Living in the Spirit
June 9, 2018
Scripture Reading: Mark 3:20-35
and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast 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. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’ –Mark 3:20-30
I started writing these daily devotions as a follow up to my book, Houses Divided, which I hoped would start an ongoing dialogue on the issues that divide people of faith. I do not sense that that has happened particularly since I discontinued comments very early on my posts because I was being spammed many times every day and I did not have the time to ferret out the legit comments from the dozens of people wanted to sell me something. Writing them, however, has turned out invaluable to my faith journey. Deciding to use the lectionary as my guide has taken me places I never dreamed I would go. Now, I had read the Bible fully more than once, but I never had to think as deeply about what it says until I considered what I could say about a specific scripture.
The story in the scripture today seems to be dropped into Mark without the full picture at the beginning. Stories of healings and large meetings with seekers precede it but that does not explain the reaction of the people. We do need to remember that the people of the middle east at that time readily accepted the existence of demons that impacted life. Apparently, the crowd was seeing what Jesus was doing as being powered by just another demon and he did not take that lightly as Jesus was casting out demons. Thus, his comment, How can Satan cast out Satan?
I used Matthew 12.25b: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. as the source of my book title. I believe that to be true and that our country is on the precipice of falling apart because of divisiveness. But this scripture today has application to my book title also. Are we like the people in Jesus’ hometown when he brought his healing presence home? Can we not see the power of good over evil, the power of love over lust, the power of generosity over greed? Who are we to try and cast out the Spirit of God?
Prayer: Lord, so ground us in your love that we cannot conceive of a world without it. Amen.