Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

The opponents of Jesus are like those condemned by the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet says they will not listen to the voice of God or do what God asks. They “walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward” (Jeremiah 7:24). The only voice they listen to is their own, and they can imagine nothing different than the small, self-absorbed world they know. By refusing to listen to God’s voice, they shut themselves off from the vast and beautiful world God offers, what Jesus calls the kingdom of God.

So too with those who think that Jesus casts out evil spirits by the power of the spirit of evil. They refuse to listen to his voice and, therefore, are unable to read the signs he gives in driving out evil spirits. They cannot see that the kingdom of God has come among them. Only those who listen to the voice of Jesus can read the kingdom-signs he gives, because he is the only true interpreter of the signs.