Jesus has taught much and ministered much. Now He has done a significant miracle, healing a man who was blind and mute and also demon possessed. Having watched the whole thing, the Pharisees are fuming. Jesus’ teaching has shown them up as consistently lacking, and this miracle clearly shows God’s anointing and power resting with Him and not with them. Even the uneducated crowd is coming to that conclusion, saying “Could this be the Son of David?” But the Pharisee’s hatred of Jesus does not allow them to come to that same conclusion. It blinds them to the obvious power of God.
It is problematic when the leaders cannot see what the crowd sees. But worse, these leaders do not want the crowd to consider the miracle as evidence of God’s approval of Jesus, lest they loose even more credibility. So they do something only public figures are known for; they slander Jesus before the crowd.
On His part, Jesus comments to those listening, “If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Jesus’ comment is more than a counterargument. It is more than a jab at the flawed logic of the Pharisees. Every Jew knew that division was disaster. No, Jesus is spelling out a profound spiritual truth here, a truth that the Pharisees are not getting:
The Kingdom of God is not only a spiritual manifestation. That is, it is not just preaching and teaching and internal truth that renews our minds. It is that, but it is also real transformation. The blind see. The mute speak. The demon-possessed are freed. The coming Kingdom of God has an impact on those around us, and it is easily recognized as the work of the Spirit of God!
This is this same truth that Jesus told John the Baptist’s disciples, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” Yet that very obvious transformation does not mean that everyone who sees it understands it. Some will of course. But some will see exactly the same and think the polar opposite – as the Pharisees are now doing. That is why Jesus had earlier added this comment to John’s disciples, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
The appearance of the Kingdom is much like the appearance of Christ – it creates a line of demarcation. It causes a decision to be taken in the minds of those who see what is happening. Those who are in any capacity legitimately searching for God see His hand at work. Those who are not see only trouble and something to be avoided.
Which camp are we in?
Having tasted of the “already now,” the believing community prays fervently for God’s name to be hallowed and his kingdom to come. When this desire is no longer present in the heart of the believing community, when the church no longer prays Maranatha, then it no longer loves God with all its heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Robert H. Stein
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Have you not tasted the present reality of God’s Kingdom? Do you not long for it to more fully appear? Then surely you must also do all you can in the here and now to make it more visible!