And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, (V)to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"--because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit." (Mark 3.20-30, NASB)
This is a rather famous red-letter discourse of Jesus'. I noticed, however, when reviewing the passage while refamiliarizing myself with Pagels' Origin of Satan, that Jesus' response has nothing to do with what the scribes said.
How can Satan cast out Satan? Simplistic, indeed. If the deceiver deceives, then why not deceive by having one agent pretend dominion over another? Perhaps, then, Jesus is the deceiver?
Nonetheless, we should probably applaud Jesus for turning the discussion not only on its ear, but also on the scribes. Accused of demonic influence, Jesus responds,
1. How can something cast itself out?
2. In order to plunder something capable of defending itself, one must first bind its defensive capabilities.
3. All sins are forgiven, except for one.
2. In order to plunder something capable of defending itself, one must first bind its defensive capabilities.
3. All sins are forgiven, except for one.
It is convenient enough to declare that, "To accuse me is to commit the unforgivable sin", but there is something more subtle to that. The unforgivable sin is not just in accusing demonic influence of the holy, but in the fact that such accusatons demonstrate a lack of faith in God. Consider another famous notion, "Judge not, lest ye be judged". To presume judgment is to aspire to God's authority, and as all that happens is of God's will, it would seem rather difficult, then, to accuse that a given event or action is rooted in evil. After all, as we see in the Book of Job, the "evil" that visits Job is, in fact, according to God's will; and the prophets of the Hebrew testament remind us that the "evil" befalling Israel is also God's will.
Strange, then, that televangelists should make billions a year in the U.S. at least by finding devils and demons everywhere. But what does this say to American Christians? Was 9/11 really "God's will"? Should an avowed Christian refrain from calling Osama bin Laden evil? What of the hijackers who steered the planes into the towers? Are they, like Job's tormentor, instruments of God?
Many infidels complain that "you just can't talk to a Christian". Literally, this is untrue. I've spoken to many over the years. But in its intended sense, that one cannot undertake a progressive discussion with such folk, the complaint has my abundant sympathy. But what of the Christians? They, too, might deserve our infidel sympathy. Blinded by faith, perhaps the reason so many Christians make so little sense when evangelizing, criticizing, or simply discussing, is that they have never tried to make sense out of the deceptive rhetoric of their Savior. After all, if Jesus approached issues by changing the subject and accusing, why should the Christian do otherwise?
"Follow me," said Jesus.
Christians are told to strive to walk in Jesus' footsteps.
After all, What Would Jesus Do?
My recommendation to fellow infidels is to stop being so condemning, and realize that most Christians are victims of a swindle reaching cosmic proportions.
What would Jesus do? Change the subject and sling mud.
