Jesus
returns home from a preaching tour and finds that His ministry has followed
Him. People are boundary-less and in any ministry this is part of the work.
There has been a shift on the part of many in ministry to make it a profession
and less of a calling. Ministers sometimes hide behind staff and doors and
secret means of contact. For Jesus, if He wasn't away with the Father then He
was available.
The
prior testimony of demons may have been the inspiration for the accusation of
the scribes. This is not an honest mistake because they were attempting to join
with the demonic to undermine Jesus's ministry. Do not think that anything that
demons did was a result of worship or adoration. Note also that the scribes
came from Jerusalem. This was a 60-mile distance as the crow flies. The
accusation was the merger of two forces that oppose Jesus, the demonic and
religious elite. If opposition to Jesus to this point was scattered and
individual, it has now become the official policy of the religious
powers.
Jesus
proves the failure of their thinking by showing that a house divided will fall.
We don't appreciate this because we do not understand the immensity of the liberation
that Jesus brings. When Jesus cured the demon-possessed person it was no minor
improvement. It was extreme and radical. The horrible, wretched life of the
demon-possessed might change a little for the better as the demon toyed with
the person and their loved ones. But
what we see when Jesus heals a person is a change so great and complete that
they are virtually unrecognizable.
Blasphemy
of the Holy Spirit ought to bring holy fear to any heart and cause us to
practice extreme care and reverence in all matters related to the things of
God. In short, to reject the work of the Holy Spirit, in this case by attributing
it to Satan, is unforgivable. Such an action hardens the heart and leads to a
cycle of rejection of God making repentance impossible.
Verse
31 and following is likely an explanation of verse 21. Jesus’ kin had a plan
for His life and His agenda did not match theirs. To follow the will of the Father
meant for Jesus, and for us, that the relationships formed in obedience and
being a disciple is stronger and closer than even that of family.
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