Who Is Stronger?

Who is stronger?

Luke 11:21 – 26

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael Harvey Koplitz

21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure. 22

“But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes

away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 23 “The one who

is not with Me is against Me, and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.

24 “When the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places

seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I

came.’ 25 “And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 “Then it goes and

brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and live there;

and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.”

Let’s start with an easy question. Which is stronger, good or evil? Sounds like an easy

question to answer, but in reality, it isn’t as easy as one thinks. In Luke’s gospel, chapter

11, verses 21 to 26, Jesus gives us a simile about good triumphing over evil. One of the

problems in his day, and I believe it exists today, is that evil can infect any one of us,

but do we have the strength alone to get rid of the evil? Obviously not. In Jesus day the

people needed help to rid themselves of evil spirits and demons. Jesus came along and

did exorcisms for the people, but he also wanted to instruct them to understand that

each one of them who is with us can overcome evil.

Jesus said that if a strong person is protecting their house, who could steal from the

house? A stronger person than the person who is guarding the house would have to

come in and cause this to happen. It is an interesting twist of a metaphor. When you

think about evil, we have to realize that evil is forceful. And it takes someone or

something stronger to overcome evil.?

Okay I’ve said enough about that, so the question becomes why is evil so strong? Even

people that don’t attend a religious organization like the church or synagogue

understand that if you are evil and do bad things, you may not make it into heaven.

Well, then the question is, where do you go? Of course, culture which is developed

from the Bible in this case, says that you go to a place called hell, and a demon named

Satan will then torture you for the rest of eternity. If you will be tortured for the rest of

eternity because you turn to evil, why would you possibly want to do it?

Usually, it’s because we don’t think about the consequences of our actions, and let’s be

honest with each other: doing evil can be fun. Now I’m not talking about the evil of

killing people or hurting people; rather I’m talking about simple things. Shoplifting

tends to be an exciting thing for young people especially if they don’t have money to to

pay just to see if they can get away with it. The adrenaline starts flowing as you walk

into the store and select the item that you covet. Then you hide that item on your

garments. Then the most difficult part is you have to walk out of the store and hope

you don’t get caught. The adrenaline that starts to run through the body feels good even

though you’re probably scared half to death that you're going to get caught. It’s a great

feeling. It’s a horrible thing to say, but it’s the truth.

Not only is shoplifting wrong, but there are also many evil things that you can do that

will give you that adrenaline flow and that feeling of excitement that you now know are

wrong to do. If you could find an adulterer and they would be honest with you ,they

would tell you that part of the thrill is being able to get away with doing what they’re

doing without getting caught. They will also tell you that eventually adulterers do get

caught.

I remember a pastor in the district that I am in who is accused of adultery. For over

two years he denied that that was happening. He was seeing another woman who was

not his wife. Now I don't understand why, but someone decided to follow him with a

camera. That was probably a private investigator his wife hired to find out what was

going on. Even when he was caught on film and the photographs were shown to the

bishop this pastor still denied that he did anything wrong. Eventually he did confess

when he was brought into the office and shown the pictures. His life naturally fell apart