Binding the Strong Man on the Journey

In the Hebrew scriptures there’s a consistent theme related to the expectation that a liberator will come forth and make things right. While it is often expressed in military language (or the language of kingship), it gives voice to a deep, collective longing for freedom.

In today’s gospel, Jesus has appeared on the scene and has started his ministry of teaching and healing. There is something qualitatively different about him, and he is causing quite a stir. Crowds are starting to follow him. 

Moreover, he is doing things that ruffle a lot of feathers. He eats with sinners and tax collectors. He disregards Sabbath protocols. He is getting “political”. Some even accuse him of blasphemy.

His family actually comes to “get him” and bring him home. They are worried about either his safety or his mental health – or both! They know what happens to people who challenge the status quo.

That’s the backdrop to today’s gospel.

When we encounter Jesus today, the religious authorities are accusing him of getting his power from Satan in an effort to discredit and undermine him. They have directly felt his challenge and are trying to re-establish their dominance.

In modern language, we might say that Jesus called them out publicly, and they don’t like it one bit. So they try to sow seeds of doubt in the people.

Scripture scholar, Ched Myers, says that this is a “predictable strategy of threatened political leaders” and says that “in modern America this would be tantamount to calling Jesus a ‘terrorist.’” Ched goes on to say that as Jesus works to truly liberate people from their actual bondage in oppressive political and economic systems, the authorities seek to dismiss him as either a “lunatic or traitorous.”

Jesus goes on to introduce a parable about the strong man and says that “no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.” In saying this, he is likely referencing a passage from Isaiah 49 which says, “The captives of the strong one will be liberated; the prey of the tyrant will be rescued (v.24).”

If we were all together in a room right now, I’d pause and ask, “What’s coming up for you as you hear all this? What do you feel or notice?” I’d also want to know what you think it all means.

Here’s a few things that surface for me, and it’s a “good news/bad news” situation.

I’ll start with the good news.

The promise of Jesus is that he can liberate us from anything that holds us captive. He is the one who is stronger than any power or principality that has us in its grip. This can be at an individual level – meaning he can liberate us from the tyranny of sadness or guilt or addiction or low self-worth. Or at a collective level – meaning that he can liberate us from social injustice, any -ism and unfairness.

So what could be the bad news?

The liberation that he offers will require us to resist and reform the very systems that we have built our lives around.

Ugh.

The “tyrants” that Jesus intends to bind are not specific people, per se, so much as the systems that cause tyranny in the lives of so many. Martin Luther King Jr. called these the “giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism.” And he’s a great example of someone who called these out and was immediately discredited and labeled a “threat” – by political leaders, by religious leaders and by civic leaders. 

If you’re like me, we may not easily see or experience the ways that we are in bondage, so part of the journey is just trying to notice how the realities of race (among many other forces of oppression), materialism and militarism control so much of our lives and require our compliance and cooperation.

But the more we look for them, the more we will see the ways that we need Jesus to liberate us from the the “strong man” that has us stuck in unhealthy ways.

I started this reflection talking about deep desires for freedom. I do believe that, down deep, we really want to be free and want others to be free as well. And yet I am ever haunted by the words of Rochester’s own Frederick Douglass’ when he talked about “those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are [people] who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”

May we have the courage to agitate, plow the ground, endure thunder and lightning and become comfortable with the roar of the ocean as we work to bind the “strong man” and bring about a just world.