Jesus Asks a Question: “Don’t you first have to bind the strong man?”
Jesus Asks a Question: “How can a person enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions without first binding the strong man?”
The Grand Inquisitor. Messiah Jesus was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding; some were intentionally provocative, others were to kick-start a conversation; some questions were asked to explore a topic to deepen understanding and stretch toward the truth; some were leading questions that He designed to suggest a particular answer, and others were questions in response to questions asked of Him; some were hypotheticals to stimulate the imagination, other questions were used by Him as stepping stones to think logically from one point to the next. Jesus used questions to dignify the listener, letting that person know that He is taking that person seriously and listening carefully. Many of His questions were acts of friendship and used to pursue a more profound intimacy with someone. Jesus asked very few yes-no questions, and since time was usually irrelevant for Him when He was with people, He rarely asked a “when” question. Several biblical scholars have studied the gospels with Christ’s questions in mind, and they have literally counted a total of 307 questions in His various conversations and teachings. It seems that a worthy spiritual exercise when considering the many questions of Jesus is that we ask ourselves… should I take His questions personally, as if He was asking us that question right now?
The Question. “How can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions, all his household goods and even the furniture, without first binding the strong man? Then indeed the stronger man may plunder his house.” (Matthew 12:29).
The Strong Man and the Stronger Man. Jesus offers a quick little parable about the binding of a strong man in his house by a stronger man, who then takes the weaker man’s stolen possessions. In this case, the strong man’s possessions are those who are lost or captive to Satan’s wiles. Jesus bound the strong man to set the captives free! Because Jesus began His victory over Satan at the Temptation, Jesus has bound the strong man because He was stronger still. The kingdom of Satan is on its last legs after his defeat by Jesus in the Temptation. The Cross, the Harrowing of Hell, the Resurrection, and the Ascension are the nails in Satan’s coffin.
Cooperating with the Devil? Immediately after Jesus cast out a demon that was tormenting a blind and mute man, the cynics came out of the wood work. There were crowds of people who were stunned with bewilderment and asked, “This cannot be the Son of David, can it?” The Pharisees brought this cynicism to a much higher level, because they assumed that Jesus is only able to cast out demons through the help of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Jesus responded with pure logic… It makes no sense for Satan to drive out Satan, because that would mean his kingdom is divided against itself. Of course, his kingdom will not survive that way. What does make sense though, Jesus continues, is that the demons are cast out by the Spirit of God, the enemy of the demons! And when that happens, you’ll know that God’s kingdom has made an appearance. (Matt. 12:28). In Mark’s version of this episode, it is Jesus’ own family that thought He was losing His mind, deranged, crazy, and they tried to forcefully take Him away. And the scribes were the ones accusing Jesus of being in league with the devil himself. (Mark 3:21-26). Luke’s version of this event involved a demon-possessed man who was mute, and Jesus made short work of that demon, casting him out so the man could finally speak. Luke records that the crowds nonetheless demanded a sign from heaven, as if that exorcism wasn’t enough to prove His divine power over Satan. Jesus stated here that He drove out demons by the ‘finger of God,’ which is the biblical symbol for the Holy Spirit. Luke also amplified the ‘strong man’ parable a bit… “When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling and his belongings, then his property seems secure. But when a stronger man attacks and defeats him, that stronger man will ransack that man’s house from all his possessions and then distribute all his goods as plunder.” (Luke 11:14-22). Jesus seems to be saying that when He casts out demons by the Spirit of God, He is in fact plundering the strong man’s stolen possessions, which are the unfortunate people who have been taken over by the devil themselves.
The Mission of the Stronger Man. “The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost… On the other hand, the devil, our great enemy and accuser, is constantly prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone, anyone, to devour. This adversary is like a thief whose only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. But the almighty Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, was revealed to us for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil, to undo his evil activities, and completely put an end to everything that the Evil One has accomplished.” (quoted from Luke 19:10, 1Peter 5:8, 1 John 3:8, and John 10:10).
Casting Out Demons. Many scholars have noted that Jesus conducted more exorcisms than any historical figure on record. Casting out demons seemed to take up just as much of His time as physical healings, and in fact, His ministry usually included both forms of healings together. “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons…” (Mark 1:32-34). Jesus revealed His authority over physical ailments and over spiritual possession. In the spiritual realm, not one demon ever successfully resisted the commands of Jesus. As soon as the demons saw it was Jesus, they knew their days were numbered. It is heartening to see that Jesus was just as concerned with the spiritual world as He was the physical world.
The Authority of the Savior. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus cast out demons to show His power over the Devil, to bring spiritual wholeness to the afflicted person, and to advance the kingdom of God. “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matt. 12:28). Wherever Christ’s kingdom spread, Satan’s realm diminished. The power of Christ overwhelmed the power of the Evil One. It was also significant that Jesus gave the spiritual power to cast out demons to His disciples. “Jesus summoned together His twelve disciples and imparted to them authority over every demon and the power to heal every disease.” (Luke 9:1). Sure enough, “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:13). Jesus’ power and authority in the spiritual realm was absolute, and in order to understand Jesus, we need to understand that. Peter said as much when he tried to explain to Cornelius who Jesus was: “Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with great power. He did wonderful things for others and divinely healed all who were under the tyranny of the Devil; He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was harassed by the Devil.” (Acts 10:38). When Peter tried to help the Roman Gentile Cornelius understand Jesus, he put His exorcisms and power over demon-possession right at the top of the list. And so should we.
The Devil’s Identity. This is the devil, remember, whose evil is beyond description, and so earned a large array of biblical titles to point out his despicable identity: the Father of Lies (John 8:44); the Adversary, Satan (1 Peter 5:8 and over 50 times in NT); the Ruler of Darkness (Eph 6:12); the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev. 12:10); the Enemy (Matt. 13:39, Luke 10:18-19); the Slanderer, the Devil (given 38 times in NT); Ruler of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2); the King of Death (Heb. 2:14); Prince of this world (John 12:31); the Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24); the Great Dragon (Rev. 12:9); the Ancient Serpent (Rev. 12:9, 2 Cor. 11:3); the Angel of the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 9:11); the Tempter (Matt.4:3); the false Angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14); the Roaring Lion (1 Peter 5:8); the Ruler of Demons (Matt. 12:24); the Evil One (Matt. 6:13); the Murderer (John 8:44); the Daystar and Son of the Morning, Lucifer (Isaiah 14:2); the Shining One, Lucifer (Isaiah 14:2); the Worthless One, Belial (Deut. 13:14, 1 Sam. 2:12, Ps. 18:4, Ps. 41:8); the Deceiver of the whole world (Rev. 12:8-9); the Destroyer, Apollyon (Rev. 9:11, Ps. 17:4, 1 Cor. 10:10)).
The Devil’s Character Description. And need we be reminded of what this ultimate neighborhood bully was capable of? This is quite a character description: He wants to assume the throne of the Most High God; he hates the truth; he wants to take life out of people and replace it with death; he accuses the innocent and slanders the godly; he tells nothing but lies; he loves to thwart the purposes of God and hinder the gospel; he loves to antagonize the followers of Jesus; he is poised to tempt those in their weak moments; he is always prowling for those who are vulnerable; he is a clever master of disguise; he counterfeits that which is good and perverts what is pure; he spawns evil through those who are fooled into following him; he would deceive the whole world if he could; he loves to mar and deface that which is beautiful; he loves to be smooth and alluring and convincing in his temptations; he overflows with ambition and pride; he wants to embrace all the glory due to God and desires for all to worship him alone; he will be accountable to no one but himself; he is the original sneaky trickster and plays dirty; he knows now that Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and works extra hard to bring as many as he can down with him to his doom.
The First Test of the Stronger Man. “After His baptism, Jesus was taken into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for the Test, the Temptation. The Devil was ready to give Him the Test. Jesus prepared for the Temptation by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left Him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the very first temptation…” (Matthew 4:1-3; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13).
Pushed. The Gospel of Mark doesn’t mince words. “The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.” (Mark 1:12). The Holy Spirit didn’t passively encourage Jesus to go into the wilderness. The Spirit didn’t lead Jesus by the hand into temptation. The fact is, the Holy Spirit drove Jesus, He thrust Him into the wilderness to face off with the devil. The temptations were forced onto Jesus. He was pushed, and He didn’t have much of a choice. The temptations were difficult experiences directed by God. And this was immediately after a spiritual mountain top experience, the baptism of Christ. The wilderness temptations came right after God Himself spoke from heaven, confirming the eternal Sonship of Jesus and God’s everlasting love for His Son. Sometimes God brings us head first into difficult situations right after a spiritual high point. He wants to test our progress in the Faith. He wants us to learn from experience. He wants us to toughen up and become stubbornly dependent on God. As it happens, the Spirit doesn’t have to push us into predicaments very often. We are so adept at getting ourselves into difficult situations, we don’t need the Lord’s help. The timing of the temptations was important. It must have been crucial to God that Jesus face this enemy and defeat him before His public ministry began. Jesus was thus given the opportunity to qualify Himself as the Messiah before He swings into action.
Loyalty. What was the devil trying to do with these temptations? Did he have an ultimate goal in confronting Jesus with these moments of testing? Was there an overarching purpose to the devil’s temptations? Yes, there was one dominant goal. The devil wanted to drive a wedge between the Father and the Son. The Greek word for devil is diablo, which means “slanderer.” Diablo comes from two different Greek words which taken together means, “tear apart.” And that’s what the devil wanted to do, tear apart the eternally intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. The devil wanted to test the loyalty of Jesus to God. Each of the three temptations were meant to have Jesus question His trust in God, to move independently of the will of the Father. Each temptation was to try to create some self-doubt in Jesus’ mind about His status with the Father… “If you are the Son of God…” In turning the stones into bread, the devil subtly wanted Jesus to doubt His dependence on God to care for Him. The devil wanted Jesus to grow impatient and question if God was going to provide food. In the second temptation, the devil wanted Jesus to question His security in God. Jesus was meant to wonder if God could protect Him. The devil wanted Jesus to doubt God’s protection and thus do something to test God, to find out if He is faithful. The third temptation was the devil’s attempt to get Jesus to doubt God’s control over the world. Is the Father truly the King? Maybe I should take that power if God is not up to it. All three temptations were meant to separate, even a little bit, the intimacy between God and His Son. If the devil could get Jesus to become disloyal to the Father and to act independently of Him, then the devil had it made. But there was no wavering of loyalty, no compromise of their divine love. The devil knew a secret, but it didn’t do him any good. “The secret of the whole world of humanity is the love between the Father and the Son. That is at the root of it all. Upon the love between the Son and the Father hangs the whole universe. What it can mean exactly, you know, I cannot tell you.” (George MacDonald, Knowing the Risen Lord).
Submission. Jesus submitted to God’s push into the wilderness because He needed to set the record straight with the devil. Jesus needed to show the devil right from the start who the boss was. Jesus needed to undo the fall of Adam. The devil is a fool. He figured that if he could defeat Adam, he could succeed against Jesus as well. But the devil didn’t realize that Jesus was the New Adam, the only one who could undo the Fall and face off with the devil and win. Jesus defeated the tempter and his schemes, and now can offer the eternal life bungled by Adam. Jesus can now offer the hope of salvation that was lost in the doom of Adam’s sin. Jesus also wanted to show His followers an example of how we can stand victoriously against temptation. And He wanted to reveal a warning to us that we will indeed face spiritual warfare with the devil and his forces. Finally, Jesus needed to face temptation as a human experience, something common to personhood. He needed to prove His humanity by going through temptation, and He needed to prove His divinity by passing the test.
The Four Nails on the Coffin of the Destroyer: The beginning of the end for Satan started with the Cross of Christ, followed by His descent into hell on Holy Saturday, soon followed by His glorious Resurrection, and then finally His Ascension into the heavenly presence of the Father. Though people often like to separate those four monumental God-events, the fact is that those four triumphs were all parts of a whole and are a package deal. We can’t isolate one of those events as more important than the others. It could be considered a Salvation Drama in four Acts, each Act just as important as the others. Or one could say we are referring here to a Song of Redemption that is in four-part harmony. The Song can’t be sung any other way without it going off-key and not the way the Composer intended it to be sung. Each of the four harmonious melodies was successful in (mixing my metaphors here) driving one nail after another into the devil’s coffin. Each of these Christ-events sealed the fate of the Destroyer, and spiritually defeated the powers of darkness and thus the author of death itself.
The 1st Nail in the Coffin of the Destroyer – The Cross of Christ.
Seeing Jesus dead on the Cross, the devil thought he had it made. He thought that Christ’s death would result in the removal of His spiritual powers and His very presence on the earth. The devil fooled himself into thinking that he was finally victorious over his arch-enemy and rid of Jesus for good. But the devil was ignorant of the power of Christ’s pure blood of sacrifice. The devil didn’t realize that the Author of life was infinitely more powerful than the author of death, that the pure Passover blood of Christ put the death sentence on the bloodless powers of darkness. The devil was blind to the life-giving powers of Jesus, even after the big hint of all those tombs being opened at Christ’s death, and those resurrected bodies walking around Jerusalem. The Cross was the beginning of the end for the Destroyer, and he knew he had no hope of ever thwarting God’s plan of salvation. The Cross put Satan into Death Row. There is an Orthodox hymn in which Death is personified, and is at first puzzled by what it is experiencing during Christ’s crucifixion. The confusion turns to panic as Death realizes its own efforts to kill the Christ has resulted in its own destruction. “Christ’s torment, suffering and death is actually crucifying death. Christ’s own death turns out to be the annihilation of death.”
The 2nd Nail in the Coffin of the Destroyer – The Descent into Hell.
A large portion of the Christian Church believes that something very significant occurred during the time period between the Cross and the Empty Tomb, between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The historical term for this Christ-event is “the Harrowing of Hell,” when on Holy Saturday, while in the spirit-realm, Jesus made a journey into the pit of hell as the Savior to announce His victory over death, to preach to those who were deprived of exposure to Christ, and redeem those persons imprisoned there. “Harrowing” means that Jesus was conducting a rescue operation in which He aggressively raided the place of the dead and performed acts of liberation there. The very gates of hell couldn’t keep the conquering Savior out of hell’s precincts. This proved to be another step in conquering the Devil, another Christ-event in the process of diminishing his powers. This is the important act of Christ announcing the Good News to the dead. “That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all – was put to death and then made alive – to bring us to God. He went and proclaimed God’s salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn’t listen. (1 Peter 3:18-19).
The 3rd Nail in the Coffin of the Destroyer – The Resurrection.
Without the literal and historical Resurrection of Jesus, there would be no point to the Christian faith. This Christ-event is the miracle of miracles, and proved for the world that God’s divine power of life exceeds for all time the demonic powers of death. And we would have no hope of the resurrection of our bodies without the Resurrection of Jesus’ body.
One can imagine an intimate conversation like this on Resurrection Sunday: Early on the third day, the Father looked inward and said to His Spirit, “Dear Friend, the time has come for death to finally die. Just as you breathed life into the First Adam in the Garden, this is the moment when I would like you to enter that deathly tomb, bend over the lifeless body of my Son who is the Last Adam, and breathe life into Him. Sing this new life into His mouth with your heavenly breath. My Son has now completed His mission, for He has crashed through the gates of the Place of the Dead. He has planted the holy Cross on that unholy ground, and brought the light of our glory to all whose there who have followed what little light they had been shown during their lives on earth. My Son preached there to those who were largely in the dark about Me and my presence in this world, and He has opened the gates of heaven to all the righteous who came before He appeared in the flesh. So my Son has finished the message of redemption to all people through all time from all places. Now the moment has arrived to breathe your sacred breath into my Son. Rejoice with me, my dear Spirit, as my Son now brings new life to the world! Be glad as your Wind blows through that dark tomb and into the dead body of Jesus. Jump for joy, O life-giving Spirit, as my Son will soon come back home forever!
The 4th Nail in the Coffin of the Destroyer – The Ascension.
“Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and then they could no longer see him. Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy.” (Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-52; Acts 1:9). The Ascension, when Jesus was taken up into heaven in bodily form. He was then received by the angels in the glory of God’s Kingdom. In this act, Jesus united earth and heaven, and through this event, the Father verified the successful accomplishment of Jesus’ earthly mission.
“The Ascension is an essential component of the very sacrifice of the Cross. The atoning sacrifice of Christ did not end on Golgotha, but was rendered perfect and complete by his definitive entrance into the eternal Holy of Holies. The Ascension is integral to the Lord’s priesthood. If he was simply on earth, he wouldn’t be our High Priest.” (Father Reardon, Christ in the Psalms).
The Ascension resulted in the glorification of Jesus Christ, in which His divine nature is finally unveiled. He shares equally in power and authority with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His eternal royal status as Lord of all is immovable and unshakeable. For all eternity Jesus will share in the authority and honor of God. Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father in body and spirit, and “lives to make intercession for us.” (Heb. 7:25), representing all of humanity, to be the mediator between us and God. Jesus’ constant presence in heaven as our High Priest assures us our forgiveness and acceptance. The sacrifice is accomplished and eternally complete.
The Coffin is Nailed Shut. And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ages of ages, forever and ever.” (Revelations 20:10). Because of Christ’s Crucifixion, Descent into Hell, Resurrection, and finally His Ascension, the coffin of the Destroyer is now nailed shut, his demise is assured, he has received his well-earned death sentence, and he awaits his destiny, his eternal doom, at the Lord’s final judgment. Thanks be to God!
Held Accountable. This demise of Satan at the hands of God answers the age-old question… Do we live in a moral universe? Will evil eventually be destroyed? Will there finally be some accountability for the source of all this evil we see every day? Yes! In St. John’s vision of the devil being hurled into everlasting torment, we see that God will ultimately judge the evil one and make sure that goodness triumphs and evil is vanquished once and for all. As Eugene Peterson put it, “The problem of evil is a question that isn’t left dangling. It’s resolved. And it is resolved in judgment. In the end, every form of evil is banished from history. Finally and forever!” As Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 25:41, God has had a lake of eternal fire all prepared for the devil and his angel demons. God has planned all along for the devil’s eventual eternal damnation.