✠ Psalmody: Psalm 25:15–16; 1–2a; Psalm 9:19, 3; Psalm 123:1–3a; Psalm 19:8a, 10b–11a; Psalm 84:3–4
✠ Lection: Exodus 8:16–24; Ephesians 5:1–9; Luke 11:14–28
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grosser than a bulletin graphic of a mute demon coming out of a man’s mouth is the widespread effect of sin, demons, and the prince of demons upon us. Jesus is the greater prince, the Prince of Peace, Who holds authority over the winds and the sea, over the powers and principalities waging war in the heavenly places all for the spoils of the souls of man. When the Almighty Prince says come or go, even the demons must obey. Our Captain is not the Lord of flies or of the dung heap, as is our foe, but Christ is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings gladly wielding His power and authority, coming to serve by giving His life a ransom for many.
In His divine service to man, Jesus restores, sets aright what has become corrupted by demons, among which is speech. By speech, God both creates and destroys. He creates by His word, just as in the beginning God said and what He said came to be. By His word were the heavens and the earth made along with life to fill them. By His word curse was pronounced upon the first man, woman, and upon the crafty serpent. Thus, speech demands much respect, awareness, and fidelity in its use. It is far more than a means of communication, for not all animals possess the ability to do with words what we are able. Our speech demands much faithful use, for as St. James says, “the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity… It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” The tongue was meant for speech, and being that the Lord created both tongue and speech, they are designed to be used for good as He is good. The Lord gives speech as a divine responsibility; one by which we are able to create or destroy. And even though our speech doesn’t have the full divine capacity of creating from nothing, of eternal blessing and cursing, our tongues are given some significant might to wield.
The man in Luke 11 had a mute demon, meaning his speech was entirely taken away by demonic possession. It is good that with his tongue the man was unable to curse men. Yet, it was worse that with his tongue he was unable to bless our God and Father. But God does not forsake the good at the risk of the evil. His goodness is greater and shall abound both now and forever. The mute man had his demon cast out by the Greatest Prince, and the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled, for this is a beautiful gift, the restoration of speech, given by the One Who created it. He has come to do all things well. He has come so that, having speech, we may speak well.
Text messages, emails, instant chat, letters, are all inventions that can be used for good in our communication with one another. But let us never exalt them to the value of speech; mouth-to-ear communication of the heart and mind to another person for the sake, hopefully, of bestowing a blessing with our words. Hence the grand responsibility, for by our words we do have the power to create goodness in one another, encouragement, hope, strength, honor, and love. Yes, our words carry much weight. Just prior to our Epistle text are these words from St. Paul in Ephesians four: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” We are able to say much, some of us being very capable talkers, which isn’t bad, because it means that we have much opportunity to impart grace, to edify, to build one another up. It also means that we have much, equal opportunity to impart condemnation, to discourage, to tear one another down. Oh, that no man can tame the tongue, for that which is in the heart is what comes out of the mouth. Lord, deliver us from unwieldy tongues by giving us clean hearts that speak as You do!
Indeed, God gave us mouths to speak, ears to hear, and blesses both for our mutual building-up. With these same mouths we also speak to ourselves, yes, even out loud, which only seems odd when mental illness is present. Do not be afraid to think out loud, to read out loud, to make full use of speech whether around others or by yourself. Speech is a gift from God. The responsibility of how we speak then also applies to ourselves whether we use our mouths or not, for ourselves are the ones to whom we probably say the most each day; hopefully with God as a close second. Therefore, we carry the same responsibility in how we speak to ourselves, driven by the same fundamental, guiding principle of God’s Word. For, you see, the worst effect, and desire, of a mute demon isn’t just that man would be unable to vocalize words with the voice box, mouth, and tongue. The dragon and his wicked angels want to mute, silence God’s true speech in every way in our lives; in the words that we speak to others; in the words that we speak to ourselves.
This idea obviously stirs up the charlatan pot in our day with celebrity preachers who speak a false gospel that is promise without reconciliation, all delivered with a smile and warm fuzzies. The full counsel of God’s true speech is to have its way with us in both the harsh condemnation of the law for our sins, including in how we fail to speak rightly, and in how the Christ came to cast out such wickedness by paying its penalty for us Himself. The demons love God’s Law when we heap it upon ourselves by itself and remain mute about the Gospel, because the Law doesn’t save. It condemns. So, when we realize that we are not perfect in our Christian walk, or maybe not even decently good at it at all, the demons could not celebrate with more wicked joy than when stay right there, muting the glory of God’s grace in the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus didn’t come to meet sinners halfway as you do your part, as you show some effort in gaining salvation. His forgiveness reaches to the very bottom of all the darkness of your sin to rescue you from the pit all on His own. He does not tell the mute to first try himself to mumble a few sounds or two, then once he gets up to a grunt, Jesus would finish the task. No, our dear Lord comes deep into the darkness, yea, He descended into Hades to set the captives free, restoring life to the dead, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute. He has given us tongues now to proclaim, to sing the praise of Him Who died upon the cross. He has cast out the mute demon from the sinner’s tongue so that we may speak the oracles of God, not filthiness, not foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, but rather giving of thanks. He has freed us to speak the Good News of His grace and mercy that frees us from bondage and to marvel with words of thanksgiving to Him. It is that priceless grace and mercy that we now carry around in our hearts so that our words to one another, and to ourselves, may be full of the truth of God as He will only ever tear down what is evil and build up all that is good.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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