to destroy those created in the image of God, to slander and impune the perfect Son of God. His purpose is to enslave and dehumanize men and women, to incite them to destroy their eternal souls. Satan seeks to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus to bestow the gift of Himself - that of eternal life, for He says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Let us look at two themes today: that of exorcism and that of sacrifice. Our text is an example of exorcism, a theme we can carry to our own experience as baptized Christians.
St. Paul also speaks in our Epistle of following Jesus in obedience, and he does so by invoking the language of sacrifice, of the Old Testament rituals of self-dedication.
Last Sunday, he exorcised one of Satan’s minions who was afflicting a Canaanite girl. Our Lord responded to the faithful plea of a Gentile mother - proving that Jesus can and will save the Gentiles from the power of sin. Today, our Gospel features another power struggle between Jesus and the devil. He performs an exorcism - reason for faith and celebration on the part of the Canaanite woman in the Gospel from last Sunday. This Sunday, St. Luke tells us of a man possessed by a demon that had taken away his capacity to speak. It robbed him of the ability to communicate; indeed, it took away his ability to express himself in the most fundamental manner. It took away his capacity to thank God with his lips and words. St. Luke tells us of the simplicity of Christ’s work - he exorcised the demon. The crowd marvelled.
Some there sought further evidence - they wanted to see another proof of Our Lord’s divinity. Yet, those who had the most reason to rejoice, those with the testimony of the Law and Prophets, those most familiar with the promises of God to the Fathers sided with the devil against the Lord’s Christ. It is, in this case, the children of Abraham who see the power of God and then attribute it to Satan. There is hardly any action that is more evil than attributing the power of God to the devil.
Jesus leaves no doubt, but this is the finger of God. The work of God to manifest power over Satan. It proves he is the one greater than Satan - able to take the strongman’s armor, take his house, and all of his spoils. Christ takes from him his power, his dominion and Satan’s oppression over mankind. Our Lord is the conqueror of all that opposes God’s rule. I want us to take particular note of the final part of this passage.
We read that a woman in the crowd shouted, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which though hast sucked.” The woman was proclaiming the gospel truth. The Blessed Virgin Mary is blessed indeed, for she was the chosen instrument of the Incarnation. She is blessed because she gave birth to the Son of God, who alone can subdue the kingdom of Satan. He alone can bind the strong man. Jesus agrees with the exclamation. Yea, indeed she is blessed. But there is a blessedness not exclusive to the Incarnation - for there is only one Incarnate Son and One blessed Mother.Blessedness, true rectitude and hope, and peace with God are found in hearing the word and then doing what the word says. Obedience to Christ leads to blessing. Faithfulness for the Christian is to make the practice of applying scripture paramount. We are to live in the reality that Christ has conquered the devil by conforming to Christ’s command - truly following in the footsteps of Jesus. We are to experience another type of exorcism and filling.
St. Paul begins by referencing the previous section by connecting this passage by using the term “therefore”. Let’s look back to the point of reference. At the tail end of Chapter 4, we read “30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Following this, we read in his letter to the Ephesians Chapter 5 - “BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.
Our baptism is a form of exorcism through which the old is cast off so that we may be filled with the new.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit, and because we do not grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom we were sealed, therefore we cast out, we exorcise if you will, all bitterness, rage, anger, contentiousness, false speaking and malice. This is an ongoing practice. Therefore, we are then filled with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness because Christ has forgiven us. St. Paul is speaking in the previous section about exorcising and filling, and this is how it plays out in our lives daily. We are to seek to drive out our sinful tendencies and allow God to renew us with obedience.
Returning to our Epistle, we, being God’s children, walk in love. As I have mentioned in a number of sermons before, in the ancient world, one’s “walk” was one’s character, the manner in which a person engages typically with the world. Here, in our Epistle, we walk in love as Christ loved us; in other words, we display through everyday circumstances the love of God for others, mirroring the self-giving love of Jesus—who has loved us.
This obedience is possible because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Here, St. Paul makes use of the language of Old Testament sacrifices to refer to Christ’s work as an “offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” to illustrate this self-giving love of Jesus for us. The terms “offering” and “sacrifice” occur over 70 times in the book of Leviticus alone. This offering or sacrifice speaks to Christ’s moral perfection, actively satisfying all the requirements of righteousness through complete obedience. Christ’s sacrifice is his self-giving death on the cross. The result was an offering and sacrifice that was a sweet-smelling savour. This harkens back to the Lord’s acceptance of Noah’s sacrifice after the flood. It is a common description of pleasing burnt offerings prescribed in Exodus. Burnt offerings were completely consumedby fire. All given to God in the fire which pointed to the complete self-giving of the offeror. I do find it interesting that the term “gave himself for us” can just as easily be translated - he handed himself over.
God the Father was well-pleased with the deliberate, intentional self-giving of Our Lord in His life and death. Let us meditate on that for a moment. All the moral instruction in the Epistle is rooted in what Christ has accomplished for us. God is well-pleased with His Son’s offering and sacrifice. The Christian is united to Christ’s redemption and, therefore, has been given the power to be imitators of God. Because of this, therefore, we might say, God is calling us to faith that our redemption is a reality by living in accordance with it in the present through presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. St. Paul sets the foundation for obedience - Christ’s righteousness for us sinners. Now, we must live as those set free from the burden of sin. Not to earn what Christ has done but rather show forth the redemption that has been accomplished for us.
Now, in the Epistle, St. Paul tells us to be imitators and followers of God by being a living sacrifice. Living in obedience and dying to our sinful desires that are at war with God’s will in this world.
In contrast to Christ’s selflessness and sacrifice, St. Paul lists all the self-serving sins that damage the spiritual health of ourselves and others. As we are filledwith the love of God, let us turn from those things that displease God and are contrary to the character of Our Lord. Sins contrary to God’s plan of monogomy within the boundaries of the marriage of one man to one wife are forbidden. We are to trust God and offer ourselves in obedience by being faithful to our spouses in word, in will and in deed. St. Paul forbids “uncleanness” which is short form for all sexual behavior contrary to God’s will - sex outside marriage, homosexuality, pornography, anything and everything in the realm of sex that is contrary to God’s plan for sexuality. Sexual sins aren’t the only ones to be cast away - exorcised. Greed - that sin that values things more than people - must be avoided. Sexual selfishness and covetousness and greed are so destructive to the Body of Christ that they are not even to be mentioned in connection with God’s people.
St. Paul instructs the Ephesians that their speech should not damage others - either in content or in tone. Instead, the Christian’s mouth should be full of thanksgiving - for the God who loves and redeems us and for the good things that God has given. Truly, being thankful to God for his good gifts prevents the defrauding of others in relation to sex, money or power. When we trust that God has given us all we need for life and godliness, we will not seek comfort, solace, pleasure in things that are contrary to His will.
St. Paul states plainly that those who practice the wickedness forbidden will not inherit the kingdom of God. These traits do not fit the identity that Christians have been given. To practice them, to have one’s life broadly characterized by them is antithetical to the redemption offered us in Jesus Christ.
As it has been said, “This is a warning of sorts not to be one who merely professes the name of Christ, but to reflect a life that shows that the Spirit resides within. Paul exhorts the believers not to be the odd person that Jesus warns about, one who utters the name of Jesus but does not know him. This verse is not about indiscretions, but about those whose lifestyles are set in this ungodly direction; this is who these people are.” Instead, we are to walk in the light of God’s presence - letting our characters, our affections be shaped by what is pleasing to God. Waking up from the slumber, the grogginess of sinfulness, awake and live in active obedience in anticipation of the dawning of Christ’s second coming.
Our Gospel lesson for today is about casting out and filling. In the Gospel, it relates to the power of God to cast out evil spirits and the need for filling so that the clean house, the exorcised soul is not made worse. Filled as it were by seven times the oppression that characterized the initial state.
In the Epistle, we learn of the sacrifice, the self-giving, self-emptying love of Christ for us. Now this self-giving love commands us to be filled with godly love, generosity, words and deeds of thanksgiving. Being filled with all the fruit of the Spirit with no room for evil that characterises spiritual wickedness. Lent is a time of casting out and filling. A type of exorcism - an exorcism of obedience. Lent is a time for taking stock of what is displeasing to God. Attitudes/actions that do not please him. How do we speak to our spouses? How do we speak about our spouses? By God’s grace, let us cast away our sin in repentance and faith. It is also a time for filling. Being filled with thanksgiving for the good gifts of God in marriage, stewardship and station in life. Being filled with the Holy Scriptures, filled with prayer. Be filled with kind thoughts and intentions toward others. Let us cast off gossip and truly treat others with love. Let us be filled with good works. Be filled, in a broader sense, with the Holy Spirit.
Before coming to the Holy Communion, what remains left undone? What remains to be cast away? What obedience/love needs to be filled in our hearts? Let us take a few moments and ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and resolve to cast away all that impedes our life in Christ and be filled, instead, with all godly love and obedience. Amen.