Deliver us from evil

Luke 15:1–10 All the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to hear him. ²But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³He told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls together his friends and his neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ ⁷I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.

⁸“Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, would not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

I want you to imagine you are part of the mob that really hates the apostle Paul. Your mob preaches circumcision, blood sacrifices and eating clean foods. Paul preaches Christ crucified. Your mob preaches the Jews are God’s chosen children. Paul preaches that people from all nations are God’s children through faith in Jesus. Your mob preaches salvation by works. Paul preaches salvation by grace alone.

You and the mob really hate this guy! He preaches everything exactly the opposite from you.

The mob wonders, “What should we do with Paul?” You suggest, “Let’s make him suffer!” Everyone chants, “Make him suffer!” People call out, “Let’s chase him from city to city!” “Let’s cause riots while he preaches!” “Let’s get him arrested!” “And beaten!” “And whipped!”

Everyone agrees.

Then one guy stands up and says, “I think all that’s a good idea, but I just read in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome that he rejoices in suffering, because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4). If we make Paul suffer … we’ll only make Paul happier!”

You suggest, “Let’s kill him!” Everyone chants, “Let’s kill him!” People call out, “Let’s hunt him down and stone him!” “Let’s encourage Caesar to throw him to the lions!” “Or cut off his head!”

Everyone agrees.

Then one guy stands up and says, “Normally I would think that’s a great idea, but I just read in Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi, ‘For me to live is Christ and to die is gain’ and ‘I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far’ (Philippians 1:23). Paul is looking forward to dying!”

Now nobody knows what to do. You can’t make Paul suffer - he rejoices in suffering. You can’t kill him – he’s looking forward to death.

What to do?

Then you suggest, “Let’s let him live! That’s the worst thing we can do to Paul!” Everyone agrees. They chant, “Let him live! Let him live!”

Imagine the frustration of the devil. He wants to make Paul suffer, but Paul rejoices in suffering in Christ’s name. He wants to persecute Paul, but Paul considers it an honor to carry Christ’s cross in persecution. He wants Paul dead to end this hated missionary’s life, but Paul is looking forward to death.

You give Paul suffering, he praises God. You give him good, he praises God. You give him evil, he praises God. You give him the certainty of death, he praises God. Because, unknowingly, all these enemies are leading Paul to the joys of life eternal.

Do you see what happened to Paul? He became “devil-proof.”

Jesus teaches us to pray in the seventh petition, “Deliver us from evil.” As we pray this petition, we want to become “devil-proof” like St. Paul. By devil-proof, I mean, that all the devil’s rage and evil only draws you closer to Jesus, his Word, his grace, his refuge and his salvation. The devil cannot hurt you because all the evil he does to you, God turns it out for good.

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther identifies Satan as the Evil One.

In the Greek text this petition reads thus: Deliver or preserve us from the Evil One, or the Malicious One; and it looks as if He were speaking of the devil, as though He would comprehend everything in one, so that the entire substance of all our prayer is directed against our chief enemy. For it is he who hinders among us everything that we pray for: the name or honor of God, God's kingdom and will, our daily bread, a cheerful good conscience, etc. (Large Catechism, Part III, par. 113)

Satan is the source of all the evil in the world. Shortly after creation, Satan rebelled against God and fell from his position as a leader among angels. Satan fell like lightning from heaven. He fell to earth where he tempted Adam and Eve to rebel against God. Their sin brought evil in the form of pain, misery, suffering and death.

Luther writes in his Small Catechism:

In conclusion, we pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would deliver us from every evil that threatens body and soul, property and reputation …

The greatest evil is that which threatens body and soul. Satan’s goal is to separate the coin from the owner, the sheep from the Shepherd, the son from the father (Luke 15).

We pray for God to deliver us from the Evil One. Yet, we are not naïve. We know who we are. We are not mere victims of evil. So often we desire what the Evil One is offering. We choose the sin over the sanctification, the iniquity over the innocence, the guilt over the godly, the vice over the victory.

Together we are the tax collectors, prostitutes, criminals, and other “sinners” to whom Jesus is ministering in the beginning of Luke 15. We are the hiding coin and the wandering sheep in Jesus’ parables. At least a woman’s lost coin gets lost by accident. Our lostness is a direct result of our own stubbornness to our ways, our own indifference to God’s will, our own love of sin over holiness.

As coins, we hide in corners, not wanting to be seen, avoiding one another, trying to commit our sins in secret. We embrace the darkness and avoid the light. We are afraid that others will find out about our sinful behavior, so we hide in the shadows.

As sheep, we follow false shepherds – seeking greener pastures, wanting more than Jesus has to offer in his words of forgiveness, in his holy Word in our Bibles, and in his sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We don’t want the safety and security of the flock of the Christian Church. We covet the fun of this world’s depravity. We are like stupid sheep, not realizing how good we have it, but running aimlessly here and wandering there, feeding on this and drinking down that.

We are lost with all the evil that surrounds us. The world attacks us with hatred from the outside. The demons whisper seductions into our ears. Our sinful nature willingly runs away from the safety of the flock into the danger of the serpent.

We are not only lost, but we are also lonely. Clinging tightly to our sin as we slowly die a spiritual and eternal death.

Luther is absolutely correct when he writes:

Therefore there is nothing for us to do upon earth but to pray against this arch-enemy without ceasing. For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from him even for an hour. (Large Catechism, Part III, par. 116)

God answers this petition for deliverance from the Evil One by sending his Son, Jesus, into this evil world. Scripture proclaims: “[The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

Jesus did not enter the world as a mighty warrior to deliver us. He came in weakness, God in frail human flesh, the offspring of a woman. Jesus came as the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Deliverer from the Evil One. As soon as his children fell to the Evil One in Eden, God promised the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

For several millennia, the serpent knew the Woman’s Offspring would enter the world. He knew a fight of cosmic proportions was coming. He even knew the outcome. But the devil is the father of lies and the master of deception. He had deceived himself into believing he could win. He never imagined that God would defeat him with such lowly means as a manger, a desert and a cross.

Perhaps when you are in the middle of terrible suffering, tragedy and death, you might wonder, “Where is God in the midst of all this evil?” If you find yourself in this place … stand at the foot of the cross … and look up.

This is where evil meets its match. The Creator dying for his fallen creation. The Shepherd laying down his life for his wandering sheep. The Son sacrificing himself for his prodigal siblings. The Innocent One exchanging himself for the countless guilty.

There Jesus endured the undiluted ocean of evil. The Bible is explicit – “God made him who had no sin to be in for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Yet Jesus turns this vile death into victory to life eternal; this ugliness into beauty; this horrid act into the act that won us heaven.

There may come times when we think God is not doing a good job of delivering us from evil. But we cannot see all the evil that is around us. That’s faith. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). We cannot see the angels with their flaming swords keeping the demons at bay. We cannot see the Lamb stepping down on the serpent’s head. We cannot see the mighty fortress that keeps the great dragon away from us.

Nor can we see how our Father in heaven delivers us from evil by turning evil into our good. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

At the end of Luther’s explanation of the seventh petition he explains: “and finally when our last hour comes, grant us a blessed end and graciously take us from this world of sorrow to himself in heaven.”

As horrible as his death was, Jesus’ death was blessed. Jesus turns the terrible rending of the soul from the body in death into a blessed end for his saints.

Aged saints who are tired and worn out, finally find rest and fall asleep in the Lord (Matthew 9:24; 1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Those who have been widowed for so many years are finally gathered to God’s people (Luke 2:29).

The baptized child died in her youth but is spared from evil (Isaiah 57:1).

We Christians are not afraid of being persecuted or even put to death for our faith because we get to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1:23).

We are not worried about losing everything in this world for we have gained a better world (Philippians 1:21).

When this is our outlook, then we become like St. Paul. We become devil-proof. We have the answer to our prayers. We are delivered from the Evil One (Matthew 6:13). Amen.