Luke 11:15-26 (start from Luke 11:14).

Today’s reading is easier to understand if we start from Luke 11:14: “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.”  In this verse, Jesus is healing simply due to his divine activity, which is healing by nature.  Just by being present as he is, he heals the man.

But in the next verse, the crowd begins to try to make sense of what just happened, using their human preconceptions. They speculate that maybe Jesus derives his power from the devil and uses it to drive out demons.  Others ask him for a sign from Heaven, as if to prove that he has divine power in a way that fits the human preconceptions.  Jesus does not go along with either of these schemes.  On the first suggestion, he points out that it would not be logical for the house of Satan to be divided against itself.  As for the second, he only says, “if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”  This confirms what we said first, which is that his healing activity is a natural result of his divine nature.

Jesus asks the crowd, “by whom do your own people drive [demons] out?”  In this time and place, it was often done that people attempted to drive out demons to cure physical ailments, as in many early societies in fact.  Jesus seems to say that this solution by manmade efforts is only temporary and rarely succeeds; in fact the illness may come back seven-fold.  “Whoever is not with me is against me…” indicates that resting within the realm of Jesus’ love and protection in the Kingdom of God is the only lasting solution.

This is a somewhat difficult passage to understand because there are so many cultural references.  The main thing for us to keep in mind and relate to is the force field of Jesus’ love surrounding us and all our world.  Rest in that.

Continue to build the blog site brick by brick, cinder block by cinder block, with mortar.  All will be well. It should be built to last a long time, and this takes time we know, but the sooner the better.  Amen.