The curse of division
This week is on Matthew 12:22-32:
I came upon these verses today while researching something else, and was struck by how revolutionary they are. Jesus takes the sort of envious church bickering we've all probably heard too much of, picks it up over his head, and slams it on the ground! It's not the Pharisees he's calling out; it's anyone who claims an inside track with God, and who uses that to wield power.
It all starts out with something awesome: A poor, crippled, tormented man is healed and restored to perfect mental and physical health. People are finally waking up and realizing that God is real, and that God's promises to save us are true. Everyone with any connection to God whatsoever should have been pointing to that and saying how awesome God was. Except they didn't.
The Pharisees at the time were the major denomination, but really they could be any church. They were the only good church they'd ever known. They looked down on the Sadducees, another church that thought they were the most awesome. When Jesus healed the blind, mute, demonized man, their reaction wasn't joy; it was shock. "Wait?! That can't be of God! It didn't come from us!" They were the one true church. They owned God. Anyone else who used their trademark was in violation.
They tried to explain it away. I don't know whether it was slander, or whether they were in such denial that they truly believed that Satan was doing a better job of glorifying God than they were. All we know is that they said that Jesus wasn't of God, and that it was witchcraft.
That seems nuts to us, because it's all explained neatly to us two thousand years later. But how many times have we heard things like that in modern times and not thought twice about them? How many times have we heard our fellow believers write off other churches and denominations as witchcraft, cults, the whore of Babylon, "not operating in the kingdom," not of God, etc, despite those groups caring for the poor, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and so on? Anyone who is not united with the global Church divides. Anyone who doesn't gather people to God's whole church scatters them.
It takes incredible arrogance to shove God aside and speak for him. The Pharisees did that when they claimed Jesus' miracle was not from God. They claimed to have Godly insight into the matter, which blasphemed God by putting words in his mouth that he did not speak. How confused would you have been to have sat there listening to two opposite sides both claim to be the exclusive spokesmen for God's kingdom? There's a saying in Buddhism, I think, which applies to some extent: "If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him." The idea is that anyone you ran into who claimed to be Buddha wasn't going to be Buddha, but a liar out to get you.
In any case, when you slander the "competition," you could be shutting down the very move of God you claim to lead. God is so infinite that you have no idea what he's using, or what new or old trick he's doing. Is God evidenced by how interesting or boring the sermon and worship are? How well the people dress? How many tattooed or pierced people you can take credit for? How much charity you provide to the community? How many people you talk to about God and then never talk to again? How many miracles you can report? I don't think anyone can answer that question.
God has used groups with all of those attributes. It's sheer pride to claim he only uses the one you happen to be selling. And what about the stuff nobody has seen, or everyone has written off, that we will only find out about in the end? Look at the amount of time Jesus dedicates to listing off good deeds people have done for him, and the people are like "Wait, what? That was you?!" God is infinite. God is so infinitely infinite that we don't even know what we don't know about him.
Play it safe. If someone says they're doing God's work, and there's any way at all to glorify God through what they've done, give it the benefit of the doubt. Don't be the eternal killjoy that shoves God aside to hijack his movement for their own purposes. Your world view, your tithe revenue, your sense of decency, and your inner prejudices and hurts are not worth the damage it causes.
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
I came upon these verses today while researching something else, and was struck by how revolutionary they are. Jesus takes the sort of envious church bickering we've all probably heard too much of, picks it up over his head, and slams it on the ground! It's not the Pharisees he's calling out; it's anyone who claims an inside track with God, and who uses that to wield power.
It all starts out with something awesome: A poor, crippled, tormented man is healed and restored to perfect mental and physical health. People are finally waking up and realizing that God is real, and that God's promises to save us are true. Everyone with any connection to God whatsoever should have been pointing to that and saying how awesome God was. Except they didn't.
The Pharisees at the time were the major denomination, but really they could be any church. They were the only good church they'd ever known. They looked down on the Sadducees, another church that thought they were the most awesome. When Jesus healed the blind, mute, demonized man, their reaction wasn't joy; it was shock. "Wait?! That can't be of God! It didn't come from us!" They were the one true church. They owned God. Anyone else who used their trademark was in violation.
They tried to explain it away. I don't know whether it was slander, or whether they were in such denial that they truly believed that Satan was doing a better job of glorifying God than they were. All we know is that they said that Jesus wasn't of God, and that it was witchcraft.
That seems nuts to us, because it's all explained neatly to us two thousand years later. But how many times have we heard things like that in modern times and not thought twice about them? How many times have we heard our fellow believers write off other churches and denominations as witchcraft, cults, the whore of Babylon, "not operating in the kingdom," not of God, etc, despite those groups caring for the poor, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and so on? Anyone who is not united with the global Church divides. Anyone who doesn't gather people to God's whole church scatters them.
It takes incredible arrogance to shove God aside and speak for him. The Pharisees did that when they claimed Jesus' miracle was not from God. They claimed to have Godly insight into the matter, which blasphemed God by putting words in his mouth that he did not speak. How confused would you have been to have sat there listening to two opposite sides both claim to be the exclusive spokesmen for God's kingdom? There's a saying in Buddhism, I think, which applies to some extent: "If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him." The idea is that anyone you ran into who claimed to be Buddha wasn't going to be Buddha, but a liar out to get you.
In any case, when you slander the "competition," you could be shutting down the very move of God you claim to lead. God is so infinite that you have no idea what he's using, or what new or old trick he's doing. Is God evidenced by how interesting or boring the sermon and worship are? How well the people dress? How many tattooed or pierced people you can take credit for? How much charity you provide to the community? How many people you talk to about God and then never talk to again? How many miracles you can report? I don't think anyone can answer that question.
God has used groups with all of those attributes. It's sheer pride to claim he only uses the one you happen to be selling. And what about the stuff nobody has seen, or everyone has written off, that we will only find out about in the end? Look at the amount of time Jesus dedicates to listing off good deeds people have done for him, and the people are like "Wait, what? That was you?!" God is infinite. God is so infinitely infinite that we don't even know what we don't know about him.
Play it safe. If someone says they're doing God's work, and there's any way at all to glorify God through what they've done, give it the benefit of the doubt. Don't be the eternal killjoy that shoves God aside to hijack his movement for their own purposes. Your world view, your tithe revenue, your sense of decency, and your inner prejudices and hurts are not worth the damage it causes.
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