The Gospel according to Matthew
1-2. The ancestry and birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
3-4. Jesus’ ministry begins; John’s baptism, Satan’s temptations, first disciples called.,
5-7. A summary of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, crowds were astounded.
8-9. An account of Jesus’ healings; the authority of Jesus is questioned and defended.
10-12. Jesus sends apostles on a short-term mission; then continues his own ministry.
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While some Pharisees were conspiring against Jesus because he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (12: 9-14), Jesus became aware of the plot and departed from the synagogue (12: 15). The crowds followed him and Jesus continued to heal those in need. However, he told the crowd not to spread the news (12: 16). He then quoted Isaiah to make the point that the Servant of God doesn’t get into unnecessary arguments (12: 18-21). He had a mission to accomplish. Good advice; tell our politicians.
12: 22-24. Then they brought to him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and were saying, “Can this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this man casts out the demons.”
The ‘they’ here must be some of the crowd, since Jesus was last engaged with them. The man that they bring to Jesus is indeed strange. He is blind and mute, and I could find no other combination like that in one person anywhere in Scripture. The usual combination is deaf and mute, so perhaps this is why he is described as ‘demon possessed’.
The healings that Matthew describes often have another layer of meaning; in this case it may be a reflection on the Pharisees who speak but often fail in their interpretations (mute), and who see but seem to miss the point (blind). Watch what happens. The crowds are amazed at what Jesus does. They are so impressed that they wonder if Jesus could be a figure promised by God, that is, the Son of David. They see well enough and ask good questions.
Son of David is a reference to Solomon. Ben Witherington points out (page 245), as I think I mentioned before, that the Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in the second half of the first century, reported First Century Jewish lore about Solomon: “God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. … And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return” (The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, Chapter 2, Line 45).
So, the crowd wondered with good reason. Although such exorcism is not mentioned in the canonical books as part of Solomon’s wisdom (I Kings, I Chronicles, Proverbs), it certainly is part of the mainstream narrative of the Jews who make up the crowd.
Some Pharisees have caught up to Jesus, and they heard what the crowd was saying. They cannot deny the healing miracle, so they begin to spread disinformation about the source of such power. They attribute Jesus’ power to Satan, aka, Beelzebul. This is an old moniker that uses the name of the false god Ba’al to fashion a word that means ‘Lord of the house’ or ‘Lord of the domain’. Think for a minute about the logic of their claim. Oh, wait! Logic doesn’t matter when you are spreading disinformation; and they did it without the services of Artificial Intelligence! (Note: ‘artificial’ means ‘not real’, so AI means ‘not real intelligence’). 🙂
12: 25-32. He knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand? If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Jesus may have used his human facilities to intuit what they were thinking. Or, this may be one of the few places where the gospel writer implies that Jesus knows something because he has god-like abilities. At any rate, he answers with a question, as usual.
Abraham Lincoln used this quote: "’A house divided against itself cannot stand’,” which goes on: “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
The speech was given at the Republican State convention in 1858. Not only was Lincoln wrong about whether the union would be dissolved, since it was for a while; he also lost the election to a Democrat. And, given the return of racism later in the Jim Crow laws and segregation, the country for over a hundred years did not become all one thing or the other.
Jesus deconstructs the absurd logic that imagines the ‘Lord of the domain’ would cast his own shock troops out of people. After all, the subversion of the people of God is what Satan is after.
Then Jesus reveals that the ‘exorcists’ , or ‘sons’ as in some Greek texts, among them also cast out demons. If the Pharisees push their misinformation about Jesus, are they then not indicting other Pharisees who do the same? If so, those exorcists might judge them for their faulty logic. History will be the judge of any dirty tricks.
After making a pretty good argument, Jesus asks them to consider this. If, in fact, Jesus is casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then isn’t it true that the kingdom of God has snuck up on them while they weren’t looking? While they were watching out for their own power, they missed God’s magnificent appearance among them.
Then Jesus offers a warning. A person might blaspheme or bear false witness against a human being, and still find forgiveness. But, if a person blasphemes against the Spirit of God when God is bringing his great plan of salvation to a crescendo, then how difficult will it be to find forgiveness? That’s the wrong time, the wrong target, and the wrong attitude. It is risky business not to recognize when God is active among us.
One more note. Even in English you can note that the word ‘kingdom’ is used three times in this passage, and that there are some synonyms of this word, like ‘house’ (3 times) and ‘city’ (once). Concepts that are repeated are important, as are related concepts that are repeated. What is going on here?
We have said before that ‘kingdom’ is a word that used to mean a lot more when kings and emperors were the dominant politicians. Today, they barely exist. The words ‘domain’ or ‘realm’ work just as well now. However, insofar as these terms cause us to think of bounded ‘nation states’, which is the dominant political entity today, they mislead us a bit.
What I mean is that the term as Jesus is using it does not imply a territory with boundaries, but rather areas of power and influence that overlap with someone else’s area of power and influence. I am reminded of the anthropologist Fredrik Barth in his book Political Leadership among the Swat Pathans (1959). Barth describes a number of khans (chiefs), some of whom were on the rise, and others who were waning. They each had a number of clients with whom they had a reciprocal relationship. Thus, they could rally a following when politics dictated a need. Khans have power, if clients are bound closely, or influence, if clients are more loosely connected. Yet, within their area of influence there were people who were clients of another khan. It was not territory but a following that the khan ruled over. This distinction is one reason why both Russia and the United States failed to win the war in Afghanistan because they thought it was about taking and holding territory. It was never about territory.
Back to the point. Jesus implies that Satan too has a domain of power and influence, and that it overlaps with the ‘kingdom’ of God. Or, rather, Jesus, in the name of the Kingdom of God, has invaded Satan’s following. Jesus implies that he himself has entered the strong man’s (Satan) house (domain), has bound him up, and is persuading clients with his miracles and his message. Many are now following him. So, the ‘lord of the domain’ is no longer lord. Instead, Jesus is Lord.
We seem to have lost the point that one is either aligned with God or not. Our commitment and devotion either go one way or the other. As Bob Dylan said, “You gotta serve somebody,” meaning that this thing is larger than you and me, and you can’t just go your own way. If we are oriented toward God, it doesn’t matter how far out we begin, it matters whether the center of our lives is God and the path is through Jesus Christ. It matters that the direction that we are headed in our journey of life, whether it is long or short, is toward God and not wandering aimlessly away.