The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul," and
"By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
The scribes were looking to undermine the increasing popularity of Jesus. The trouble was that everything that he was doing seemed good and praiseworthy. In place of evil to malign or sin to criticize they instead chose to impugn his motives. We see such ad hominem attacks constantly in the the public square but to level such an attack at Jesus was something else again. Ostensibly the scribes saw themselves as working for good, but they were at best divided, ultimately, if unconsciously, serving the devil by opposing Jesus.
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
Jesus was the only one who was in no way divided against himself. Together with the Father and the Spirit he was always and only doing one thing. He was fully committed to goodness and love and held nothing back apart from that for selfish gains or prideful indulgence. Because of that the devil could find no foothold in him. On the other hand, the devil had no way to be some unified toward the end of evil as Jesus was toward the end of good. The devil was forced to pray on and corrupt legitimate goods to accomplish his plans. This meant that the posture which Jesus embraced was more real, more rooted in the reality of things, and therefore ultimately stronger.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
Satan would never act against his own self-interest and willingly bring about good works as the scribes suggested. They fell under the criticism of Isaiah, who said "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (see Isaiah 5:20). Jesus reinforced this idea when he said that, "A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit" (See Matthew 7:18). Although Satan was forced to pray on the good he could not actually produce it. Although even his appearance might be misleading, he would still be known by his rotten fruit.
But 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.
Jesus, because of his singlehearted obedience to the Father and adherence to the good, had a strength that was greater than anything in the world could match. He didn't fight on the same terms of worldly strength, but rather revealed that love was a power that all of the strength in the world could not match. By the power of love, perfectly expressed by dying on the cross for us, he bound the devil once and for all and rescued mankind who had until then been his captives.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin.
If we persist in maligning the good and remaining divided within ourselves we risk committing the everlasting sin of which Jesus spoke. It was everlasting, not because mercy was ever impossible, but because the condition of mind required to commit it became increasingly hard to turn from, making repentance less and less likely. So let us instead be like Jesus, and be straightforward about calling evil as evil and good as good. Let us strive more and more about the one thing Jesus was about: love, expressed toward both God and neighbor.
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