32 As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” 34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” (Matthew 9)
Let's give the Pharisees credit. They at least understood the core issue of Jesus' presence: Authority. Wherever He was, He threatened their authority, so they were always questioning His. Their line of thinking was this: "the demons have been bossing everyone around; the only one who could tell them what to do is their leader their prince." There is a sense of true logic to that. What one of the other gospel writers shares with us that Matthew does not is that Jesus called them on the rationality of such logic. "Why would the Devil, the prince of demons do that? He was people to be demon influenced." Their line of reason made no sense. What they were totally avoiding was this thought: that Jesus had greater authority than the prince of demons; He has the authority of God. Once we admit that, then everything changes. Everything Jesus says and calls on us to do becomes a must; if we really see Him as our ultimate authority, we ahve no excuse to say "no" to His call on our lives. The alternative is to stay under the authority of self-firghteous men, or worse yet, the prince of demons.
No comments:
Post a Comment