I was reading in Mark 3:22-35.I have broken my thoughts down by the scriptures listed.
[3:22 ] And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
- The first part of this I found interesting was the scribes.Why would they accuse Jesus of being possessed for casting out demons? This doesn’t fully make sense to me. Logic would tell us that they should be praising him for doing this good work. So why do they accuse Jesus of being of the devil?
- Have you ever been this way? You see someone doing something great that you wish you could do. So you down play it in order to make yourself feel better.
- I don’t know about you, but I have made immediate judgements about people based on what I have heard. Maybe the scribes are in that boat, they have heard a few things about Jesus, have come to see what all the fuss was about and when they got there they made an immediate judgement on what they had heard. Pretty prideful to make a accusations based on a judgement made before meeting a person.
[23 ] And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? [24 ] If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. [25 ] And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. [26 ] And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.
- The Kingdom of God – Obviously this is an analogy for the Kingdom of God and Jesus is posing the question “Why would I be working against myself if I were possessed by a demon? If I were possessed by a demon, I would cause disunity for the cause and that doesn’t make sense”
- Disunity in the Kingdom – But Jesus also points out something else in these passages, He brings up disunity among God’s people and the effects that disunity has in the Kingdom of God. For example, the scribes speaking against Jesus.
- Let me ask you, have you been speaking against someone who is on your team? in your family? in your church?
- This is a real problem of the church of today and we must watch disunity in the Kingdom of God.
[27 ] But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
- Binding the Strong Man – Jesus is explaining that not only is He the one who is from the Kingdom of God as mentioned before but that He has the power to “bind” Satan. That He has the power over evil and He will overcome and be victorious.
[28 ] “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, [29 ] but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— [30 ] for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
- All Sins will be Forgiven – Through the work of Christ on the Cross our sins are forgiven. Through His power as the Son of God we are redeemed.