Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons."
These from the crowd were among those for whom the warning of Isaiah applied, "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). This scene is often brought up in discussions of the sin against the Holy Spirit because it was by that Spirit that Jesus performed these deeds (see Matthew 12:28). Misattributing them to the devil was therefore something more grave and grievous than to merely disbelieve them for the reason that it further removed from the crowds the means of salvation.
When you speak all these words to them,
they will not listen to you either;
when you call to them, they will not answer you.
If they persisted with this categorization they would be unwilling to receive the salvation that the Spirit alone could convey, unwilling to enter the Kingdom of God because they could not recognize it as such because it did not meet their human criteria.
Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
Jesus and his Kingdom were not divided, but were rather entirely and clearly focused on the purpose of the Father's will. There was no admixture of evil, no tarrying even with lesser goods evident in the example of the Son of God. The crowds, by contrast, still had at least a foot in the world, though, since they were listening, perhaps they also had one in the Kingdom.
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (see James 4:4)
At best they were divided and at risk. This is often the case for us as well, as we profess allegiance to the Kingdom, yet are willing to insist that a demon must be involved when it interferes with our enjoyment of the world. We see that the problem is not ultimately with Jesus and what he is proposing, but rather with what it means about us and our need to change. Our lack of willingness to accept Jesus' assessment of our lives results in something very much like this crowds' unwillingness to accept him. The division is not in him, but in us.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
What are we to do with our divided hearts, easily susceptible to conquest by the hostile kingdom of darkness? We must rely on one stronger than ourselves and stronger than our enemy to set us free. We must first recognize that it is the very "finger of God" that works through him. The enemy is afraid that we might come to know this truth because if we know it we will be ready and waiting for rescue. We will no longer cling to illusions about how being prisoners of the strong man is not so bad. The strength of Jesus and the power of his Spirit are sufficient to release the stranglehold of the enemy on our hearts, the grip which confuses us about good and evil, and makes us settle for the damp dark prison that is slavery to sin. Only then can we enjoy the spoils, the gifts that the Spirit desires to pour out upon us. Let us look to Jesus, and to his presence in his saints, and see true and undiluted goodness, and allow this to raise the desires of our own hearts to pursue this same goodness. It will always remain beyond our strength to do so. But with the one stronger helping us it need not remain beyond our reach.
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world (see First John 4:4).
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