Today’s Gospel Text: And the scribes who came down
from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Be-el'zebul, and by the prince of
demons he casts out the demons." 23 And he called them to him, and
said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided
against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up
against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong
man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man; then
indeed he may plunder his house.
28 "Truly, I say to you, all
sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against
the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"
- 30 for they had said, "He has
an unclean spirit." Mark 3:22-30
Reflection: The
scribes from Jerusalem must have been looked upon as the elite, well versed with the
scriptures and knew scriptures through their many years of service and
discussions at such an elite place. Here intellectual Jews and even pagans, who
came to worship here, may have gathered here to discuss the intricacies of
spirituality..
How
then men of such proficiency could make such irresponsible statements: "He is possessed by Be-el'zebul, and by the prince of demons
he casts out the demons." (vs. 22)
Possibly in their experience of life they may have reflected
and had experiences of exorcism and deliverance and may have heard of people
holding on to other forms of religion and black magic also doing something about
cases of possession and knew that they did arrive at some solutions.
I wonder how they
understood the deep deception of these evil spirits at work through these human
medium of other religions.
They may have thus
interpreted all of these as cunningness of Satan and him working to set people
free.
They now seem to apply
this knowledge to Jesus, a Nazarene Galilean, meaning to say, the most backward
among the Jewish people: A phenomenon common to our times, when many a times,
people think that just because they roam around in intellectual circles they have
all the wisdom and knowledge.
Fortunately, these scribes
seemed humble enough to respond to Jesus’ invitation to listen to his counter argument and instruction
of what is right and wrong and what is the ultimate role and power of the Holy
Spirit in all this work.
What
would happen if they, with their elite background, would have carried their
swollen head on their shoulders?
It is an invitation for each one of us to look at ourselves too, especially when we are much in the service of God.
Prayer: Lord,
help me to depend on the Holy Spirit whom you have given us to lead us into all
truth and set us free from the darkness of Satan, Sin and death.
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow
in the Lord with us
