Jesus can drive out demons. This shouldn't be a thing for which he is criticized. And yet, even this is unpopular.
When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:
"By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons."
As for the crowd, their own people also drive out demons and they aren't criticized. Why then is Jesus criticized? They aren't really open to the power of Jesus. They see good fruit and attribute it to a bad tree. Yet it also seems that there is a difference between what their own people did to drive out demons and what Jesus did by the finger of God.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
Jesus driving out of demons meant the Kingdom of God had come. It meant the enemy's possessions were no longer safe for a stronger one was beginning his attack. And it is perhaps for this reason that the crowds had a hard time accepting what they saw. It was a challenge to the status quo greater than any the world had ever seen. They themselves were not yet free. They themselves needed deliverance. And perhaps they just didn't want to face that fact.
The relationship of the people of Israel to Abraham was not enough to mean that they were free, even though they insisted, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?" (see John 8:33). It is not the children of the flesh who are justified but those who share in the faith of Abraham.
Brothers and sisters:
Realize that it is those who have faith
who are children of Abraham.
People rightly fear the empty house when the unclean spirit is driven out. It may bring back seven other spirits more wicked than itself. For this reason we are often too comfortable with the demons we know. But the finger of God is truly here. There is now a way to victory that doesn't lead further back into slavery. Jesus casts out demons and fills us so full of his Spirit that there is no room for any other demons to enter.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (see Galatians 5:1).
Let us receive the deliverance of Jesus. Let us stand in the freedom he gives.
He has made known to his people the power of his works,
giving them the inheritance of the nations.
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