Thursday of the Third Week of Lent – March 11, 2010
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.”
If we can separate ourselves for a moment from the content of this text, interesting as it may be, I think we’ll find a word from Jesus about the nature of spiritual teaching and the power of spiritual wisdom.
Authentic spirituality separates us from lies and illusions. It is the nature of the spiritual life to expose the false self, that is, the illusory ego-self that orders life around itself. This false self exists in human persons, in institutions, in social groups, and in larger national entities.
Sometimes for a social group, this falsity is manifested in faulty thinking about the nature of reality, the way things are in the world. The group misreads or misperceives of what is true in the world. They miss something of the basic way the world operates. Their framework for life is skewed, somehow off-kilter.
Spiritual teaching, that is, teaching which comes from a deeper inner core, exposes and confronts these misperceptions. Spiritual teaching imparts wisdom. It is not simply “sound teaching” or “good doctrine.” Wisdom is not gleaned from reading books or listening to good talks. Wisdom comes from the grit of life. It comes from living deeply connected to God through all the distractions and disturbances of daily life. Wisdom sees life deeply, down to the core; therefore, true wisdom is able to call falsity’s bluff!
Those who have attributed Jesus’ healings to demonic forces of evil have skewed reality to huge proportions! Their perception is not even close to what is real and true. So Jesus speaks against the falsehood and attempts to shift their view of reality.
This is not merely an ancient story. In fact, we live within cultural systems where huge illusions are in place, where lies and falsehoods about reality are so ingrained in the nature of everyday life that we don’t even question them. We make assumptions about life based on the skewed views of truth that we’ve been fed by the cultural systems. We don’t easily lose those misperceptions.
Most always, in order to see differently we need someone rooted in God to expose the falsity in which we are immersed. We need a wise one willing to speak their life-wisdom to come into our world and help shift our paradigms. Occasionally we’ll listen to those “prophets,” and more often we “kill” them or carry them off as “crazy.”
In the story, when Jesus shifted understandings of reality, he said, “The kingdom of God has come upon you.” That is, a new way of ordering life, a new way of perceiving what is true and good, a new way of loving in the world is in your midst.
Lent is a season for discovering new ways of ordering life in God and for hearing the truth that really does free us for abundant living.
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.”
If we can separate ourselves for a moment from the content of this text, interesting as it may be, I think we’ll find a word from Jesus about the nature of spiritual teaching and the power of spiritual wisdom.
Authentic spirituality separates us from lies and illusions. It is the nature of the spiritual life to expose the false self, that is, the illusory ego-self that orders life around itself. This false self exists in human persons, in institutions, in social groups, and in larger national entities.
Sometimes for a social group, this falsity is manifested in faulty thinking about the nature of reality, the way things are in the world. The group misreads or misperceives of what is true in the world. They miss something of the basic way the world operates. Their framework for life is skewed, somehow off-kilter.
Spiritual teaching, that is, teaching which comes from a deeper inner core, exposes and confronts these misperceptions. Spiritual teaching imparts wisdom. It is not simply “sound teaching” or “good doctrine.” Wisdom is not gleaned from reading books or listening to good talks. Wisdom comes from the grit of life. It comes from living deeply connected to God through all the distractions and disturbances of daily life. Wisdom sees life deeply, down to the core; therefore, true wisdom is able to call falsity’s bluff!
Those who have attributed Jesus’ healings to demonic forces of evil have skewed reality to huge proportions! Their perception is not even close to what is real and true. So Jesus speaks against the falsehood and attempts to shift their view of reality.
This is not merely an ancient story. In fact, we live within cultural systems where huge illusions are in place, where lies and falsehoods about reality are so ingrained in the nature of everyday life that we don’t even question them. We make assumptions about life based on the skewed views of truth that we’ve been fed by the cultural systems. We don’t easily lose those misperceptions.
Most always, in order to see differently we need someone rooted in God to expose the falsity in which we are immersed. We need a wise one willing to speak their life-wisdom to come into our world and help shift our paradigms. Occasionally we’ll listen to those “prophets,” and more often we “kill” them or carry them off as “crazy.”
In the story, when Jesus shifted understandings of reality, he said, “The kingdom of God has come upon you.” That is, a new way of ordering life, a new way of perceiving what is true and good, a new way of loving in the world is in your midst.
Lent is a season for discovering new ways of ordering life in God and for hearing the truth that really does free us for abundant living.
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