The Real Enemy
Text: Luke 13:31-35
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
While we Christians confess that Scripture is the font and source of all godly wisdom, we also can recognize wisdom when it comes from other sources too. There are countless thinkers, books, stories, songs, and poems that have touched on some aspect of the truth, which we can happily affirm and use, so long as it does not contradict the heavenly wisdom of God’s Word. One such source of practical wisdom is the author and strategist Sun Tzu, writer of “The Art of War”. In this book, Sun Tzu states, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” It would seem to be common sense and not something that needs to be stated, but humanity has often had a problem with knowing itself and knowing who its true enemy is.
If we look at a brief history of Scripture, we can see that mortals have always had trouble figuring out who their enemy is. In the Garden of Eden, immediately after the fall, Adam speaks of the woman whom he had previous said was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, Eve, as his enemy. When the Lord walks through the garden in the cool of the evening, Adam and Eve both hide from Him, as if He was on the prowl to attack them. When Israel was leaving the bondage of Egypt for the Promised Land, they grumbled and accused God and Moses of trying to kill them with hunger and thirst. In our Old Testament reading this morning, the priests and prophets speak to the true prophet Jeremiah as if he were their enemy. In our Gospel reading, Jesus laments that Jerusalem constantly sets itself against those whom God sends to speak to them. Meanwhile, the Pharisees try to maneuver and strategize against Jesus to get Him out of their territory, as if He were an invading hostile force. “Get away from here,” they said, “for Herod wants to kill you.” They set up a front, Herod, as a façade, a fake enemy of Jesus, so that they could get this Teacher, whom they deeded their mortal foe, out of their hair.
But it’s not just a problem for those people of old. We have inherited it. Too often we’re willing to fall for the shell game of who our enemy is. We’re tempted—and indeed told—to think that our enemy is that person on the other side of the political aisle. Or it’s that one person who seems to make our lives miserable every chance they get. Or the person over us who’s holding us down. Or the person who thinks or looks or acts differently than us. Or the people who shout us down, or mock what we hold dear, or do things that we can’t understand or approve of.
But this is all smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand from our true enemy. When the Pharisees try to get Jesus, whom they think is their enemy, out of the picture, they try to set up another false enemy for Him: Herod. Their reasoning was that if they could get Jesus to hate or fear Herod and his political machinations, then they just might get Him out of Jerusalem and away from them forever.
But Jesus’ sight is much better than ours. He knows the games the Pharisees are playing. He knows the silly political theater that Herod puts on. So to demonstrate that He won’t be dissuaded by this little shell game, Jesus says, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.’”
Notice who Jesus points to as the real enemy. It’s not Herod, who Jesus does call a deceiver, a fox, who only schemes and plunders. But Herod will only get the report of who Jesus is really here to fight. “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.” Jesus hasn’t come to drive out Herod. He hasn’t come to banish the Pharisees. He’s come to cast out demons. He’s come to perform cures, to give sight and hearing and wholeness and health. He’s come to raise the dead. Jesus shows us that the true enemy is death and hell; disease, corruption, all the effects of sin that we see in this fallen world. He’s come to fight against the evil one and all his demonic servants as the only true enemies.
We have this temptation, fueled by voices in our society from every part of every spectrum, to view those around us as the enemy. But know this, according to Jesus’ words: No human created by our Father in heaven is your enemy. Not a single one of them. You may not be able to understand or like anything about them, but no person for whom Jesus died and rose again—and that’s everyone, even those people you might think are beyond redemption—not one of them is your enemy. They may be blinded and misled by the devil. They may be walking the path that the evil one wants them to. But so have you. You’ve fallen to temptation. You’ve believed the lies of the tempter when it was easier or more convenient or felt better than the truth of God’s Word. You have thought that God, or those sent to speak His Word, were out to get you because they said something you didn’t like or something you didn’t want to hear. But even then your Lord did not count you as His enemy. He went His way to the cross, to the tomb, for your redemption. He rose on the third day to keep you with Him.
Even when Jerusalem set itself against Him and His prophets, against His Word, Jesus did not declare war on her. Instead, He wept over her waywardness. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” St. Paul does the same when he writes to us this morning, “Many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ;” not because Christ has made them His enemies, but because they have misjudged Him as theirs. For Jesus lamented what would happen to Jerusalem as she continued to run away from Him at a full sprint. But even so, He would still come to her. “You will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” And it would happen that on the first day of the week not long after, He would pass through the gates of Jerusalem. They would sing “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” on Palm Sunday. And we, who have had our own confusion about who our enemies are, have also been blessed to sing those same words when our Lord comes to us in His body and blood to forgive our sins, our confusion, our waywardness, our fighting against Him.
Your Lord has opened your eyes to know yourself and to know your enemy. In His Word you know yourself as a redeemed and forgiven sinner. You now know that your enemy is the devil and only the devil. That shapes the way you treat others: you forgive them, even when they know not what they do. You do good to them, even those who persecute you. You imitate our Lord. And the Lord, who has made you His friend, His joy and crown, will keep you firm in the faith, filled with His forgiveness, grace, light, and peace. In the name of Jesus, who has put us at peace with God, Amen.
