Strong Man Standing

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

STRONG MAN STANDING

Mark 3:22-30

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." 23 So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. 28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."  30 He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."

NIV

Jesus is still in the house and still busy healing people and driving out demons. We have been told that his family, when they heard what he was doing, were coming to take charge of him, thinking that he was out of his mind. Now we are told that some of the teachers of the law came down from Jerusalem to check on Jesus and to accuse him, not of being from God, but from being from Satan, or at least possessed by the prince of demons. He would not be able to drive out demons if he was possessed by only another mere demon. No, they accused him of having Satan, himself inside him. It is interesting that these are men who teach the law, therefore they should know all the law, all the scriptures, all the information about Jesus and yet they accuse him of being from the devil. It is also interesting that none of them ever healed anyone or drove out any demons. More than likely their thinking was that if someone was possessed then it was because they were not very holy, but rather a sinner and they deserved to be possessed. But Jesus puts them right in their place, yet he did so with a parable. This whole idea about a divided kingdom not being able to stand has many applications. Of course, Jesus was referring to the fact that Satan cannot drive out Satan or himself, as he would be divided and thus fall, the kingdom of demons would perish because it is divided among itself. Here, we need to see how the earthy religious organizations are a house divided, that is if they are all claiming to be a house of God. Why are we not all united for the same cause? Perhaps we are, but because of our arguments over certain doctrines, the world sees us as fools saying God loves you, but we hate each other. We claimer for their attention and attendance, yet they see us as a divided house, that will evidently become useless. However, the fact does remain that we are all Christians, basing our lives on the grace of God, on salvation through Jesus. So in that sense, we are not divided and we will stand, as we do not oppose ourselves. However, we could also apply this principle to our individual lives. Do we live, in some sense, divided? Do we divide our interests in following Jesus and by looking after some things of this world? Are we spending much of our life’s effort in the pursuit of earthy success, financial security, and the accumulation of things, all the while saying that we are following Jesus? We do not think this is a judgment of those who have great wealth, for perhaps God has determined they need that wealth in order to be able to reach wealthy people for Christ. Someone such as Billy Graham, who was blessed with wealth, was able to sit in the White House and speak with presidents. We would never have been able to will ever be able to do that, yet we are in a certain social group, and we can speak to those in the same level of life as we are. Still, it does raise the question, no matter our social and economic setting, do we divide our attention between following Jesus and following after our own pursuits. Did we decide our career path or did God? Have we determined where we live, what living quarters we have or did God? Have we chosen the church we attend, or did God call us there? How many life chooses have we taken command of without regard for what God wants us to do? If we are deciding certain aspects of our lives without seeking direction from God first, and we profess that we are followers of Jesus, then it would seem we are divided and according to what Jesus said, we may not do very well standing. However, on the other hand, if we are always waiting on the Lord, always waiting for His direction, His provision, His light onto our feet, showing us the way we should travel through life, then we will be able to stand our ground, standing firm, no one will come and rob our life, for in our weakness, we are made a strong man, standing united with Christ.