Thursday of the Third Week of Lent -- March 31, 2011
Luke 11:14 – 23
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Jesus came to make people whole. That which was torn apart within persons was brought to wholeness by Christ. He offered salvation as healing for the soul. He offered healing for bodies that were broken. In all, he gave himself to bring unity to bodies, minds and spirits that were broken into pieces.
Further, his desire was that people experience their oneness with God, just as he and God were one. In the classical language of spirituality, this is known as “union” or “the unitive way.” This bringing together seems to be consistent with the nature of God as revealed in Jesus.
Read today’s Gospel reading. I notice in it the language of division, separating and scattering. “Dividing” as noted in this text is characteristic of the demonic realm. In fact, the Gospel-writer subtly underscores this separating. Though the word “devil” (Greek, diabolos) is not used in the passage, that word means to split or divide, literally “to throw apart.” It seems clear that the “dividing” in today’s reading is underscored by the “splitting” or “throwing apart” of the diabolos.
I’m continually surprised at how much of our world is characterized by a splitting or a dividing. It seems that our human tendency is to separate rather than bring together. We too easily seem to gravitate toward “sides” or teams. Our very practice of labeling others makes a practice of distinguishing who they are by how they are different from us. We perpetuate division by the way we name others.
But Jesus embodied oneness. He was one within himself, a whole person, fully developed spiritually, mentally, emotionally and psychologically. He was one with God and one with people.
So those who preferred diabolos resisted him. Those who desired wholeness were attracted to him.
By the end of the reading, he is the one who gathers to himself, and the message implied in his final statement is an invitation that we join him in the gathering, in drawing together what has been scattered, bringing to oneness what has been divided.
Gathering, then, is a distinctly God-like action, and identifies us with the Gatherer.
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Jesus came to make people whole. That which was torn apart within persons was brought to wholeness by Christ. He offered salvation as healing for the soul. He offered healing for bodies that were broken. In all, he gave himself to bring unity to bodies, minds and spirits that were broken into pieces.
Further, his desire was that people experience their oneness with God, just as he and God were one. In the classical language of spirituality, this is known as “union” or “the unitive way.” This bringing together seems to be consistent with the nature of God as revealed in Jesus.
Read today’s Gospel reading. I notice in it the language of division, separating and scattering. “Dividing” as noted in this text is characteristic of the demonic realm. In fact, the Gospel-writer subtly underscores this separating. Though the word “devil” (Greek, diabolos) is not used in the passage, that word means to split or divide, literally “to throw apart.” It seems clear that the “dividing” in today’s reading is underscored by the “splitting” or “throwing apart” of the diabolos.
I’m continually surprised at how much of our world is characterized by a splitting or a dividing. It seems that our human tendency is to separate rather than bring together. We too easily seem to gravitate toward “sides” or teams. Our very practice of labeling others makes a practice of distinguishing who they are by how they are different from us. We perpetuate division by the way we name others.
But Jesus embodied oneness. He was one within himself, a whole person, fully developed spiritually, mentally, emotionally and psychologically. He was one with God and one with people.
So those who preferred diabolos resisted him. Those who desired wholeness were attracted to him.
By the end of the reading, he is the one who gathers to himself, and the message implied in his final statement is an invitation that we join him in the gathering, in drawing together what has been scattered, bringing to oneness what has been divided.
Gathering, then, is a distinctly God-like action, and identifies us with the Gatherer.
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