The Lutheran Hour
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"Should I Be Worried About the Devil?"
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Text: Luke 8:26-39
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A long time ago, I heard a pastor say that there was someone in his church who blamed the devil for everything bad that happened. Someone was late to a congregation meeting? That was the devil! Something was broken in the restroom? The devil again! Someone was misbehaving in Bible study? That’s Satan at work! The pastor said that sometimes he felt sorry about the poor devil, who was blamed for everything, even for the actions of the people themselves.
Moreover, I would prefer not to play the role of—as they say—the devil’s advocate, but there is something I have always kept in mind throughout my pastoral ministry, and that is—as the old Venezuelan song goes— “El diablo anda suelto”… which means “the devil is out there.”
Years ago, I remember reading—with much concern—a study conducted by a renowned American pollster, which revealed that more than half of American Christians doubted the existence of Satan. These believers even saw him as a personification of evil and not as a real being. I have news for you, for those who participated in that study, and for everyone inside and outside the churches: The devil exists; he is real; and while it’s true that we can’t blame him for everything, nor for many of our actions, he is a serious enemy and a tough one, and an enemy we should be concerned about and, better yet, trust in the One who cares for us and deals with him.
It is not for nothing that an important part of Jesus’ ministry was about casting out demons and overcoming the attacks of the evil one. Remember that Christ’s ministry began after his experience with the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, as we read in Matthew chapter 4.
It is not a coincidence either that, in their letters, both Paul and Peter warned us about the snares of the devil. So, before we go deep into this week’s text, let me begin this teaching with a question I heard the other day in Bible study: How busy has the devil been in your life lately? And how worried are you about that?
I know that God is always working in us, and that He sends His Spirit so that through the Word and the Sacraments there may be faith, through repentance, changes, transformations in our actions, and the blessing of having the Lord who casts out evil and wickedness. But we must also know that the evil one always seeks to undo God’s work, and that includes attacking us and trying to take over us and our ways. Did you notice how busy he was with this poor man in the Gospel text of this Sunday? It says that: “Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.”
The region of the Gerasenes, identified as the coastal area of Gadara in Matthew 8, was certainly pagan territory in the Israel of that time. What does this mean? Well, it means that—being an area inhabited by Gentiles—there were cultural, religious, and idolatrous practices that could help us understand the fact that there was demonic possession there, or explain details such as the presence of the pigs that we will see later in the text. Remember that the Jews did not and do not eat pork, considering it unclean food, and that is why they did not raise them either.
In any case, Jesus arrives in a pagan area, for His message and His salvation did not distinguish between people, races, regions, or religions. He went to everyone and showed mercy to all.
Going back to the man in our story, the Gospel also says that: “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.’ … Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion,’ for many demons had entered him. And they begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss.”
Although all this may seem creepy and strange for many of us, it’s clear that the devil, or this legion of demons, was causing a lot of damage in this man. He was helpless, unable to escape this spiritual circumstance, and completely tormented. The text tells us that the guy lived naked, away from home, and spent his time like a madman in cemeteries, isolated from everyone.
A common mistake many of us make in our time is to believe that the devil is merely a narrative figure in the Bible story, but that he doesn’t exist today. Another mistake is to think that the devil only appears in fiction or horror movies, and not in real life. Perhaps the Hollywood industry has helped us believe this.
But the truth is, as I told you before, the devil exists and is real, and he also has a mission: to destroy you and everything God does and wants to do with you. That’s why I asked you a moment ago: How busy has the devil been in your life lately? He’ll want you to ignore him and hide him under the rug, or not believe in his existence. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try to harm you.
Thank God, because Jesus doesn’t ignore our realities and comes to our rescue. He saw the terror this legion of demons was causing in that man, perhaps a local pagan, and that’s why, rather than speaking, the Lord decided to act: “Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him to let them enter these. So He gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.”
The man was rescued by the power of Jesus, and I imagine that someone close to the Lord looked for clothes to dress him, and once fully restored, this man was seen sitting at Jesus’ feet.
St. Paul says, in his letter to the Ephesians chapter 6: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
It is not easy at all when you fall prey to the evil one. It is not easy to overcome his temptations, his attacks, and his power over us. Don’t even try to defeat him with your own strength or your armor, because this real enemy has such great power that it is a serious, powerful, and worrying threat.Like that man, we too live under siege in our spiritual lives. Not only by the devil, who is not to blame for everything, as they believed in that church I was talking about earlier. Sometimes our sin and our human nature keep us prisoners of actions that harm us or others, of words we say and later regret, of those things that ruin families, friendships, neighborhoods, work environments, faith communities, and more. There is also the world, another enemy we have that will always seek to separate us from God and faith in the Lord.
The reformer Martin Luther described these three enemies: the devil, the sinful nature, and the world as forces of temptations for Christians … active and real forces that work against us and our relationship with God. Keep in mind that the devil will seek to make you fall or remind you of all the wrongs you do, that the flesh will lead you to sin, and the world will always want us to stray or walk the path of perdition.
I don’t know if you are clear about how much or how little the devil has been doing in your life, and I hope you know that his work never stops. Yet, there is something I do know: Christ already defeated him once in the wilderness; He defeated him several times during His ministry; He defeated him that day when He freed this Gerasene man; and above all, He defeated him in the sacrifice of the cross and in His glorious resurrection.
When someone is baptized, there is Christ defeating the devil. When people, through the work of the Spirit, confess Jesus and believe His promises, there is another victory of God. Don’t try to attack the devil or defend yourself against him with your armor or your own strength. Instead, let the power of the Lord and the armor of God protect you in this spiritual battle, in which we know that Christ has the victory and in which, through Him, with Him, and in Him, we are more than conquerors.
When I read this text, it thrills me to know that I have a Savior who has the power I don’t have, and who uses it to save me from those things I cannot change. Likewise, I—personally—love it when Christ wins, and when the Lord puts things right, including the devil. But what I like most about this story is how it ends. The text says that the people were filled with fear when they saw Jesus’ power and what He had done, and then He had to leave the place. However, “the man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”
Christ restored this man to demonstrate that His power is unlimited, and then He sent him home to tell that pagan city the wonders of what the true God is capable of. Now tell me, how much can God do in your life? Jesus not only restores you when your sins are forgiven, when by grace you receive saving faith, or when you are made a new creation in the power of God revealed in our Baptism. After working redemption in you, Jesus sends you into the world … not to tell what the devil is capable of, but to proclaim what Jesus Christ has done for you. He has freed you from the yoke of your sins by giving His life for you on the cross; He saves you from the attacks of Satan and his lies; He redeems you with His power in His resurrection; and brings you into the family of God through Word and Sacrament. Now He sends you into the world to be a witness to what He has done, is doing, and will do for all of us.
The church—saved, redeemed, restored by Jesus Christ—has the same mission: to go to all nations, to people of all paths of life, to all ethnic groups, people of different generations, ideas, and colors, and to preach to all of them the powerful Word of God everywhere.
If I were you, perhaps I would protect myself from the devil and his attacks, but above all, I would trust in the One who deals with him, defeats him, and inflicts eternal punishment on him, while giving us, who have believed in Him, eternal life. Amen.
Reflections for JUne 22, 2025
Title: Should I Be Worried About the Devil?Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Joining us now here’s Lutheran Hour Speaker Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I’m visiting with our guest speaker whom you just heard, Pastor German Novelli, director of Hispanic ministry at Lutheran Hour Ministries. Welcome. Thanks for sticking around to talk with us, Pastor.
German Novelli: Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much.
Mike Zeigler: So, German, as I listened to your sermon, I thought of this artwork. And it’s a picture of a person pedaling a bike, and at the bottom there’s this caption, and it says, “Too loose, and the wheels fall off. Too tight, and the wheels won’t roll.” And it’s just a beautiful little bit of worldly wisdom, and I think we could apply it to this concern or this worry about the devil that you talked about in the sermon: this dual danger of being too loose, too unconcerned about the devil, but also too tight, too obsessed over the devil. Is that fair to say?
German Novelli: Yes, especially because when you see the amount of Christians who don’t believe in the power of Satan or don’t think that Satan is a real person, sometimes they believe that it’s a personification of the evil. Then you may come to the mistake of saying, “Okay, let us ignore that reality.” Even though, when we open the Scriptures, the reality is totally different. Jesus spent a lot of time dealing with the devil. Again, going back to the Bible, St. Peter, Paul inviting us and warning us about, “Hey, be careful with this! This is real.” And not just the devil, the other enemies, that according to Martin Luther we also have—the world and our sinful nature—things to keep in mind in our pathway of life and in our pathway of faith. And this is important because we have to, yes, never ignore these realities, but always fixing our eyes on the One who deals with the devil, defeated the devil, and is coming to our rescue to protect us from the evil power, which will always look to undo what God wants to do in our lives.
Mike Zeigler: Part of this problem that we have—either being too loose, too unconcerned, or too worried, too focused, hyper-focused on the devil—is actually related to a deeper tension in the Christian faith. And this is classically called “the problem of evil.” And it’s these three truths that the Scripture reveals: that God is all-powerful, that God is completely good, and that evil is real. The devil is out there. And if you try to hold all three of those together, it feels sometimes impossible or maybe just very difficult to hold all three together, because it goes like this: If the devil and God are real opponents, then God isn’t all-powerful. And maybe He needs our help to tip the balance in His favor, like there’s a war and we need to make sure that we help God win the war. Or if you say, no, God is all-powerful, and the devil is completely under His power. Then it kind of feels like evil is just an illusion, and it’s just all in our imagination, and it’s just a mind game. So I think that’s a deeper tension that Christians have to wrestle with from the Scriptures. How do you help people walk through that tension and guide them through that tension as a pastor?
German Novelli: One good thing about the Scriptures is that they give us a glimpse of the problem, but at the same time, they give us the solution. Prayer is important. The constant meditation on God’s Word is important, and also to live the struggles of this world, the tentatio that Luther talks about, the daily life. So here is why it’s very important: faith. You and I know that faith is not something that you go to the pharmacy and you say, “Hey, can you give me two pounds of faith? So I need it for today.” Right? But faith is where we find the peace and the strength to deal with these things. Okay? Going back to the Scriptures, there you’ve got the solution. Keep praying, pray earnestly, pray continually, pray without easing. Read the Word of God and meditate on God’s Word and read about the promises of Jesus Christ, knowing that yes, in this world you will have tribulations. But you also will have Jesus on your side in the boat of your life.
Mike Zeigler: So what I hear you saying is, we don’t try to solve this problem in theory. We don’t try to parse out all the logic and say how it all fits together. Instead, pastorally, we help people back into everyday life, and we just live in the tension of these truths. Yes, the devil’s real. Sin is real. Temptation of the world is real. Evil is a real thing. It’s not an illusion. And God is all- powerful and all good. And even if I can’t logically or theoretically straighten all that out in my mind, I enter into everyday life in the struggle, in prayer, in listening to God’s Word, in taking evil seriously, but taking God all the more seriously.
German Novelli: Totally, totally, totally agree with that statement. And as I was saying, sometimes we disregard the importance of prayer, and that’s something that we see a lot, especially even in Christian circles. And no, it’s important that we take time every day to pray.
Mike Zeigler: You mentioned Ephesians chapter 6, the armor of God, and taking that up, and there’s the battle cry of prayer that’s mentioned in that passage from Ephesians 6, in all things, in all petitions bring these, it’s the battle cry of faith, this prayer. As a listener, I could imagine walking away from this sermon, this discussion, wondering, “Well, which is my problem? Am I too loose or too tight?” How do we avoid both of those errors?
German Novelli: Well, St. Peter’s words, “Watch out. Be alert.” Be alert. That’s what I want people to walk away with after listening and reading this sermon is, hey, be alert, okay? Because your enemy is out there like a lion. And you have to be very careful. But walk away in peace because you know that there’s One who is more powerful than you, who loves you, who forgives you, and who gives you the strength to conquer in all things. And also know that these challenges, these struggles are part of life. Take up your cross and keep following Jesus and keep fixing your eyes on the Lord.
Mike Zeigler: Be aware, but also be at peace. And part of being aware is [to be] aware of the full threat. The full threat is not just inside me, in my sin, that’s a real threat. But it’s more than that. It’s outside of me. And it’s not just the world and the temptations of culture, it’s also the spiritual power, this spiritual being that’s a real agent in the world to tempt us and lead us away. So we don’t want to get narrowed on one threat, but see the full threats before us. That’s part of being alert. But then, be at peace. As big as the threat is, as multidimensional the threat is, Jesus has got it all covered.
German Novelli: Yes, exactly. And the tomb is empty, and that’s a sign of the victory.
Mike Zeigler: And you see these forces of evil coming together and merging on Jesus at the cross. It’s not just our sins on the cross, it’s also the evil world that put Him there that was threatened that He might be taking away their power. And it wasn’t just the world and our sin, it was also the devil. “This is the power of darkness,” Jesus says, “the time of the evil one.” And so all three threats are converging on Jesus at the cross, and the tomb is empty. Like you said, He’s defeated them all. Another thing I think that helps people not get too fixated on the devil is, like you said earlier, just simply reading the Scriptures. When we read the Scriptures, when we stay in God’s Word, they highlight these different threats to us at different times. So maybe I’m reading, like we heard from Luke chapter 8, and there’s this passage about this man possessed by these demons. But then I read a little bit further, and I read about this argument that the disciples are having amongst themselves about who’s greater and who’s going to sit on the right and left. And I say, “Oh, now the threat and focus is more my sin. What’s going on inside me.” And then I read a little bit more, and I see the Pharisees ganging up and trying to plot against Jesus and like, oh, there’s also the threat of the world that I need to be concerned about. So what would you want to say more on that? It seems like just reading the Scriptures helps us.
German Novelli: Well, I will start in the book of Genesis. Let’s go to the beginning. Let’s go to Genesis 3 where we see the evil one at work. When you start going forward through the Scriptures, then you end in the book of Revelation, at the end, is again the devil being defeated. And that’s a good picture of our own lives. Sometimes we will feel that’s over, that we have been defeated, that there’s no hope, that the victory will not be ours, that we are losing the game or that we already lost it. But the truth is, that’s not how it works. That’s not the promise that we have in Jesus. Even in the book of Genesis, and especially in the book of Revelation, from the beginning to the end, the Bible tells us the story. The Bible tells us the truth. The Bible tells us about the One who defeated him. And that’s why it’s important. We just invite people to remain in prayer, also meditating on God’s Word. Because when you read the story, you know how this story began and how this story will end. And that’s important.
Mike Zeigler: Good. Well, thank you for this conversation. Since we’ve been talking about prayer, let’s pray!
German Novelli: Yes.
Mike Zeigler: This powerful petition there in the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from the evil one” is the original language that Jesus uses. We say, deliver us from evil, but we know what that means. Deliver us from the evil one. So please would you lead us in prayer?
German Novelli: Mike and everyone, please pray with me the Lord’s Prayer, the Padre Nuestro: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Mike Zeigler: And receive this blessing from the Lord who is your Champion, who has given you the victory: the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Rise, Shine, You People” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.